The big problem of VR devices is that to merely get full HD at 30 frames your GPU has to provide 4K at 60 frames, since the work needs to be done for each eye. Nice if you are among the few per thousand PC players with a GeForce Titan, but the vast majority is running less than a GeForce 960. And totally forget about XB1 and PS4, where they struggle to get 720p at 30 frames
Completely false (sorry to go off tangent here for a sec). Compare a last-gen title like GTA V that really pushed the limits of what the 360 and ps3 could do, they were doing 720p at 30 fps just fine. Next gen was released at 1080p 30fps. Many second generation next-gen titles are now hitting 60fps at 1080p, although they certainly struggle to get there. So you're quite off.
VR just didn't have a real chance before because the tech wasn't there, the GPU performance wasn't there to do 1440p at 90fps with low input lag, and they didn't have the greats like Carmack and 2 billion dollar investments from Facebook, Valve, Sony, Microsoft, all working in tandem if not outright collaborating, to get there. I see on steam there are already VR titles out now, and some of the new stuff coming out next year looks incredible.
Even a non-VR game, like "For Honor" by Ubisoft, looks so stunning even on a TV, that once you add VR to it it will be even better. There is plenty of valid discussion to be had about when exactly VR will overtake PC gaming let alone couch potato console gaming, but if there's a killer app for gaming, it's VR. Photorealistic graphics are also not just a buzzword, there are screenshots of ray-traced cloud-rendered scenes that look so good most people in a survey literally cannot tell which is real, in a side by side comparison of the real life scene it's based on. So it's no gimmick. I give D&D 5 years, tops, before it putters out of the mass consciousness and its fans flock towards some VR equivalent, probably made by some other company because Wizards of the Coast has proven itself repeatedly completely inept at managing its digital properties. They made one 4th edition game, by Atari, that was just terrible. Now more turn-based Neverwinter titles that might be terrific fun but not bringing in crowds like any of the big titles.
D&D branded properties could stand a chance, but those videogame titles need some bold vision, big funding. I just don't see Wizards doing it. Maybe if Hasbro steps in and offers the D&D brand to something like Dice or some Epic studio using Unreal engine it might do something. Instead they always do these tier B titles that are stuck in the past, turnbased, isomorphic, stuff we've seen a million times already and is just frankly not that impressive, and it wasn't even when it was new. Some of the earliest D&D titles were first person, at least. Turn-based is perfect for table top, but a total cop out for joining the rest of the industry on a wave of innovation. Having one foot stuck firmly in the 1990s is not going to save D&D as an IP either.
5th edition might be making waves in the TTRPG market, but everything they've done except for the playtests has been quite anti-consumer. They don't even want to sell people campaign settings, people end up playing the same adventures over and over. Most gamers out there don't have time to run custom campaigns. It's 2015 not 1989, we have the internet, video on demand, 3D, VR, smartphones, toy drones. The list of things that vie for a gamer's attention these days is insane. And the pressure and difficulties to get a gaming group together, even a casual one, are harder and harder. For every gamer who has spent a massive amount of time playing Wow or other games compared to their actual D&D time, just imagine when they can play a truly socially immersive and incredible graphics experience with 3D sound, presence, haptics, dual hand controllers, gesture recognition.
We might differ on when exactly VR titles will take over, but they will, no question. Nostradamus, out.
