Why Sony Has a Big Lead in VR

I recently got some hands-on time with the PlayStation VR at Sony's Northern California headquarters, and the feel was just apparently crawly. I am not a big gamer, but I have to admit that the demo convinced me to buy a PlayStation VR when information technology arrives in the fall.

Opinions I played a shoot-em-up game under development. Using special joystick wands, I held and shot a "gun," controlling the management of what I saw and was shooting at via the VR goggles. I ducked when I needed to duck, laid on the floor to get out of the way of shots coming towards me, and sat shotgun in a getaway car to hold off attackers. Once you lot play a game in VR, all other games are ho-hum.

Sony's position in VR is unique. There are 36 meg PS4 owners, all of whom are prime targets for the Playstation VR. With so many potential users, PlayStation VR should exist i of the kickoff platforms that VR software developers target. Sony is positioning itself as one of the best means for developers to reach a massive audience of people fix to spend money on virtual reality.

As Dean Takahashi noted on VentureBeat, PlayStation VR master Dr. Richard Marks talked upward possible opportunities for developers at the recent Vision Summit in Los Angeles. "With analysts predicting that Oculus VR will sell maybe 1 million of its Rift headsets through the outset 12 months, Sony is implying that it could do much amend than that," he wrote.

One issue is that PlayStation is largely a game platform, and non necessarily ane that can be used for broader VR content. While Oculus Rift and HTC's Vive are also optimized for games, it's non their sole focus; we are seeing all types of new VR content for sports, travel, advertising, video, and even industrial applications. Android and iOS VR apps, meanwhile, are passable for showing VR content from a smartphone.

So information technology seems that a gaming platform may not exist the best identify to develop apps for VR, specially ones that are industrial focused. So a PC-based platform may exist more bonny for developers.

Still, Sony'south audience of 36 1000000 users are a force to exist reckoned with equally a viable and important audition for VR. For example, the Playstation and Xbox are also vehicles for delivering on-demand movies, Tv set, YouTube, etc. and tin can be used for video-related VR. I but am not certain a gaming platform makes the transition to the broader VR apps beyond the gaming and video part it can play in nicely.

I practise think that when it comes to selling VR headsets in large quantities, Sony volition have a big border over Oculus Rift or HTC's Vive. Simply nosotros are in the early on days of VR and if Sony can ride the Playstation into the VR mainstream of gamers, you tin can bet that this could serve every bit a solid catalyst towards jump starting broader demand for VR.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.

About Tim Bajarin

Tim Bajarin

Tim Bajarin is recognized every bit one of the leading industry consultants, analysts, and futurists covering the field of personal computers and consumer technology. Mr. Bajarin has been with Artistic Strategies since 1981 and has provided research to most of the leading hardware and software vendors in the manufacture including IBM, Apple tree, Xerox, Compaq, Dell, AT&T, Microsoft, Polaroid, Lotus, Epson, Toshiba, and numerous others. Mr. Bajarin is known as a curtailed, futuristic analyst, credited with predicting the desktop publishing revolution iii years before it striking the market, and identifying multimedia equally a major trend in written reports as early as 1984. He has authored major industry studies on PC, portable computing, …