Oculus Rift Games Could Cost More Than Average
Games that support Oculus Rift could be more expensive.
Should games supporting Oculus Rift cost more than the unsupported versions? That's a question we'll see answered hopefully sometime this year.
Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe noted that as a hardware vendor, there's not much they could do about the prices of games that support the Rift, but he wouldn't be surprised to see a premium price tag stapled to the premium experience.
"It's going to be up to the developers," he told Gamesindustry International. "There will be some who make casual, simpler experiences - maybe bite sized. There are going to be Indie developers that make bigger experiences. And there are going to be bigger teams that make really big experiences. ... And some that we've seen early prototypes of... Well, we've seen some that, boy, would I pay a lot to get that experience in virtual reality."
Aaron Davies, director of developer relations at Oculus, added that in VR, objects suddenly have value, and that there will be opportunities for developers to monetize them. But how much will gamers be willing to pay? As Gamesindustry points out, gamers are still feeling the bite of moving up from $50 to $60 USD. They even retaliated when EA tried to jack the price up to $70.
But will support for VR be worth a rise in price? Iribe sees the rise of VR not as an extension of the PC, but a beast all in itself much like the first GPUs in the mid-1990s. VR support will be a game changer bringing an entirely new experience.
"This is the next generation of computing in a very big way," he said. "This is something that's going to change so many things."
So if there will be premium prices, does that mean games will likely cost more than $60? Davies doesn't think so, noting free-to-play games that make revenue easier to gain than slapping players with one huge price tag. The whole concept of charging a premium is somewhat outdated, he said.
"If people are willing to spend a lot of money on VR games, it obviously means we're doing something right," says Iribe.
To read the full interview, head here.
You don't think Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo have been working on this for awhile now? Only a couple million dollars has been raised for developing the Oculus Rift. Microsoft spent over $100 million just on the Xbox One controller. Microsoft probably spent more redecorating their bathrooms this year than has been spent on developing the Oculus Rift.
Don't get me wrong. I would love to see the consumer version of the Oculus Rift come to fruition and sell at a reasonable price. Of course that's the idea. Beware of things that sound too good to be true.
Crowd funding is composed of a bunch of get rich quick schemers who can't get investors to invest in their idea, so they prey upon the uneducated. Not that they shouldn't be allowed to do this. A fool and his money are soon parted.
I am also pretty sure Tom's Hardware gets kick backs from Kickstarter.
I only mentioned Microsoft because they are a company that would also be interested in developing this product and are infinitely more capable.
Any individual talent that Oculus VR brings on says nothing about the feasibility of the product. This talent might just be interested in their personal financial gain.
Also, I never claimed this product will suck. I simply claim that it is unlikely to be afordable and sell at a profit. It might turn out being the best VR headset ever made, but cost over $1,000 or it might turn out to be a piece of crap and cost $300. It will not be a great VR headset and cost only $300 and be profitable. If it could, there are hundreds of other companies who are far more capable who would already have brought it to market.