VR: virtually a reality?

Virtual reality, or VR, has long been the stuff of science fiction but the video game industry looks set to soon make it absolute. For the uninitiated, the idea behind it is to find a way to create, well, a virtual reality that you can then interact with. While we’re still a little short of creating a full-blown Matrix world, VR looks set to be one of the big stories in the world of video games in the next few years. This isn’t the first time it’s been tried. Way back in 1995 Nintendo released the much-maligned Virtual Boy (just look it up) but this time, with the help of cutting-edge technology and giant piles of money, it might just take off.
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Leading the charge in the world of VR is the fantastically named Oculus Rift. It’s essentially a tiny screen that you strap to your head, getting you closer to games than maybe you ever thought you should be. It’s undeniably an impressive piece of kit and uses a camera to monitor the position of your head, meaning that when you turn your head in real life your in-game character will as well. You can then use a controller to play a game as normal but with an extra layer of immersion. Whether you find this idea brilliant, terrifying or baffling is up to you but it certainly raises some exciting possibilities for games. Imagine a next-generation Portal game unfolding right before your eyes. Nausea-inducing? Potentially. Exciting? Definitely. Presently the Rift hosts a wide range of promising tech demos (including a nifty virtual cinema) but little in the way of actual games that might make it an essential purchase, although this is not surprising given that the hardware is not yet commercially available.

Imagine a next-generation Portal game unfolding right before your eyes. Nausea-inducing? Potentially. Exciting? Definitely.

However the landscape of virtual reality was dramatically changed in March when it was announced that Facebook would be buying Oculus for a not inconsiderable $2 billion. As well as marking a startling influx of cash into what still seems an alien prospect to many this buyout is a sign of Facebook getting involved with video games in a bigger way than ever before. While it may have few immediate effects in the way that the Rift is developed, the consequences could be very significant in the long term. Maybe in a few years we’ll see FarmVille with full virtual reality support.

Currently the only competitor to the Rift is Sony’s recently announced Project Morpheus, a VR headset to accompany the PS4 and likely to be released some time next year. It’s a much more handsome machine than the Rift, also taking the form of a kind of wearable screen and it uses the established PlayStation Move technology for movement-tracking. It also has the advantage of being attached to a pre-existing console and early reports suggest that the hardware is impressive. Details about actual games are again scarce but this will likely change closer to the machine’s launch.

Microsoft are also said to be working on something VR-related but there are no confirmed details on any hardware yet. However given the fact that every single Xbox One comes with one it is feasible that the Kinect may be used in some way. The fact that the gaming heavyweights are getting involved only spells good things for this burgeoning technology and hopefully this competition will breed some interesting applications for it.

Maybe in a decade virtual reality will look like this. Hey, we can dream, right?

Virtual reality faces some big challenges in becoming a mass-market proposition. Obviously it needs to be comfortable to wear and not make you look like too much of an idiot when you use it. It cannot be prohibitively expensive nor nausea inducing and, most crucially, it has to actually have some decent games to play. Fads like motion control and 3D gaming have been touted as game changers before and don’t seem likely to last. Whether VR fares better depends on how well it is implemented and marketed. Ultimately it’ll take a hands-on (or eyes-on) test to prove just how effective the technology is, but VR looks set to be an exciting area of video games in the coming months, both as a battleground for the big players and as something different altogether.
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Are you excited or skeptical about the future of VR? Tweet us @BoarGames and let us know!