The future of VR lies in the hands of three primary stakeholders; the developers, the investors and the consumers. The growth of Virtual reality in 2020 and 2021 will be estimated regarding the previous year’s growth, 2019. In 2019, the VR industry was still in the initiation face with most of its gadgets being too expensive for an average consumer. The technology has been in a sort of a way specialised for gaming but not in other sectors. In the past two years, spectacular VR product releases have been made by the world’s finest. Facebook’s Oculus Quest and other pc headsets like VIVE Cosmos and Oculus Rift S were some of the stupendous gadgets the VR industry could give us.
Games like Pokémon go, Blade & Sorcery, Arizona Sunshine, VR Kanojo, Fallout 4 VR, Pavlov, Superhot VR rocked in play stations last year. In 2020-2021, PSVR 2, The Walking Dead: Onslaught, After The Fall, Medal of Honor, Vertigo 2 and Lone Echo II are the expected releases.
What does the near future hold for Virtual Reality?
Now, with the current global pandemic, Covid-19, people are wondering; is VR going to die? The answer is no. You might find it’s a new dawn for VR and it’s a golden opportunity for VR to go mainstream if they play this right. For starters, PC-powered VR is expected to grow at a high rate since people will be spending lots of time with their personal computers. This potential for growth is opened by the tourism sectors where VR industries are expected to produce new engaging VR technologies which will be superimposed by AR (Augmented Reality).
What’s Next for Virtual Reality
In an article under the title “What’s Next for Virtual Reality? An Insider Weighs In”, the author quotes Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell Games response to an email concerning what lies ahead for VR games:
“We’ve already learned games will be the primary driver of the virtual reality market. Now the question is, what features and price point are required for a VR platform to succeed in the consumer market? So far, the important factors seem to be convenience, hand tracking, and a low price point. The only system so far that checks all of these boxes is the Oculus Quest, and if this system takes off (and it looks like it might), it will be very influential in shaping the future of the VR marketplace.”
VR Popularity appears to be picking up Steam
According to Schell, VR headsets with similar features as Oculus Quest will have a better catch in the market. Despite being in the infant stage and previously not much embraced by the market, VR seems to be picking up steam. Developers and other stakeholders are not only burning their midnight oil trying to address the challenges that have hindered virtual reality’s growth but also invested a lot of money to make this dream a reality. These challenges include (but not limited to) cost of production to attain affordable market prices, convenience and hand tracking.
Expected Updates and Advancements in Technology
In 2020-2021, companies like Facebook have promised updates and advancement in their headsets which will curb the previously spoken challenges. Virtual Reality technology is being utilised in Retail stores to enables brands and retailers to engage customers profoundly and in the production and manufacturing sector to enables designers to simulate their design prototype. Also, some companies have engaged their employees in virtual sharing, allowing them to work in a collaboration without physical relocations. In learning institutions like medical schools, students use VR technology to learn how to conduct critical surgeries to minimise risks. These are just some of the few new integrated uses of VR technology in the society, which are significantly shaping the future of Virtual Reality to the better.
With everything considered, it’s reasonable to conclude that VR will go mainstream in the years 2020 and 2021 and if everything goes well, remain that way in the future.
