Friday, January 4th 2019
2018 Was the Year of VR Headsets - Except it Wasn't, According to Steam Hardware Survey
Steam, being the most widely used games platform for the PC ecosystem, has proven weight on current hardware employed by gamers. While not wholly representative, let's just say it caters to enough of the PC gaming population that we can infer some broad strokes of the current state of the market. And for all the hailing for a newcoming of VR in 2018, it would seem that happened, with a doubling of the attachment rate for VR headsets on Steam's hardware surveys. If we're only speaking relatively, that is.
More interesting and important than the "doubling" in VR headset attachment rate to Steam's user's is the fact that this only increased said attachment rate to around 0.8% of Steam's user base. Of these 0.8%, 0.37% of Steam users who took part in the December survey carry an Oculus Rift, with HTC Vive close behind at 0.33%. The overall increase in usage for each of these headsets was 85% and 65% throughout 2018, respectively - still definitely a far cry from the kind of market penetration that was expected of this latest generation of VR. As for Windows Mixed Reality products? They make-up 0.07% of the Steam survey's results.
Sources:
Games Industry, Steam HW Survey
More interesting and important than the "doubling" in VR headset attachment rate to Steam's user's is the fact that this only increased said attachment rate to around 0.8% of Steam's user base. Of these 0.8%, 0.37% of Steam users who took part in the December survey carry an Oculus Rift, with HTC Vive close behind at 0.33%. The overall increase in usage for each of these headsets was 85% and 65% throughout 2018, respectively - still definitely a far cry from the kind of market penetration that was expected of this latest generation of VR. As for Windows Mixed Reality products? They make-up 0.07% of the Steam survey's results.
82 Comments on 2018 Was the Year of VR Headsets - Except it Wasn't, According to Steam Hardware Survey
Yet today, you know, things like Fortnight and MOBA are immensely popular. So I think that the experience that most of us VR users are really looking for, that we know will convince other to buy in as we have, is yet to come.
I was actually holding out that Valve would be the company to do it. Then you know, they do kinda have their own hardware now, don't they? so it seems like they were gonna...
But I dunno WTF happened. Seems like everyone got distracted, or maybe the hardware needs a generational leap before we get there.:P
I bought a Lenovo Explorer for 199€ and it is def worth the price.
You CAN play seated perfectly fine btw, especially with sim games.
Some people just like to hate on everything i guess.
I suppose they assessed it as too high risk. And rightly so.
Until the next breakthrough which would really set PC VR apart, hopefully soon.
The video covers a lot but the viewer comments are funny.
Currently I have a GTX 1060 and a GTX 970 in a different computer. I have a couple of GTX 760 cards and a GTX 670. The list goes on and I had to wonder how many video cards, processors, motherboards, HDD, memory and more I've bought over the years. Currently thinking about buying a RTX 2080, 2070 or possibly 2060.
The first video card I recall buying was a Diamon Viper Riva TNT IIRC and after that it was a number of different Voodoo cards.
The upgrades are necessitated due to improvements in programs with new and higher specs required. In other words, things weren't perfect and improvements were made. A very common theme.
That is how I see VR. Is the current state of VR perfect? No but that doesn't mean I and others can't have a lot of fun with it now.
You don't get your hover board or jet pack on day one people,.....
If you're waiting out for said hover board or jet pack you're going to do yourself a lot of walking, taking the bus or bumming a ride.