Oculus Rift: Virtual Reality On Your Couch Or Dust Magnet In Your Closet?

The Rift, a virtual reality headset produced by Oculus, is scheduled to start shipping to pre-order owners next month and to select retailers in April according to the Oculus Blog. As with any new gadget right before release, the hype for the Oculus Rift is high. However, hype does not always ensure success, especially when it comes to virtual reality devices and software. Remember the doomed Virtual Boy by Nintendo?

The Virtual Boy was released worldwide in the summer of 1995. It was discontinued in Japan in December of the same year and worldwide in the spring of the following year. The device debuted with a price tag of $179.95, which is $279.74 today when you adjust for inflation. With such a high price tag it is not surprising that many owners were outraged when Nintendo decided to pull the plug on it. Who wouldn’t be angry after spending that much on something then only getting to use it for a matter of months?

But Nintendo was justified in discontinuing the device because it was just plain bad. The device had several major flaws that simply could not be overlooked. Nintendo Wikia acknowledges that one of the major complaints was that it caused eye strain. Another big issue was that it was monochromatic with a backlit red on black color scheme. In fact, this color combination probably caused the eye strain. Any good website designer will tell you never to use a red and black color palette on your website.

What truly did the Virtual Boy in was that it was not as advertised. It was hyped as a virtual reality device, and it was nothing of the sort. It was simply a stereoscopic headset that allowed you to play 2D games in 3D; a gimmick that was not immersive enough to be considered virtual reality. Even the commercial shown above misleads the consumer into thinking that the Virtual Boy was going to offer incredible and immersive worlds to explore. Instead, they got a 3D Gameboy that gave them a headache.

So with these lessons from history presumably learned, is Oculus and its Rift set to usher in the next evolution in computer and console gaming? It is hard to say at this point, but we can speculate on what we know.

One thing Oculus has going for it is the fact that gaming technology has greatly advanced since 1995. Most modern games run on a 3D powered game engine. Many games, especially first-person-perspective games like the Call of Duty games, have become very immersive without the need for 3D or stereoscopic technology. The Rift will also be in full color 1080 HD, which is a big plus.

The website Wearable reports that the Oculus Rift will come with a positional tracker that is capable of tracking your head position a full 360 degrees so you can look all around your environment. Also, the Oculus Blog says they are developing a peripheral called Touch, which will be a dual set of motion-tracked controllers that will allow users to use their hands in a natural manner. Motion tracking technology many very well be the biggest advantage that the Rift has. However, several issues with the Oculus Rift exist that are reminiscent of the old Virtual Boy.

First is its price. The retail price, according to Oculus Blog, for the Rift upon release is $599. Even adjusted for inflation, this price is more than double the Virtual Boy’s price. Furthermore, PC gamers are not likely to have computers that are Oculus-ready, so most will have to replace their current gaming PC with an Oculus ready one. The company is offering an Oculus PC/Rift bundle for $1400. At a price that rivals the most popular consoles (for just the Rift), it’s highly unlikely that the casual gamer is going to purchase a Rift set up and most PC gamers will only buy if they are due for a new gaming computer.

. @nilstastic playing with oculus touch pic.twitter.com/TmU2avxlgE

— Karolina (@_knason) February 24, 2016

The second problem is its bulk. Wearing a large set of goggles for an average gaming session is likely to cause some neck strain. The rift is supposed to weigh in at less than a pound, but people are just not used to having any weight attached to the front of their face. Some of this problem may be negated by the movement of the head, essentially exercising and stretching the neck muscles while playing. We shall see.

The final obstacle lies in the software. If the Rift does not have good games or if developers do not catch on it is sure to fail. We have seen this in the past and not just with the Virtual Boy, but with Atari Jaguar, Neo Geo CD, Sega CD, and Sega Saturn just to name a few. Forbes reports that the top five games coming out for the Rift will be: Eve Valkyrie, The Edge of Nowhere, Doom 3, Air Mech, and Alien Isolation.

Doom 3 and Alien Isolation are already solid hits in the PC and console markets. They are immersive first-person games that the Rift is not likely to improve much. The other three games are yet to be seen, but if they are not unique; that is to say if they are just new first person shooters in a virtual reality environment; they will not be bringing much value to the table for Oculus.

For many the pros for the Oculus Rift and the promise of nearly true virtual reality outweigh the cons, and they will snatch this gadget up. However, most of the cons have yet to be truly tested in the marketplace and if most of them turn out to be as serious as they could be the Oculus Rift may very well end up on the floors of their closets.

[Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for Westfield]