Extended Reality (XR) - Page 61

According to analyst firm Credit Suisse, Oculus will sell as many 5 million Rift headsets next year, with analyst adding that it doesn't expect the Facebook-owned VR startup to make any money on the first batch of headsets.

Barron's picked up Credit Suisse's report, with it reiterating that it is making the estimate of the sales projection without official information, based on the $350 estimate. Credit Suisse wrote: "We expect Facebook to price the headsets at cost in an attempt to drive initial consumer adoption - with the expectation that the company plans to monetize the devices overtime via associated software revenue. Note that our current projections do not contemplate any software revenue, although at launch Oculus will be offering a number of made-for-VR games and video content from partnering developers and content owners - which include Sega, Lionsgate, Fox, Twitch, Hulu, and Vimeo".

The firm added: "Net-net, we expect Facebook will grow hardware revenue generated from Oculus at a 4 percent five-year CAGR from $2.1 billion in FY16 to $2.6 billion in FY21. However, given our assumption that Facebook will once-again demonstrate a willingness to forgo near-term monetization in return for increased product adoption, we are modeling an initial negative gross profit impact from the initiative - with Oculus gross margins reaching breakeven by 2021 and contributing ~$50 million in gross profit by FY22".

With 2016 fast approaching, virtual reality integration is almost here, bringing a whole dimension in video game experiences. Rather than being huge narrative-driven games with open-worlds and AAA budgets, the first VR games are going to be high-quality bite-sized chunks that feel out the new tech.

"With the move to VR and AR, it's going to be a very competitive market. [VR] is going to lead to very high-quality game experiences, but that doesn't necessarily mean huge ones," Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney told VentureBeat at GamesBeat 2015.

Sweeney goes on to explain that VR is still very new and developers have yet to fully tap the potential of the new frontier. Devs are more like voyages fleshing out and experimenting with a new medium, so the First VR and AR games will be more flashy and gimmicky than meaningful.

Capcom's Resident Evil division is currently working on developing a game engine to power VR-ready games, which could pave the way for a terrifying undead shooter set in the landmark series.

The Resident Evil franchise is prime for a thrilling VR experience: imagine something like an immersive House of the Dead shooter with lightguns where you're exploring a creepy, dark atmosphere just riddled with surprises. VR is the next major platform for gaming, and Capcom's Division 1--the division that handles the development of new IP's that deliver fresh experiences--recognizes the importance of virtual reality to the future of video games.

"At present, we are focusing our energy on challenging the virtual reality (VR) game market," said Capcom's Division 1 manager Jun Takeuchi, who lent his talent to games like Resident Evil 5. "Currently, we are building a new game development engine able to support VR, which is the hottest market right now, while simultaneously developing titles for current game consoles. We have just set sail on our latest voyage."

Sony's foray into virtual reality isn't anything new: the Japanese tech giant has been working on the PlayStation VR tech for about half a decade now, and it actually helped shape the PlayStation 4.

The PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR are synergized in a very fundamental way and were specifically designed to compliment one another to make a uniform system. Tom's Hardware recently interviewed Dr. Richard Marks, who's been working on Sony's R&D department for 16 years, and he revealed some new info about the PlayStation VR.

"The official PlayStation VR project started around 2010," the Sony veteran said during the interview. "Once PlayStation Move came out some of the internal researchers were putting the controllers on their head and doing head-tracking with a display in front of them...it was a very low-end VR system. They were looking at what you could do and what experiences you could achieve."

At its recent New York press event, Microsoft showcased a fresh new HoloLens demo that introduced the future of mixed-reality gaming. Now the Redmond tech giant is going on tour with the AR headset in an effort to spark interest and win over developers.

Like VR, Augmented Reality is really something you have to experience for yourself. The HoloLens head-mounted system is just brimming over with potential and Microsoft is eager to get it in developer's hands as soon as possible to reap the rewards. To do so, the company plans to hold a HoloLens tour across eleven major North American cities to show off the tech and its wide capabilities.

Despite its awe-inspiring magical reality-manipulating functionality, the HoloLens has a serious barrier for entry for enterprising developers: a $3,000 price tag. The cost is quite steep, but Microsoft affirms that the minimal headset packs a performance punch with "more computing power than the average laptop". Plus there's the added bonus that it's self-contained and doesn't need any expensive peripherals, wires, phones or PC's to power it.

Although VR tech like HTC's Vive and the Oculus Rift might take some time before it's fully embraced by the mainstream consumer market, Sony says that its PS4-powered PlayStation VR head-mounted display actually has an "overwhelming" conversion ratio.

Virtual reality is really something that you have to try for yourself. This ethos has pretty much built the foundations of hype and excitement across a huge webwork of industries, from gaming to science and health technology. Experiencing VR and talking about VR are two different things, and in many ways it's hard to put in words. This concept is responsible for converting everyday people to the possibilities of VR, and Sony says that almost everyone who's tried the PlayStation VR says they will buy it.

"So for the first time at TGS we were able to make [PlayStation VR] happen, and reaction was amazing," Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida said in a podcast with Kinda Funny Games. "I cannot mention the specific number but the number of people that tried, we asked the question there, so many, overwhelming people said they would buy PlayStation VR."

At today's Windows 10 event, Microsoft unveiled the future of mixed-reality gaming powered by the HoloLens, showing what's possible with the tech and how it will shape the future of gaming.

The demonstration culminated in a demo for an AR game codenamed Project X-Ray, which pretty much allows users to physically hold holograms and use holographic weapons to defend an area against a robot invasion. The demo was quite impressive, and really highlighted how truly immersive and dynamic the HoloLens really is. Microsoft hasn't released any footage yet, but we'll be sure to update the page when video goes live.

Also Microsoft announced that it is now taking applications for HoloLens developer kits starting now, and plans to ship them starting Q1 2016 for a pretty beefy $3,000. The tech giant also reminded us that the AR headset is "completely untethered", and doesn't need an external device like a PC or phone to operative. It's also 100% cordless and has a custom-built silicon soul for the "world's first holographic processing unit".

The Oculus Rift's Q1 2016 launch is almost here, but there are still many doubts about the VR headset's price tag. Initial reports suggested that Oculus HMD would be at least $300, but now VR pioneer Palmer Luckey says that the final Rift will actually cost more than $350.

"You know, I'm going to be perfectly honest with you. We're roughly in [the $350] ballpark, but it's going to cost more than that. I can't tell you that it's going to be $350, and I would say I think people are going to be happy with what they get for the price because I really do think it's going to be that best VR headset you can buy," Oculus founder Palmer Luckey told Road To VR. "And the reason for that is that we've added a lot of technology to this thing beyond what existed in the DK1 and DK2 days."

"The Rift is a lot of custom hardware. It's using lenses that are some of the hardest to manufacture lenses in any consumer product you can go out and buy. It's using custom displays we worked on with Samsung that are optimized for virtual reality, in a lot of ways even beyond what you're actually seeing on these prototypes on the show floor," Luckey explained, highlighting the various internal components that work together to create the low-latency illusion of virtual reality.

With the announcement of PlayStation VR not long ago, Sony will soon be starting the big marketing push behind its PS4-powered VR headset. During a recent interview with Eurogamer, President of Sony Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, had some interesting things to say.

Yoshida said: "The real issue is, we look at things positively in terms of fast sales of PS4. We continue to try to push to reach an even broader audience. Even when PS4 is doing well, you might look at the sales, the fast pace of PS4 sales, we may be just selling to the same people faster, right! That's a sad view of things, but it could be the case".

He added: "We have to continue to work hard to really bring back people who used to play console games before PS2 era, or find new people to provide great experiences, that people who never had their own consoles might find useful for their lives. For that, actually, PlayStation VR has broader applications than the games, and demos we've been doing, the very first demo we provided was The Deep. It has no gameplay at all. Anyone can enjoy it. Of course there's a challenge of pricing and whatnot, but in the future we position PlayStation VR not as a peripheral to VR, but as a virtual reality system that makes use of PS4. We're hoping in the future that people might pick up PlayStation VR and PS4 not only for the games, but for other entertainment usage".

After spending $2 billion acquiring Oculus early last year, Facebook has just announced it has "dramatically" increased its investment into virtual reality, where it will spend even more money on VR over the next decade.

Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer spoke with the Financial Times during the Oculus Connect developer conference in LA last week, where he said: "We are investing more year over year... We've got a multiyear plan for this worked out over a fairly long time horizon". Schroepfer didn't state a specific number, but he did say that Facebook will spend hundreds of millions of dollars bringing the Rift to the market, and over the coming years, it will turn into billions of dollars.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he thinks VR will become a dominant communications and entertainment technology (something we totally agree with) and that the early Rift sales will increase "slowly" when it launches early next year. Schroepfer added: "When we started to get engaged in this, the big conversation we had was that this is going to take a long time and it will require a sustained commitment from us over many years, more like a decade, to really see this through and solve all the technical, content or artistic problems we need to solve. But if we can do this, it's going to be the most interesting thing we're ever going to work on".

We've been hearing all about the Oculus Rift, the Oculus Touch controllers, some aweosme looking games like the Unreal Engine 4-powered 'Bullet Train' from Epic Games, and more. But now, we're beginning to hear more cemented details on pricing.

Oculus co-founder and VP of Product, Nate Mitchell, during a talk with PC Gamer said: "What I think about all day long is user experience, right? So if I'm going to promise you something and you're going to hand me a significant amount of money or whatever it is-we all know it's going to be at least $300-if you're going to hand me $300 today, I am not going to be excited to tell you: 'OK, in nine, 10, 12, 11 months, whatever it is, you're going to get something in return.' The longer you wait, the more you're like, 'This is obnoxious'".

We've heard previously that the Rift would launch with a $300-ish price, but now as we get closer to the official Q1 2016 launch, the $300 price is nice to hear. If you need a new PC and wanted to secure yourself an Oculus-ready PC, you can spend less than $1000 to prepare yourselves, plus the $300 for the Rift itself when it launches early next year.

It looks like porn is about to go next-gen, with the Oculus Rift to be released next year, we're finding out about VR porn. According to Oculus' VP of Product, Nate Mitchell, porn will be something Oculus won't have on their own store and apps, but it won't be banned from the platform itself.

Mitchell told Polygon: "We're actively barring, prohibiting adult entertainment content from being in the store, period. If you're on the Oculus platform, there's none of that content. We have a zero tolerance policy for that". So while Oculus won't be accepting VR porn on their Rift headset, the Facebook-owned company won't stop other people and developers from creating and selling porn-focused VR content on their own sites or storefronts.

"The Rift's hardware SDK is open," Mitchell continued. "But as for content that we're offering to people, and anything that's on what we would consider to be on the Oculus platform, we don't offer, we prohibit it".

During the Oculus Connect 2 developer conference in LA, Samsung's VP of Mobile, Peter Koo, announced the new Gear VR headset. The refreshed Gear VR headset has been announced for just $99, a super-cheap entry into the world of VR goodness.

Samsung's new Gear VR is 22% lighter than its predecessor, with the company also improving the touchpad on the side of the headset. They also added a directional pad to the side of the Gear VR that will make navigation through menus much easier. The new Gear VR will work with Samsung's new Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 smartphones, as well as the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge handsets.

The new Gear VR will arrive on Black Friday in the US for $99, where it will hit other markets just after that.

The Max-Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics has created an incredible suspension rig that adds a new dimension for VR sim potential.

The array is called the Cable Robot, and is an icosahedron-shaped lightweight carbon-fiber frame that's fully suspended by eight thick cables that allow omni-directional control in midair. Essentially the array can simulate dynamic spatial movement that could bring a whole new level of immersion for amusement park rides, gaming sims, and even cinematic movie experiences.

Users are safely ensconced within the geometric frame while wearing a VR headset, and thanks to the optical tracking system, the rig will actually move and react in accordance to user movements. The eight-cable suspension provides "freely programmable trajectories within six dimensions" and will bank, tilt, and accelerate with a total force of up to 1.5G's.

Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, has had some interesting things to say in his latest interview with GameSpot. Spencer talked about his thoughts on VR, and of the console wars between Sony and Nintendo.

Spencer was asked his thoughts on VR and AR, and whether it was the future of gaming. He said: "Well, now it's just my opinion. I'll say, obviously we have relationships with Valve, we have a relationship with Oculus around the VR work that they're doing, but I'm going to say I kind of hope not. It doesn't mean I don't think VR has great experiences to offer".

He moved on to talk about the console wars, which have been going on for what feels like, forever. Spencer said: "the one thing that I probably find a little distasteful in the discourse around games is the divisiveness that people try to build between platforms. It becomes more about what piece of plastic I own than what games I'm playing. It becomes more about somebody else failing than the things I love succeeding". He added: "I'm going to actively push against that. People sometimes will make fun of me that I mentioned Sony or I mentioned Nintendo. It's not to placate anybody or make them think I'm some kind of good guy. My job isn't really to keep you from buying something else. My job is to make you proud of what we offer, and to give you an enjoyable experience with the product we have".

Virtual Reality represents a whole new dimension for gaming, and Sony is extremely confident that the PlayStation VR will help usher in the new age. In a recent interview, Sony corporate exec Shuhei Yoshida went so far as to call the PlayStation VR an "ultimate weapon" for developers.

"Using [PlayStation] VR tech, it's so easy, it's almost unfair. It's like an ultimate weapon," Yoshida told at TGS 2015. "I think it's going to be a hugely powerful weapon for game developers to create new and exciting experiences for consumers."

Sony has said that it wants small bite-sized experiences for PS VR that appeal to a wide-spread audience. Developer's are encouraged to market their games as "simple, passive experiences" rather than huge AAA narratives. "Because VR is such a new media, you can create totally amazing experiences with very very limited resources if you have the right idea," Yoshida said, highlighting a popular soccer indie called Headmaster.

Now that we know the official name of Project Morpheus, we're finding out about what price point PlayStation VR will launch at. During TGS 2015, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House said that PlayStation VR would "be priced as a new gaming platform", reports Bloomberg.

We don't have a concrete price yet, but I would say that a 'gaming platform' is around $400 if you look at the price of the PlayStation 4. When it comes to Sony's future, the Japanese giant has been shifting from TVs, and towards games, image sensors and movies. The company wants to fight harder against Microsoft and the Xbox One, with PlayStation VR being a very big part of that.

House added: "VR rewrites the rule book on how you can create games. You're seeing a large amount of interest and work happening among smaller teams, because it's possible to create something in VR that is very simple but still very magical". Better yet, we're hearing about how many games PlayStation VR will launch with. At TGS, Sony is showing off 10 playable titles for PlayStation VR, which I think is the amount of games, maybe a little more, that we'll see launch with the VR headset.

We all know that virtual reality headsets are set to take off, but just how many will be sold before the decade is up? According to hi-tech analyst firm Juniper Research, around 30 million VR headsets will be sold by 2020.

However, in 2016 just 3 million units will be sold, according to the firm. If we look at the HTC Vive coming out later this year, the Oculus Rift next year, and the PlayStation VR headset from Sony, VR headsets are going to be something completely new for consumers. Juniper Research claims that with technological advancements in the form of low latency and smarter graphics, as well as growth from big companies, VR is going to explode.

In Juniper's latest insights research report 'Virtual Reality: Market Dynamics & Future Prospects 2015-2020' the firm says that 2016 is the year it all changes for VR headsets. Report co-author Joe Crabtree said: "The recent attention to and investment into virtual reality is helping to revitalise the industry and with major brand commercial launches imminent, there is huge potential for rapid market expansion".

NVIDIA has come out with new recommendations for VR gaming on their GeForce video cards, with teh company recommending their Maxwell-based GeForce GTX 980 and GeForce GTX 980 Ti for VR gaming at 1920x1080 (1080p) at 90FPS.

Not only is the company recommending the GTX 980 and GTX 980 Ti for VR gaming at 1080p 90FPS, but for 4K gaming at 60FPS on the latest AAA titles. The GTX 980 is capable of playing games at 1440p at 60FPS while the GTX 950 and GTX 960 are more than capable of running games at 1080p 60FPS. But when it comes to VR gaming, the GTX 980 and GTX 980 Ti are recommended for 1080p 90FPS.

The more we move into the new year, the more we're going to see VR headsets released with the HTC Vive due later this year, and the Oculus Rift released in the New Year. NVIDIA is right on top of it all, with a full product stack ready for VR gaming.

Virtual reality is such a big thing that even Canon is getting into the mix. At a VR expo in New York, Canon showcased its new head-mounted VR display that reportedly features an incredible resolution of 2560 x 1440 per eye for a total 5600 x 2800 pixels.

According to attendees, Canon's new VR display has a 120-degree FOV (field of vision) with "very clear visuals" and a three-layer optical lens system per eye. The display is quite unconventional, sporting two legs that serve as handholds rather than a strap to fit upon your head. It looks a lot like a high-tech VR version of the older viewfinders you see near monuments in metropolitan cities. The device streamed a 5-minute loop of high-res footage shot by Canon cameras in 5600 x 2800 resolution, which basically transported viewers into a living virtual world.

Right now details are slim on Canon's VR prototype and we're not sure if it supports 360-degree head-tracking or what kind of specs are running under the hood, but it's still amazing to see the camera giant step into the ring. VR and photography naturally compliment one another and it'll be amazing to see what kinds of things the company cooks up in the next few years with this new magical tech.