VR @ CES

One of the major things that stood out at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show was the pervasiveness of Virtual Reality. We wrote about how the New York Times gave Google Cardboard to its 1.1 million subscribers last year, and then Google gave away an unknown number of Star Wars branded Cardboard devices prior to the new film’s launch. With lower-end headsets becoming more affordable and the Oculus Rift’s first edition taking pre-orders, it is an interesting time for the emerging market VR market. So let’s discuss who’s currently doing what.Oculus Rift: A lot of people were waiting to see what Oculus would do as the big first mover in the space. Subsequently, it came as a shock to many people when they started taking pre-orders for $599, $150 more than the original prototype sold to developers. According to a survey conducted by Touchstone Research, only 20% of American consumers would be willing to pay above $599 for a VR device, with 60% preferring to pay $400 or less. Baird Research echoed these findings, stating they did not feel there would be mass market penetration until the price drops to this point, which they estimate to be during 2017-18.Oculus’ own CEO, Brendan Iribe, predicted that the price will drop as adoption picks up, reminding consumers that “The first iPhone cost a bundle, as did the Apple II. Good things start expensive and get cheaper.” He also noted that like the first iPhones and the Apple II, things will eventually get smaller and slimmer, predicting that the current headset would be viewed as “a brick.”Brick-look aside, the initial reviews of the hardware emerging out of CES have been positive. Games like “Toy Box” and “Bullet Train,” for those who can afford the Rift are a new level of collaborative gaming. By allowing people to actually play with one another, rather than simply play next to one another in the same game, we will allow for a change in how games are played and developed.http://tvrev.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/crouching_tiger_hidden_beck.mp4HTC Vive – As for how games are developed, the HTC Vive may have a leg up on the Oculus given that it was developed in conjunction with Valve, the creator of games like Portal, Half-Life, Team Fortress 2, and operators of the PC game distribution platform, Steam. Preorders are due to open in the first half of 2016 and ship in the second, and the price point remains unannounced, but it rumored to potentially be greater than Oculus. By partnering with the game manufacturer, Vive has shown that it plans to make content for actual gamers, using a lighter design and longer lasting controllers for its hardware and demoing not only a painting application, but also a fully functional version of “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” (CS:GO), which TVRev’s own Jesse Redniss and David Beck demoed, which you can watch below:CS:GO is the perfect example for where VR is headed: eSports. Valve has partnered with WME and Turner Broadcasting to produce a televised eSports league, with CS:GO serving as the game of choice. Turner is the first mover here and the network with the most robust plans, as they’ll create a league with two 10-week seasons, airing the matches, and creating ancillary programing,They’re not the space’s sole inhabitant, however. Activision purchased Major League Gaming in December, hoping to leverage the existing relationship between MLG and ESPN to televise their own content as well. By allowing players to have a deeper experience, viewers will ideally not only be able to play along at home, but also to actually experience the same game that the pros are playing.The Martian – Having not actually demoed The Martian VR Experience ourselves, we’re going to rely on this Verge piece to discuss how cool it is. Embedding a player in Matt Damon’s shoes and letting them be the character for a prolonged experience sounds amazing and we’d like to throw some potatoes into bins too.Professional VR may still be beyond the price point of most consumers at this moment, but like most technology, with later revisions features will increase and the price will go down. Until then, the offerings shown at CES and the lower end models like Cardboard will whet appetites and keep the dream of virtual reality alive for many in the marketplace until the rest of us can afford it.