Xbox co-creator slams VR: ‘It’s weird and disappointing’
Seamus Blackley says VR still doesn’t have its “killer app”
🤔 Xbox co-creator has shared his thoughts on the state of VR
😔 Seamus Blackley believes VR is still missing its killer app
📉 He also shared his thoughts on why VR still hasn’t taken off
💰 Sony just announced PSVR 2 will receive a permanent price cut in March
Seamus Blackley, the co-creator of the Xbox console, has shared his thoughts on the current state of VR gaming. And it’s hard to argue with him.
In typical outspoken fashion, Blackley said VR is still missing its “killer app”, and that the experience is “weird and disappointing” overall.
Speaking on the VideoGamer Podcast (thanks, PC Guide), Blackley said: ““We’ve seen VR and AR not really take off, and if you’re a big fan, I’m sorry, but it’s just the f****** fact. There is no killer app and nobody can put their finger on what a killer app could be.”
Blackley added: “Everybody has a different kind of personal fantasy and then, at least in my experience, when you are given the environment that you sort of fantasized about you’re like ‘OK’ and you just want to take the headset off, because it’s this hot, heavy thing. It’s weird and disappointing.”
There’s no doubt that VR continues to struggle. Even though the technology has improved over the years, there are still too many barriers to entry to make virtual reality mainstream. Blackley also believes that the freedom VR offers is actually one of its downfalls, and that developers still haven’t grasped how to deliver a compelling experience.
“When you lower the structure so much for the player that they are in the headset and they look around everywhere, in principle as an elevator pitch that sounds great. In practice, when we want to be entertained, we want a storyteller to control the narrative and to entertain us,” Blackley said.
He continued: “We want somebody to give us ideas bigger than our own ideas or different to our own ideas because that’s entertainment. I can make up stories myself and do my stuff all day long, but I like to have somebody else entertain me. It’s like scratching your own back versus having somebody scratch your back for you.”
Blackley said developers need to constrain players in VR, even if that will upset some players.
“To some extent you need them to be able to control what you’re looking at. You need them to constrain you to the narrative which is not the thing you’re going to do,” Blackley explained. “And there’s a small minority of guys who are going to scream and yell at them and want full control and that’s great, super cool, fine, guys but they enjoy having that control because they’re getting off on breaking that narrative control and they wouldn’t be getting on off it if it wasn’t there already, so it’s paradoxical. The problem with AR and VR from a narrative standpoint it’s like just too much freedom.”
Blackley’s comments come just as Sony announced a permanent price cut for its PSVR 2 headset. Starting in March, it’ll cost $399.99 instead of $549.99, but it’s still more expensive than the Meta Quest 3S at $299.
Some may argue that VR has a killer app in games like Beat Saber, Half-Life: Alyx, Asgard’s Wrath 2, but neither title has led to a significant increase in adoption. Even the Apple Vision Pro has failed, though its $3,499 price will be partly responsible.
Still, that won’t stop the likes of Meta and ByteDance from trying to become the king of VR, and there're also rumors Valve is working on a follow-up to the Valve Index. Virtual reality might not be mainstream yet, but the support is certainly there. For now…
Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.