While the launch of VR happened earlier this year and has resulted in plenty of people jumping on board, there are still many people out there that aren’t sold on the new way to play. One such person is Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, who recently spoke about VR gaming and the problems he has with it.
Strauss spoke at the Cowen and Company Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, where he talked about a couple aspects of VR that hold it back. He said that “It’s way too expensive right now. There is no market for a $2000 entertainment device that requires you to dedicate a room to the activity. I don’t know what people could be thinking. Maybe some of the people in this room have a room to dedicate to an entertainment activity, but back here in the real world? That’s not what we have in America.”
He goes on to say that “We have like $300 to spend on an entertainment device and we do not have a dedicated room. We have a room for a screen, a couch, and controllers,” he added. “We don’t have something where you stand in a big open space and hold two controllers with something on your head–and not crash into the coffee table. We don’t have that.”
While Zelnick says that it remains to be seen if VR can break into the mainstream, he does bring up great points about the problems with VR. There is currently far too much of a barrier of entry in terms of the price, and the space requirement is also a huge drawback. Not to also mention the fact that gamers in general are typically pretty lazy and would rather just sit comfortably with a controller rather than having to get up and move around.
The Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are available now, though Sony’s PlayStation VR will launch later this year.
