Technology moves at such a relentless speed, and as one pioneering invention makes the news, it feels like another one knocks it out of the news the following day. While it might not be moving at that sort of pace, the 24/7 nature of social media news has resulted in a boundless quest for technology companies to outdo each other. VR (Virtual Reality) was the shiny new gadget a few years ago. A cluster of the world’s most prominent technology companies announced they would aggressively pursue design and innovation in the VR sector, and it became global news.
Such was the hysteria surrounding the technology that multiple companies were pursuing the ideas of what VR had to offer. Besides the novelty of having a game of snooker or tennis using a VR headset, the price still outweighed the benefits, and providers started looking at other growing markets to fuse them to make VR more viable. Exploring the other alternatives seemed like a barren landscape until the sheer volume of capital began to open doors, and gaming companies made the first move into the sector.
Farfetched Or Serious Alternative?
Video console gaming companies attempted to adapt designs to cater to the VR market. There’s been marginal success in this endeavor, but there is still a long way to go for the companies to catch up. However, one area of gaming that has slightly more success is the VR casino. As with multiple technologies, be it the internet or the emergence of cryptocurrency, casino companies have embraced the new technology at the apex of where it meets popular culture and attempted to coordinate a plan to merge the two. Breaking it down into individual games like poker, blackjack, roulette, or baccarat, a discussion about how VR could impact these games is beginning to take shape.
If you’re playing baccarat at a VR casino, you can sit at the table with your VR headset, all from the comfort of not leaving your home. The headset allows you to become engrossed in the baccarat game, and the idea of being sat in a casino is a lot easier for VR companies when there are far fewer design complications. Online baccarat games can capture the feel of many players. Still, for those who want to go one step further and feel like they’re playing in the physical casino, VR casino game designers are tailoring and developing their services to suit your needs. Therefore, casino gaming via VR headset could be the first widespread usage we see from these cutting-edge devices.
Console Gaming
Outside the world of casino gaming, there’s a multi-billion dollar market that is expected to be worth over half a trillion dollars by the end of this decade. Virtual Reality companies are quickly moving forward with their designs to tap into this incredible potential available to companies who can crack the code and deliver a title that generates mass appeal to VR games.
The news of a Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer has caused global shockwaves. Rockstar’s landmark game is often at the forefront of any technological innovations or adaptions. While there isn’t much news to go off about the latest chapter, there are many online who believe there could be some sort of implementation of fresh technology such as VR, AI, or cryptocurrency. Grand Theft Auto 6 is the biggest gaming release of the decade thus far, and by 2030, it will likely still hold that moniker. If it has VR capability, this could be the push the technology needs to become a serious alternative to the current home console setup that is still King.
Final Thoughts
It will take a globally recognized franchise to take VR gaming out of obscurity and into contention with main channels. That’s not to say this technology doesn’t have serious potential because Meta, Apple, and Google wouldn’t be investing billions into it if they thought it didn’t have legs. Sony has already developed multiple versions of their VR headsets, offering them to gamers at discount Black Friday rates and continuing to invest significant resources and time into them.
They will want a return on their investment at some point, so many gamers believe that a GTA 6 or a similar Marquis name will develop a game specifically designed for the VR market. A first-person shooter or free-roam game in VR presents many logistical barriers, but you only have to look at games like Red Dead Redemption 2 to see the possibilities for VR.
However, if a company can pull this off, then the upside could be gigantic, so it’s not a surprise that so many are working to bring these plans to fruition. It does feel a bit premature at the moment, though, and until millions more people own these headsets, the days of it being a viable alternative are probably a decade or so off.
