Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony Worldwide Studios, had a lengthy chat with Game Informer regarding PlayStation VR.
Various topics were discussed over four pages, but one that particularly stood out was the ever-present VR issue of motion sickness. According to Yoshida, in their tests people slowly acclimated to VR games, much like in the early 3D games.
Of course, you have to wear a headset, and there could be some motion sickness, but it depends on the person. The sensitivity to these things differs by person, but what we have been seeing – especially in the development people who use these headsets for many hours a day – people get acclimated to the use of VR devices. Like when we tried the very first 3D spaced games like Doom for the first time, many of us were not able to play these games because it was too intense, but after a few years, I had no problem playing first-person shooters. Human beings have amazing capabilities to adapt their senses, so that’s going to happen over time.
As someone who was able to try both the Oculus Rift and the PlayStation VR, this is my biggest issue with virtual reality. Each and every time I finished my VR sessions, I felt dizzy for at least 10/15 minutes.
I hope Yoshida is right about getting used to it, because otherwise virtual reality might be doomed from the start. He also made a comment about the gameplay time of VR titles, which tends to be very short for now.
The combination of limited resources and investments in the initial years for these smaller developers and the newness of the experience, the gameplay time of VR games for the launch titles could be short, but there will be, from day one, types of games, like online shooters or driving games, that lend themselves to extended play times naturally. As the market evolves in terms of the types of developers and publishers to be able to justify a larger investment to make VR titles, that will naturally extend the gameplay time and the people who are using these devices will get more acclimated for the longer usage.
Clearly, there's a correlation between these things. While the motion sickness problem still exists, it doesn't make a lot of sense to invest in games that extend for over 30 hours.
All the biggest VR devices (HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR) are set for release during the first half of 2016. Will they deliver the promised technological breakthrough? Stay tuned on Wccftech to find out.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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