WhytheVRHeadsetOculusQuest2SignalstheEndoftheVRHype
Facebook has ushered in a new era of VR history with the launch of the Oculus Quest 2. A good reason to take a closer look at the VR headset. But to make the difference from everything that has come before even clearer, let's briefly travel back to 2016 for my first VR experience...
It's 2016...
... and the HTC Vive has just been released. I buy a new gaming PC with a powerful Geforce GTX 960 graphics card, the fastest processor, and plenty of RAM for around €2000. Added to this is the proud price of the virtual reality headset of about €800. Since the two lighthouse trackers need to be mounted above the play area and I don't want them permanently hanging in my rental apartment for aesthetic reasons, I order two tripods online for €100. Since I need a lot of space to play (especially because of the tripods and the cable clutter), I move the furniture aside to create enough space. Since the elaborate setup is extremely uncomfortable after playing, I set everything up and take it down again and again... The quality of the VR experience is already very good, and I am truly excited about VR games for the first time. But the time investment of setting up and taking down, the space required, and the €3000 cost for a functional setup turn the headset from a consumer device into an expensive toy for geeks.
Setup Vive Pro || Source: Vive.com
Back in 2020
Oculus Quest 2 - Source: Oculus Quest 2
The Oculus Quest 2 enters the market at a price of $299. It is an all-in-one virtual reality headset - meaning I don't need an external PC and no annoying cable that restricts my freedom of movement. The device features lightweight controllers with which I can interact precisely, but also supports excellent hand tracking for natural interactions. The display is extremely sharp compared to other VR headsets. The small gaps between the pixels are only noticeable upon very close inspection. Additionally, it is expected to be possible next year to develop augmented reality or mixed reality apps for the Quest. In summary, just four years after the first HTC Vive, I get a setup with significantly better quality and fun for just 10% of the price. Games like The Climb or Beatsaber are twice as much fun.
But what does this mean for us as an agency and for our clients?
The headset falls into a low price category due to its low starting price, which not only experts, VR fans, or well-off private individuals can afford. For the first time, you get a great opportunity to play VR games and watch movies for a not too high price. With the Quest 2, Facebook has created the first high-quality VR headset for the consumer market.
Therefore, the market penetration of the headset - not least due to Oculus's current monopoly position - could be significantly higher than it was with older models. For brands with the right target group, it can be quite relevant to serve the Oculus Store to convince the right users with an exciting and varied VR application of the product or service. Virtual showrooms, interior and room designers, product configurators, (mini) games, live concerts, and much more are conceivable.
A good example of this is our case for SKAN. For the market leader in the manufacture and distribution of pharmaceutical isolators, we realized a virtual reality learning tool with the Oculus Quest that can be used by anyone, anywhere, independent of location and time. To make the experience as realistic as possible, we dispensed with the controllers typical for VR and instead relied on hand-tracking technology.
Additionally, especially in times of a global pandemic, it can be quite interesting for companies to invest the $299 per employee to hold partner meetings, important meetings, and lectures in virtual reality. Some employees receive a VR headset by mail and can thus participate in a unique virtual event, exchange ideas with colleagues and new contacts, interact with new worlds of experience, or playfully experience networking and team building. There are no limits to imagination here. The intuitive interaction in VR through head and body movement and the intuitive use of hands significantly lowers the onboarding threshold compared to other online platforms pursuing similar goals. At the same time, the experiences feel much more real and natural.
Where there is light...
The question naturally arises as to how Facebook can offer such a good headset at a significantly lower cost than the competition. The answer is simple: data. When first installing the Quest 2, you notice that there is no alternative to logging in with Facebook. This, by the way, leads to the headset not being available in Germany at the moment. It would be desirable for Facebook to reconsider the login requirement and sell the headset in Germany as well. This would allow the Quest 2 to achieve even greater market penetration and become the ideal consumer VR headset.
Conclusion
Even if the title of the article may sound like clickbaiting, it is actually true. The Quest 2 shows, through its very low price and incredibly high quality of experience, that virtual reality no longer has the hype status of a new technology that experts and hardcore gamers experiment with. The new device is an absolute consumer device that could herald the mainstream era for VR. I am already looking forward to upcoming VR projects that we (Demodern) will implement with the headset. And until then, I'll play another round of Beatsaber...