Virtual reality, game creation systems, the metaverse… somehow, some of the biggest buzzwords of 21st century tech have been falling a little flat. While VR has been around in some shape or form for more than half a century already, it’s only been a little more than a decade since the very first Kickstarter campaign for the Oculus Rift made its way onto the World Wide Web.
Almost 12 years later, it appears that the (potentially) mighty have managed to fall…and rise…and fall again. Then, they rose a little – maintained it for a while – and started to recede once more.
Virtual reality sounds like the very pinnacle of technological progress, but in gaming, it’s always remained something of a niche interest. At times, it was its own worst enemy – for example, when Facebook (now Meta) announced that users of its headsets would have to create a Facebook account just to use them, people were less than enthused. The social media platform has seen waning interest from users for many years now, largely due to privacy concerns.
However, that doesn’t stop them from trying. Meta’s Horizon Worlds continues to push against the current. Will their efforts prove futile, or is it ready to finally take off?
Why has VR always struggled?
We don’t need to tell you how indomitably popular the gaming world is. The global gaming market is estimated to be worth more than $466 billion and a lot of that value stems from games that have managed to blur the line between reality and fiction in some way.
The success of major triple-A franchises like FIFA and the NBA2K series is derived from their ability to immerse players in simulations of what they see weekly on the pitch; MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) may take players to fantastical places, but the social aspects of the game anchor players to reality and a sense of community. The video-based versions of traditional slot machines have flourished because of their ability to build on the heritage that started in brick-and-mortar casinos rather than reinventing the wheel.
Some titles even blend the real with the fictitious. Death Stranding, for example, featured acclaimed actors like Mads Mikkelsen and Lindsay Wagner, and it rose to popularity for its cinematic vibe, which was the first of its kind in many respects.
Why would a technology that promises to make games more immersive, more encompassing, and more profound than anything we listed above find it so difficult to get off the ground?
- Cost – VR headsets don’t come cheap.
- Limited content – There are so many titles not made for VR that gamers had a hard time justifying the upfront cost of the headset for so little choice.
- Side effects – From headaches to motion sickness, it seems as though a significant portion of users couldn’t stomach the experience.
- Isolation – Put a headset on, and you’re as good as alone in your experience. It’s not casual social gaming.
What is Meta Horizon Worlds Trying to do?
This is Meta’s supposed answer to the apathy a lot of us are feeling about VR. A light-hearted, sociable, versatile multi-player platform that, in many ways, feels like a practice metaverse, Meta Horizon has been on screens since December of 2021. Players enjoy 3D motion thanks to the headset and hand controls, along with a growing range of games that can be played within the platform.
In 2022, Meta made a browser-based version of the game so players who don’t have a VR headset can join in. While it may seem contradictory – after all, this platform was designed to be a life away from reality – the move was likely a bid to increase numbers. At the time of the announcement, the Wall Street Journal reported that the platform had just 200,000 monthly users.
Is it Revolutionary?
In many ways, it is not revolutionary. While VR tech was revolutionary in its own way – if only as a demonstration of the outer limits of the casual gaming market – Horizon Worlds is a predictable use of the technology and not all that different from other life simulators.
Moreover, the fact that it aims to create an entirely separate virtual world means that it depends on its committed user base. If not, the whole thing feels empty and sad, which is exactly what Zack Zwiezen called it in his 2022 review.
Meta’s decision to open the doors to non-VR gamers undermined the platform’s USP and shed more light on the dubious – and, at times, half-hearted – development behind the platform.
VR needs its own revolution. After more than 10 years as a niche interest for gamers, it’s time this tech finally went one way or the other.
