Oculus Go, the Nintendo Switch of VR
After receiving the Oculus Go I posted a picture guessing if finally Oculus has saved VR. My first impression was WOW!!
Who would say that the nice community manager of Oculus was going to reply waiting to hear the final veredict! 😂 So here it is:
Yes, Oculus Go has saved VR
The image below represents the hype cycle of a technology, it usually draws very well the route a technology follows from the lab to the masses.
I have been in VR since the DK1 in 2013, and I have seen the VR grow to a point that almost all my friends have started a VR related business (like blockchain now!), from my point of view we reached the top of the graph a year ago.
But since the last year we started the descend of the slope and some of them closed their business and started leaving the VR boat, because VR wasn’t as cool as before and it has become a B2B (business 2 business) product, to be shown in exhibitions and sold to companies for their cool projects.
Just before reaching the lower point, Oculus Go has appeared bringing a very good quality VR at a very low price, opening the window to a new wave of B2C (Business to Consumers) developments. And trying to put a VR headset in every home.
Why is Oculus Go so cool?
- The 72Hz display gives a very fluent feeling with no lag.
- Higher resolution than Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, which are much more expensive and they require a powerful expensive computer.
- It is a dedicated device, so there are not non-VR required tasks executed in the background (checking emails, GPS, Mobile Network, etc.)
- Very immersive audio speakers without headset
- Comfortable to wear for long times, even with glasses
- Very high performance, pushing the Qualcomm 821 to its limits.
Natural social interaction in VR: Oculus Rooms
Oculus has worked very hard to provide a nice social interaction, I have been testing this by playing a chess game with a friend, and I can tell you that I feel very comfortable all the time, even playing for an hour.
In the chess game I only would change the size of the pawls, cause the bishops seem to be pawls sometimes because of the perspective, I lose some pieces because of this 😃. I can’t wait to see games played by a lot of people together, or partying together in VR.
The controller is very precise
Despite of being only a 3-axis controller that is not tracking the hands, it feels very smooth and precise, you get used to it in seconds, and there are some game titles that are using the control with use cases that don’t fully require tracked controls like in Rift or Vive, for example, fishing, or shooting games.
The Nintendo Switch of VR
Oculus Go is the Nintendo Switch of VR, in fact it cost much less! $199 vs $299! The experience is very immersive, it is easy to use for everyone and the integration of multiplayer experiences is awesome.
The only field where Nintendo Switch is better is in the AAA games and contents, and that ball is in the field of the developers now, so, come on developers, create stunning VR experiences for the masses!!
