John Carmack: PC VR “A Boutique Niche”, Beat Saber “Far More Important Than Half-Life: Alyx” – UploadVR
John Carmack described PC VR as “a boutique niche”, standalone VR as “the biggest win that VR ever had”, and Beat Saber as “far more important than Half-Life: Alyx”.In a post on X, the former Oculus CTO once again clarified his position on standalone and PC VR, a position he has held for more than a decade.Carmack was the driving force behind the original mobile VR efforts at Oculus, spearheading the software side of the Samsung Gear VR partnership and Oculus Go, which was essentially a standalone version of it.In 2012, before he even formally joined Oculus, Carmack described his goal of a headset that would use “mobile phone hardware”, along with cameras for positional tracking and no wires. And in 2013, while CTO of Oculus, Carmack even described this ideal headset as running a version of Android.A few months after the original Oculus Quest launched, bringing positional tracking and tracked controllers to standalone VR, Carmack proudly revealed that it was “by far” the company’s most retentive headset yet, surpassing both PC-based Rift headsets.By March 2023, around two and a half years into the Quest 2 era, Meta had sold nearly 20 million Quest headsets, vastly more than any PC VR headset.Half-Life: Alyx has sold approximately 3 million units. In contrast, almost 10 million people have unlocked the first achievement of Beat Saber on Quest alone, and the game is also available on both PlayStation VR headsets and Steam.So in terms of reach, Carmack is objectively correct. But whether you think Beat Saber or Half-Life: Alyx has greater cultural impact will be a matter of debate.Get a weekly summary of the most important VR and AR news.Check your inbox to confirm!(it might also be in your spam folder)Sign up to get a weekly summary of the most important VR and AR news, straight to your inbox.Check your inbox to confirm!(it might also be in your spam folder)
Source: https://www.uploadvr.com/john-carmack-pc-vr-is-a-boutique-niche/
