Welcome to the Oasis, my name's Mike and this
is the State Of VR for June 2020, your monthly
summary of the most important news from the
VR industry.
In this episode we're gonna be talking about
the PSVR 2 or the lack of it, we say goodbye
to the Oculus Go, we have some new VR games
including Star Wars Squadrons which I'm super
excited about and we'll round it up this video
with the Kat Walk C omni directional treadmill.
I hope you've all been keeping safe and well,
I've been doing just fine. If you're a regular
of the channel and you're wondering why I
haven't been uploading that much recently,
firstly it's been really hot here in the UK
making the prospect of putting on a headset
on very undesirable but I been getting some
quotes for air conditioning to be installed
so hopefully that won't be too much of a problem
in the future.
And secondly although there's a lot of news
there's not that much going on right now and
I don't want to make videos for the sake of
making videos so I've been taking a little
time out as I haven't really had the opportunity
to do that before and I have a feeling things
are going to get very busy later this year
so I hope you all understand.
By the way if you're interested in an Oculus
Quest and you've been waiting for it to be
back in stock. Both models are available right
now in the UK and the 128GB model is available
in the US directly from Oculus. Sadly the
Rift S is still out of stock and the Valve
Index orders are taking around 8 weeks to
fulfil but if you want a Quest, I've added
a link in the description below.
So this month I've been enjoying a few VR
games such as Phantom Covert Ops, Tetris Effect
and a lot of VR demos which were made available
during the Steam Summer Game Festival.
But my highlight this month was attending
the Jean Michel Jarre virtual reality concert
by VRROOM hosted in VRChat which despite a
few technical issues was an amazing experience.
I even got dressed up for the occasion by
creating a custom avatar using Tafi Avatars
which is a super easy and affordable way to
create a completely custom avatar which are
compatible with both PC and Quest. I'll put
a link to Tafi in the description below if
you're interested.
It was awesome to meet up with some of my
friends in a virtual club, enjoy some great
music together and then hang out in a virtual
bar afterwards. Maybe I'm going crazy because
of this lockdown but it actually felt like
a night as weird as that sounds.
I really believe this is just the beginning
for virtual events like this as artists can
now perform virtually without the physical
limitations of a venue, reaching a limitless
audience and I think more artists are taking
the notion of virtual events more seriously
especially after the huge success of that
Travis Scott event in Fortnite.
I for one can't wait to experience more events
like this in the future and if you want to
join me sometime, follow me on Twitter as
I normally post about these events over there.
So, now lets get into the biggest news from
this month starting with the Oculus Go as
Oculus announced it will be discontinuing
the affordable three degrees of freedom headset.
In a blog post Oculus stated;
Since we launched Oculus Go two years ago,
VR technology has improved at an incredible
pace. Oculus Go’s success first proved that
the all-in-one form factor can deliver highly
immersive experiences. A year later, Oculus
Quest redefined the category.
The community response has been overwhelmingly
positive, and you’ve told us loud and clear
that 6DOF feels like the future of VR. That’s
why we’re going all-in, and we won’t be
shipping any more 3DOF VR products. We’ll
end sales of Oculus Go headsets this year
as we double down on improving our offerings
for Quest and Rift.
If you own an Oculus Go headset, you’ll
still be able to use it even after sales of
Oculus Go end. We’ll also continue to maintain
the system software with bug fixes and security
patches through 2022.
That said, we won’t be shipping new features
for Oculus Go moving forward, and we’ll
no longer accept new Oculus Go apps or app
updates into the Store after December 4, 2020.
I had a good time with the Go and it certainly
helped the channel grow so although I'm happy
to see the back of 3dof headsets for gaming
it's a little sad to be saying goodbye.
One of my favourite apps on the Oculus Go
was Oculus Rooms! It was a customisable space
where you could invite up to three friends
over to hang out, listen to the radio, watch
clips from Facebook or play casual games like
Boggle and Monopoly together.
It would push the Go to the max and occasionally
cause it to overheat but when it did work
it was great and you could also use Rooms
to springboard as a group into a multiplayer
game which would check if all players had
the game installed and in the example of Dead
& Buried a character from the game world would
actually come into your room and take you
all as a group into the game together.
It was a really great feature and I haven't
see that kind of social multiplayer integration
in the Rift or Quest yet and I guess this
might come in the form of Horizon but we just
don't know at this point.
So, yeah farewell Oculus Go you paved the
way for the future of standalone and for that
we're very grateful.
Also in the same blog post Oculus stated that
they'll be streamlining the process of installing
apps on Oculus Quest that aren't available
on the official Oculus store by saying;
We're excited to announce that in early 2021
we’ll offer a new way for developers to
distribute Quest apps. This will enable developers
to share their apps to anyone with a Quest,
without having to be accepted into the Oculus
Store, and without the need for sideloading.
sideloading content has been great to fill
the gaps in between game releases and has
also pushed the envelope in terms of innovative
and experimental content but many found the
prospect of sideloading daunting.
Oculus making that process easier is good
news but it'll be interesting to see if this
is monitized, how this is managed and how
this will affect SideQuest who have helped
support the community so much over the last
year.
Hopefully we'll get more information about
this from Oculus soon.
But now let's talk about Playstation VR.
Last month during The State Of VR I talked
about new VR motion controllers Sony have
been working on behind the scenes and it got
me excited for the prospect of a next gen
PSVR headset and controllers.
To date the PSVR has sold over 5 million units
which is the best selling headset so far aimed
directly at gamers. I think the Quest could
eventually top this figure but for now the
PSVR is still top dog.
On the 11th June Sony hosted an online event
unveiling their new Playstation 5 console
but sadly during the event VR wasn't event
mentioned.
We did get a glimpse of our little robotic
friend Astro but this was just a tease for
a game called Astros Playroom which will come
pre-installed on every console to get players
familiar with the new controller.
It was disappointing but I guess Sony didn't
want to confuse consumers at this point, it
did frustrate me though that they kept saying
this is the future of gaming but the games
just looked a bit nicer than the current gen,
VR is truly is revolutionary and completely
changes the game so it's disappointing to
not see it mentioned at all.
I am hopeful though that Sony will announce
their plans for PSVR in a separate event later
on and possibly after the consoles release.
All we know right now is that the original
PSVR will be supported on the new console
and it's a possibility this support will require
the use of the new HD camera shown in the
trailer but this is all speculation at this
point.
I personally really hope we get a new headset,
new controllers and updated tracking system
as this could be huge for the VR industry
going forward.
Let me know what you think, were you disappointed
about the lack of VR during the PS5 event?
Let me know in the comments.
Although we didn't get much VR love from Sony
we did get some new VR game announcements
for PC VR and Quest directly from developers
and during the Upload VR Summer Showcase this
month.
I won't go over every game announced during
the showcase as there's too much to list in
this video but my personal highlight of the
showcase was Solaris.
Solaris is made by the team at First Contact
Entertainment, the same team that brought
us the excellent Firewall; Zero Hour on PSVR.
The game is gonna be a 4 v 4 futuristic sci
fi arena shooter where you step into the role
of an athlon, an elite VR athlete.
The game will feature fast paced combat with
sprinting and sliding around the arena with
weapon and equipment pick ups scattered and
players battling it out to hold a control
point.
Solaris will be launching on 27th August for
Oculus headsets and will be coming later to
PSVR.
Also to those who tuned into the showcase
and were going wild asking for Five Nights
At Freddy's on Quest you'll be happy to hear
the game has been announced for release on
the 16th July.
Aside from the showcase the other big game
announcement that got me excited was Star
Wars Squadrons which has gone straight to
number one on my most anticipated VR game
list.
The game will feature a full single player
story campaign set after the events of Return
Of The Jedi seen from alternating perspectives
of both the new republic and the empire battling
it out for the galaxy.
It will also feature 5 v 5 multiplayer battles
between New Republic and imperial fleets which
will be VR cross platform play between both
PC and Playstation players.
The game won't support VR controllers but
instead use keyboard and mouse, gamepads or
full hands on throttle and stick setups.
Both the single player and multiplayer will
be fully playable in virtual reality. And
although I'm very excited for this title I'm
a little concerned it might be very intense
and has the potential to cause motion sickness.
I put together this parody clip to show you
what I mean...
Hopefully the game will have some robust comfort
options for newcomers as I'm sure many people
are considering buying a VR headset because
of this title alone.
Along with the new VR games this month we
also saw a resurgence of VR treadmills as
Kat Walk launched their new consumer focused
omni directional treadmill on Kickstarter
called the Kat Walk C.
The Kickstarter campaign has been really successful
and they managed to secure over one million
dollars in funding so far with 30 days to
go.
Kat Walk boasts that this new model is the
most compact omni directional treadmill to
date and they claim it provides a natural
walking experience for VR users and is compatible
with all PCVR headsets and games that support
smooth locomotion.
Now, I was pretty excited about omni directional
treadmills in the past right up until the
point I actually tried one. I tried the Omni
which was one of the first VR treadmills to
market which uses a similar design to the
Kat Walk with a bowl and specialist shoes
to help slide on the treadmills surface.
The problem is that it doesn't feel natural
at all to walk on these things in my opinion
and you'll need to re-learn how to walk let
along run.
Just have a look at this clip on TikTok of
someone using a treadmill in a VR arcade which
is also my clip of the month this month...
I know many people that are relatively new
to the VR scene are really excited about this
and almost hyping it up but as someone that's
been around for a while and has seen this
before and actually tried one, I'm very very
sceptical.
Kat Walk have reached out for me to review
one so I'll have that coming in the future
so it'll be really interesting to see if they
can change my mind and convince on treadmills
moving forward.
Some people say this could help with motion
sickness but my buddy Nathie thought otherwise
when he recently had hands on with one or
feet on one with one when he visited Kat Walk
so if you want to know his thoughts go check
out his video here.
The Infinideck is the closest device we've
seen to a full ready player one experience
and would be way more natural to walk due
to being flat and using a combination of treadmill
and belts but this isn't going to be coming
to consumers anytime soon.
But let me know if you backed the Kat Walk
C on Kickstarter and your reasons why? Also
let me know what games you plan to use it
with, I'd love to know.
And that is the State Of VR for June 2020.
I hope you enjoyed this recap of the most
prominent VR news from this month and if you
did, leave a like and let me know in the comments.
Make you're subscribed for all my future content
and as always, I'll see you on the next one.
Cheers!
