why i'm sad about vr (and why there's still hope)

This result was obvious when Valve didn't announce the existence of a new VR game 6+ months ago. They don't believe in it either, and aren't willing to spend a meagre portion of their infinite wealth, to even bring in a 3rd part, like Cloudhead, to make something like Hand Labs.

Perfectly said. Yep, it’s sad. Galaxy XR received 2 updates, fixed nothing but locked the bootloader… I miss 2016 VR

yep.

I feel pretty great about VR, actually. 2026 has been so far the best year ever in VR gaming, thanks to AI spinning out a new VR mod for a crazy awesome videogame of the past almost daily.

Agreed that has been a very positive development, and one that can carry the industry forward from a very grassroots and decentralized perspective

Well put! I would love to make single player games again, but I also want to pay my mortgage.

I used to work with VR development, but jumped ship for a “normal” software development job 3 years ago. Now I’m just a private entusiast. What I saw though, was once out of the “bubble” no one knew what VR was or the possibilities.

11/10 Azad all of it well said. Agree on every point. The VR world was hit with a great flood at a bad time. Now we have to wait for the waters to come down and there are dead companies all over the beach. VR will have to grow naturally again from the primordial algae on up.

industry is constantly looking for a breakout moment in the form of a device launch. A device can't save us. Maybe it's a slow grind. Some combo of software & hardware advances, & vibe shift. Sad, tho Btw dude I have the exact same notebook as you in that shade. Love that thing!

Great take. It’s hard to follow vr anymore, I can’t tell where on the hype cycle graph it lands as of this moment in time. I think @pablovelagomez1 made a relevant short tweet, building outside of the meta ecosystem (which I kind of like after horizon departure) on a new open ecosystem is promising. I think you kind of touch on it in this video.

i am absolutely sad by it, to be honest. and i think the steam frame was definitely screwed over by the unexpected and drastic cost increases that sort of left them without much of a choice. my daughter and i love to play VR games together, and she absolutely does love games like gorilla tag and yeeps but she also loved ghost giant, moss, curious case of the stolen pets, etc. there was also a big missed opportunity with microsoft barely advertising minecraft VR support, then just sort of discontinuing it out of the blue. the only reason we ever found out it existed was because of that. i think it has been treated like an afterthought by people who have no idea how to be in charge of things from an innovation context, and it has sort of been wild to see them drop the ball on even updating actual money makers (like getting a halloween update out on time for beat saber, or even the smallest low hanging fruit of a cosmetics marketplace for custom skins, etc). it felt intentional until i came here and realized that "the management" just didn't give a shit at worst, and was clueless at best. i think it will be sort of dark times for the next few years unless they lean into being able to tap into other devices to help with rendering, and lean into more physically comfortable VR experiences and games, but i feel like it is really going to have to be a community effort going forward to set standards.

In general I agree. But it’s understandable we’re on the state we’re in. Each product is a contribution to the sedimentary rock (to use a Steve Jobs metaphor) of XR hardware. We’re in a lull but these things come in rhythms. Theres an enthusiast market…

Watching now 👀

There is a place I do differ with you. When Valve launches hardware it is almost always viewed as out of date, and yet about a month later the opinion transorms. I think it is because Valve employees actually use thir products. What they build is not flashy, but solid

Thanks for posting this

It's not just you. Regression is so right too. We have the same stupid games to play on new hardware that we have been playing since like 2016.. Wow Job Simulator! VR doesnt move at all and its actually why I stopped covering it on my channels because Ive mostly lost passion for it. The games the come out for it now are just meh I think or really cool but also shallow. I have a Vision Pro that I NEVER use. My Quest 3 is mostly just used for Supernatural VR in the mornings and my PSVR2 I pull out every so often for Gran Turismo but that's basically it... Ive been in this since 2016 with HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.. Ive had may headsets and I just dont ever see any reason whatsoever to buy anymore headsets like Meta's next headset is gonna be shown next week and I highly doubt Im going to buy it. For one, I feel MR games to be just more shallow experiences and for two I hate Meta. I dont see them doing anything great with VR anymore like they were back in the Oculus Connect days. I am buying a Steam Frame but only for the linux environment because I think I can make it a work PC to travel with something thats light and more comfortable than Vision Pro and dont have to worry about lugging a laptop around and also be able to do some cool modding with but other than that, honestly, I'm not excited. I'm kinda trying to force myself to be excited. I'm at the point though where if I get 'chosen' for a Frame this week, I'll get it but if not it's gonna be like Steam Machine and I'll just forget about it and move on.. The only real light we have for VR lately is VR mods which you cant exactly do on the standalone portion of frame which sucks but all these amazing games getting VR mods with motion controls is too cool to pass up. Really though, if any of these companies were serious they would find a way to make 2D to 3D live conversions for any flat game played on a headset. That would get the masses actually interested. Oh well.

"felt like it was moving, felt like it was grooving" - nail on the head

you really hit the nail on the head there. I want to publish VR content ... I just do not see a place to do so (to make a living). Meta ... meh. Valve ... not meh, but also no audience. Hope the Frame would solve it ... now I just have to wait for someone else to solve it.

Solid take on AVP. It looks great in photographs, so kudos to ID team on that

It looks great inside the headset too (best vr display out there tbh) but it’s just not comfortable to wear and use for any length of time

I used to work in it too, but yea the weight

Any new technology has to do something 10x better than the current to break through. It will take a while longer to get a mainstream must-have application. If META Horizon is any indication; It’s a good thing IMO that they failed; VR is too personal to be controlled by AD-driven monopolies trying to control people’s attention. Let the IP expire and hardware get cheaper so smaller passionate startups have a chance to build an authentic platform. Valve’s open pc to hmd Wireless foveated strategy is great. Trying to make compelling VR games with a 7-15 watt gpu budget is a tough sell. Valve obviously didn’t expect the cost and architecture of GPU hardware to be so impacted by AI. AI will likely be what makes it actually useful for people though. Paciently waiting for the day the promise of VR worlds truly manifests.

This resonated a lot with how I am feeling right now after reading about the steam frame's price and specs. It feels like the narrative for VR is shifting and players are leaving. I am hoping things will change soon.

same same

Well said. The part about cope for the past 10 years resonates. I moved on to AI years ago

why i'm happy about vr. (Mods)

Fully agreed

💯 agree. VR keeps being at least a decade away for decades now.

Agree

As a VR dev still developping for Quest and Pico, I agree with you about the state of the VR space. And i agree Frame is very disappointing… I am still updating the games we made for the Quest thanks to Meta still paying for them but it’s time to move to another space…

I generally do blame meta They tried to force it very quickly instead of letting people finding their feet and the crisis with the hardware market right now is not helping whatsoever we need several open headsets that going to give everybody options

"Communications tools don't get socially interesting until they get technologically boring.." h/t @cshirky

What are the major AVP usability issues that crippled it? I'm thinking 1) Weight and 2) Apple's closed nature (not tinkerer friendly)

Usability is incredibly limited by: 1. Weight. Even with the most advanced head strap mods and solutions, it’s still not something I can wear on my head, sitting upright at a desk for more than 30-45 min. I’ve tried and I’ve gotten real neck and shoulder pain 2. Headset goes to sleep as soon as you pop it off your head. I hate this with a passion because it breaks MANY things when it goes to sleep (Mac virtual display, moonlight streaming). It essentially means, you have to use the vertically limited FOV pass through to do non vr stuff (like look at your phone, interact with ppl around you, grab your mug) and it’s a severe limitation for general usability

Same here. It’s is the best experience of the headsets I’ve owned, but I don’t use it much because of comfort. Walled garden is a big issue for me. 6 experiments I thought of were not possible. Makes me feel like I don’t own the hardware

That feels pretty spot on.. Unfortunately it's too little too late.

As long as I can ignore every single low poly monke game and still be overwhelmed by the amount of substantial VR content out there, I'll pretty much feel okay about VR. That said, PCVR gaming is not the center of my VR experience... and I could see feeling doom-y if it was..

Sad, but more like disappointment for the faithful!

the hope is the important part. vr doesn't need to win as a gadget - it needs to become a place where people feel present with each other.