EA: AR is 'more interesting', VR isn't ready just yet

EA says that VR is a couple of years away from being 'truly a mass market consumer opportunity'

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The world of VR might not like hearing what EA boss Andrew Wilson has to say, with the EA CEO stating that VR isn't ready just yet, and that EA sees more potential in AR right now.

EA: AR is 'more interesting', VR isn't ready just yet | TweakTown.com

EA recently released their Q1 FT18 financial report, where Wilson had some choice words to say afterwards: "So I'll start with VR and AR. Not a lot of new news on VR for us and as you see there's not a lot of new news for VR in the industry. People seem to have come to terms of the fact that VR while an unbelievably wonderful innovation for how you consume interactive entertainment and all forms of entertainment for that matter is going to take a couple of years at least to going to get to a point where it is truly a mass market consumer opportunity. We still are in the same position we were in which we have enabled core VR capability in our Frostbite engine".

He added: "We have delivered a console experience in the course of delivering a mobile experience and we'll continue to push on the boundaries of what's a sports game look like inside of VR? What's first person shooter look like in VR? What's an action adventure game look like in VR? And that's really at a design level and something that will start to manifest in the marketplace in the years to come".

They're some interesting statements, and I have to agree. EA can't just go all-systems-go into VR as it's simply not a mass market consumer product. Sure, we have the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PSVR - but they're only first-gen devices. There are many problems, with resolution/frame rate and cost being massive hurdles. PSVR has the largest win as it has a massive near 50 million PS4 instalbase, while the Rift and Vive need powerful PCs.

Wilson continued, adding some interesting remarks about AR: "AR I think is more interesting. I think the notion of a data overlay into your mobile console PC games are something that takes things that are important, interesting about you whether that's geo-data or whether that's game play data or friends data, that you are able to allow the game to utilize to enhance and extend your experience. I think, we're likely to see more of that sooner and certainly, our creative teams are really thinking about what kind of data would a player want to use from their real-world to augment their virtual world and you should expect to see more of that from us also in the coming months and years".

Another thing I agree on: AR has a much brighter future in both the short term, and mass consumer markets. Apple is expected to release an AR headset of some sort soon, and there are many others that have already released one (Google Glass, Microsoft HoloLens), or are working on them.

What do you think? AR, VR, or mixed reality? Which is the one you're waiting for the most?

NEWS SOURCE:wccftech.com

Anthony joined the TweakTown team in 2010 and has since reviewed 100s of graphics cards. Anthony is a long time PC enthusiast with a passion of hate for games built around consoles. FPS gaming since the pre-Quake days, where you were insulted if you used a mouse to aim, he has been addicted to gaming and hardware ever since. Working in IT retail for 10 years gave him great experience with custom-built PCs. His addiction to GPU tech is unwavering and has recently taken a keen interest in artificial intelligence (AI) hardware.

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