10 years ago, many people would have thought 2026 would see widespread use of VR, but we’re still waiting. Oddly, just as the tech to support already exists. 2026’s top-of-the-line VR headsets are technically impressive. However, they are still expensive and headache-inducing after extended periods of use.
It’s odd. The many possible useful applications for VR still exist. When will the tech finally take off? What will it take? I suspect that if someone could make a great headset that was in the $100 range, that might do the trick. Perhaps that is in the near future.
Meta’s attempt at VR had some big issues: their “metaverse” thing was laughably bad (and ugly), their platform is very closed and requires a Facebook account, and many people simply avoid Meta like the plague.
Interestingly, an article titled “Will Virtual Reality ever take off?” doesn’t even mention Valve.
This. I genuinely think all they had to do was make the Metaverse FOSS and it would have had a chance.