Talking about those interesting things about Oculus

Just past Double Eleven, did you buy any electronic products? Let's talk about VR today. The Silicon Valley tech scene in the last two weeks has been overshadowed by the midterm elections. Finally, in this election, Facebook finally did not make any fake news. This is also due to the fact that this time a small tie has made a big one.

Just past Double Eleven, did you buy any electronic products? Let's talk about VR today. ..

The Silicon Valley tech scene in the last two weeks has been overshadowed by the midterm elections. Finally, in this election, Facebook finally did not make any fake news. This is also due to the fact that this time Xiao Zha has made a lot of money to prepare for the battle. After all, he doesn't want to go to Congress to fight for a few more hours...

The rest of Facebook, however, went through major changes last week. The internal restructuring of Facebook's AR and VR divisions established through the acquisition of VR company Oculus aims to shift the current product-oriented team to a technology-oriented one.

This reorganization is actually only a year after the last major change in the department. On December 15, 2016, Facebook announced that Oculus will be split into PC VR and mobile VR.

And just last month, Brendan Iribe, the former CEO and co-founder of Oculus, announced that he was leaving Facebook.

Although the management positions of Oculus CTO John Carmack and co-founder Nate Mitchell will not change this time, and no employees have been fired within the department, the frequent reorganization of a department and the departure of top managers in the group do make people confused. : What the hell happened to Oculus?

In fact, as early as 2016, when AR and VR were on fire, Xiao Zha, who spent $2 billion to acquire Oculus, had regrets. Oculus, which has high expectations, not only failed to help Xiaozha realize the rhetoric of "making 1 billion people use AR", but its products themselves also failed to stand out from the competition of VR products such as HTC, Sony, and Samsung. It can be said that Oculus has indeed let everyone down.

So, will Oculus make a comeback? What should we expect from the AR and VR industries that have cooled down? Today, we take a look at the performance of the entire industry and the reasons behind it from Oculus.

Oculus: Another story of the ups and downs of a dropout genius

Speaking of the birth of Oculus, we have to mention his founder, Palmer Luckey, who we don't know if he is a lucky teenage genius.

On the afternoon of July 4, 2012, three men who would later become co-founders of Oculus sat in a room at the Long Beach Hilton Hotel, waiting for a 19-year-old "kid" named Palmer Luckey.

Saying he is a child is not only because he is young, but more importantly, he especially likes to play computer games, and he also likes to be blind. No, at the age of 16, he started researching devices that could achieve virtual reality (Virtual Reality) in his parents' garage. Three years later, he came into sight with a helmet and a handful of wires. This is the sixth helmet he designed and made, named Rift, which means crack. The meaning allows people to spy on the virtual world from one to the cracks.

The three couldn't believe their eyes when Palmer plugged in the device and handed the headset to the people in the room to demonstrate (please make up your mind when you first put on the VR device).

Oh My God! The three exclaimed. Without further ado, the trio decided to work with PalmerLuckey on a virtual reality device called the Oculus Rift.

The reason why the three of them came to see a "child" was because of the recommendation of John Carmack, a big man in the game circle at the time. John later joined the Oculus team.

In March 2014, Facebook founder Xiao Zha declared the Rift "one of the coolest things I've ever seen," immediately after visiting the Oculus offices.

Xiao Zha's abacus played well. He thought about his debut as a social network. If everyone uses VR equipment, then you can simulate reality and interact with the doctors and teachers on your screen at any time. A few weeks later, Facebook bought the company for $2 billion.

Yet every story has its other side, and Oculus' story is no exception.

John Carmack, who we mentioned earlier, was sued by his old owner, game development company ZeniMax, because he was suspected of stealing the company's technology to make the Oculus Rift. Although Oculus was killed and did not admit it, in 2017, the final verdict of the case indicated that Oculus needed to pay ZeniMax $5 million, of which $2 million was paid by the company, $500,000 by the founder Palmer, and the remaining $1.5 million by the CEO Brendan Iribe out.

After losing money, the seemingly Lucky Palmer Luckey did something else. In California, under the influence of the Democratic Party, Palmer secretly funded a pro-Trump and anti-Hillary organization "Nimble American" during the 2016 presidential election. The group spread the spoof of Hillary Clinton on the Internet, and was then besieged by Democratic voters. And Palmer was also pulled out by everyone, and asked for self-examination. Palmer, who eventually disappeared from the company completely, had no choice but to make a clean break with Oculus.

Along the way, even if Oculus was acquired, the fate seemed to be somewhat ill-fated. If the above stories are all scraps of gag, then the core question comes - how have Oculus products sold over the years?

Not selling well, blame me?

At this year's FacebookVR conference, Zha pointed out two main steps for VR growth: first, building a self-sustaining ecosystem, and second, building a comfortable and lightweight device with the best form factor. However, is it really just the ecosystem and device form factor that the company's Oculus isn't selling well?

To talk about how well Oculus sells, let's first compare its two rivals, Sony's PalyStaTIon and HTC's Vive.

Pricing first. In 2016, the Oculus Rift was already on sale for a set price of $798. Although it was later reduced to $599, it still made the majority very dissatisfied. Because the founders seem to have been suggesting that the Rift should be around $300 before. In the end, the founder had to come forward and apologize in person.

It is said that 1 billion people can use it? !

Although the price dropped to $499 in March 2017, and to $399 in June, this is not the reason for the price drop due to overselling. On the contrary, Oculus is not selling well. Just look at its competitors.

Just when the Oculus Rift was about to come out in 2016, HTC's Vive took the lead, using the "outside-in" location tracking technology in advance to perform room-level location tracking, which greatly improved the user experience. Although the price was $799, it was later reduced to $499, and the user experience was better from the beginning!

At the same time, Sony's PS hit a low price of $399 as soon as it entered the market, which disrupted the overall situation of VR prices that year.

Speaking of sale. In 2016, just as fans were eagerly anticipating their Oculus Rift, they were told time and time again that the product would be delayed. There is a problem with the delivery, the delivery is not strong, what is Oculus doing? More than half a year has passed, and many fans who were optimistic about Oculus before turned to Vive. They chose Vive with better experience.

And in terms of overall sales, Oculus isn't doing well either. From its launch to now, the sales of Oculus Rift products have not exceeded 500,000 units. Although the later, cheaper Oculus Go is expected to sell 1.8 million units this year, so far, judging from the 500,000 units sold in the first two quarters of the Oculus Go, it is still a mystery whether the sales volume is expected to reach that.

In this way, Facebook should really think about the prospects of Oculus. But it's not just the Oculus family that needs to be thought of as well. The performance of the entire VR industry this year has been flat, or even declining. what is the reason behind the scene?

VR2.0? The sales of the four major VR families are experiencing a cliff-like decline

In July this year, the data analysis site Thinknum analyzed the sales volume of the four largest VR equipment companies based on the sales volume of Amazon, the largest online shopping site in the United States.

Among them, we can see that the four major VR families are experiencing a cliff-like decline in sales ranking.

Sony's PlayStaTIon VR was off to a good start, and its bundle with The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim was a big boost to sales. In February of this year, the set was ranked 29th among all video game products on Amazon. And now, its ranking has slipped to 100 - it can be said that players are not so interested in it.

Vive-Although the user experience is good, it has not prevented the fate of falling sales rankings. At the time, industry experts dubbed it the high-end PCVR we've been waiting for. The device, which once cost $799, required a high-end PC to run and attracted a rush to develop content for it from the entertainment and gaming sectors, propelling it into the top 50 in sales. And now, the device's ranking has slipped to more than 90.

Samsung released GearVR in 2014, a VR headset that needs to be plugged into a phone to use. Due to its low price, the device entered the top 10 sales rankings in September 2016. But now, the device has slipped to No. 83. The rest of Samsung's VR products didn't make it to Amazon's best-seller list at all.

Oculus released the all-in-one VR headset OculusGo in October 2017. The device also sold well in the original, ranking seventh in the rankings in May of this year. But it has since failed to sustain that momentum and has now fallen out of the top 100.

Looking at this set of data, we not only have to ask: Has VR failed again? Why did it fail?

From the current point of view, the lack of VR content, high prices, and application scenarios have become the key factors restricting the entire industry.

First, in terms of lack of compelling content, Sony's only true AAA (high development budget, high publicity) games that are compatible with PSVR appear to be Gran Turismo Sport and the spin-off Resident Evil game.

The Oculus Go and Oculus Rift aren't much better, including driving games, shooters, and so-called "first-person" experiences. It can be said that even with VR, if you want to play a good game, you still have to continue to spend money on it.

Second, in terms of price, many of the best products, from the Oculus Rift to Windows Mixed Reality VR devices, are too expensive to appeal to most users.

Even after the recent price cut, the Rift will cost $399, which is close to RMB 3,000. And don't forget, you'll also need a PC powerful enough to run the game, which will cost you at least another $800.

Although the price of Oculus Go is relatively low, only less than 200 US dollars, but you get what you pay for every penny, and people give you less game content.

In fact, to get any meaningful VR experience, you'll need to pay at least $600, or more than 4,000 yuan.

Finally, in terms of application scenarios, at present, in addition to playing games, VR products seem to have no other scenarios that can be applied. Therefore, if you want grandparents, grandparents, parents to use VR, more practical application scenarios are essential.

Having said so much, it is still too early to judge from the current sluggish product sales. However, the problems that continue to be solved are really worth thinking about by those in the industry.

Finally, Xiao Tan would like to ask everyone, Double Eleven, have you bought any VR products for yourself? If you were asked to choose one VR product, which one would you choose? why?