I remember vividly First Vive experience. It was CES many years ago. I was running another site. I went solo because my budget was tight and I had the most on-site experience. At that time, I wrote 100 articles in 5 days and walked all over the show floor.
One day I met HTC and put on my headset. The hustle and bustle of humanity melted away. I was in the water It was quiet, serene and even meditative. It was dark there. Rays and other fish swim and are silhouetted against a dark blue background. Then came the largest animal that has ever existed on this planet, purring and singing softly. The blue whale’s eyes are surprisingly small compared to the rest of its massive form. It’s about the size of a grapefruit or softball. I blinked a few times trying to determine what I was looking at.
When the demo was over, I was reluctant to take it off and re-enter the crowd. For me, this feeling is the height of virtual reality. Calm down. I paid a ridiculous premium to see new avatars in 3D and all the other trappings. The fight scenes were fun, but if the whole thing was a super-intelligent space whale and a capricious adolescent Na’vi learning to swim, I’d be perfectly happy.
Of course it doesn’t have to be underwater. I have played with a few different planet simulators and they have made me feel equally at peace. Since then, I have become much more disciplined in my meditation practice. These kinds of VR demos are closet technology to provide a shortcut to proper sitting comfort.
All of this must say a lot more than VR. People are drawn to different experiences. When I chatted with HTC’s global head of product Shen Ye on the show, I mentioned another VR demo of hers for work. The company used his package for some kind of Olympic-style game. He asked if one of the attendees had Office Simulator. He said he likes using it as a baseline for testing headsets.
I have always been fascinated by this. It’s about using expensive and powerful technology to do the most mundane things imaginable. Ye suggested that its charm is its ability to mess things up. The freedom to do things most of us cannot do in our normal, non-virtual lives. Think Grand Theft Auto. You’re just intentionally knocking over a cup full of pencils. I can’t judge how other people get their kicks.
For this year’s show, I decided to try out the big headsets, specifically Magic Leap 2, Meta Quest Pro, Vive XR Elite, and PSVR2. It was a valuable exercise in terms of comparing and contrasting technologies and also provided insight into different approaches. Put on the PSVR2, for example, and you’ll quickly see why gaming has long been at the center of the virtual reality pitch. Horizon Call of the Mountain is a great way to get to know the tech.
The demonstration begins when the bag is pulled away from your head. He finds himself in the rear of a three-seater canoe. You are described as having recently burst out of prison to help with a mission. I’m usually not a fan of long set-ups, but it makes sense here. A menagerie of robotic animals lives in the foliage, so you’ll need to take some time to get your bearings and enjoy the scenery. I have. One of her two characters in front of you is her rowing slowly to avoid detection from the more sinister creatures. Naturally you will be found and all hell breaks loose. A power outage soon follows, submerged in water, and then gameplay actually begins.
One of the drawbacks of VR is that the entire field of view is occupied by the game, so all the mysterious aspects of the virtual human form are in full view. The views are great though. After climbing the cliffside, the Sony representative running the demo taps you on the shoulder and urges you to embrace it all. When you finally take off your headset, you find yourself in a position similar to the whale demo. A packed convention center, only this time, passers-by watch you move around for 30 minutes.
Magic Leap represents the other end of the spectrum with its mixed reality offerings. The company’s financial troubles have been well documented. Two important things happened as a result. First, the company sold its majority stake to Saudi Arabia. Second, I pivoted. In the short term, it seems like companies can make more money. Many companies have deep pockets and these headsets are prohibitively expensive for his 99% of consumers.
Pricing will be a big issue in the near future. If there’s a sweet spot between expensive enough and affordable, so far it’s been elusive—Magic Leap isn’t struggling because it’s a bastard. The demo I got at his CES was frankly incredible. In one, 3D scans of the human brain emerge, showing their way to use in medical settings. In the foreground, a wildfire is underway. A small helicopter circles overhead.
Mixed reality experiences aren’t as intentionally isolated as VR, but it’s still easy to get lost. I really feel the future. The effectiveness of technology in this area is probably another matter entirely. Remember when Microsoft’s massive military HoloLens contract fell through? Was one of the reasons for that due to the fact that light leaks on soldiers’ faces could be visible on the other side?
Of course, this is a dramatic example, but there is a lot of work to be done across the board to make this kind of system truly worthwhile for your business. Still, of his three MR headsets I tried, the Magic Leap really stood out. It’s also more than double his price for HTC and Meta systems.
During the conversation, Ye described the pricing battle as a “race to the bottom.” I certainly agree that the prevalence of poor AR/VR/MR systems is probably a real setback for the industry. Sure, things like Google Cardboard were very accessible, but when it comes to moving the industry forward, is a bad VR experience better than none at all?
“The giants who are really trying to disrupt are in this race to the bottom, making cheap headsets that are losing money,” Ye said. “At the end of the day, how much does your personal data cost? We are not a social media company. We want to build great hardware.”
“Personal data” here is, of course, a target for companies like Meta that are in the data monetization game. Is it worth using your personal information to subsidize access? I think it depends. Many people are giving up more for less in the social media space.
One thing all parties seem to agree on is that Apple’s entry into this space is inevitable (if successful). Rising tide, ships, etc. Certainly it will be a validation of the technology that has felt like the next big thing for decades.
