Wednesday, 18 February 2015

BA5: Contextual studies research The history of VR

The history of VR
Though many believe that the Oculus Rift was the first attempt to introduce virtual headsets into the gaming industry they would be mistaken. One of the first attempts to introduce virtual reality headsets into the game industry was by Nintendo and what a product called Virtual boy. Unlike the virtual headsets of now this was a full console that was more in Kent to wear helmets. Here are some images of the Virtual boy.


Due to Nintendo's marketing tactic that the not ship the Virtual boy to America abd Europe straight away when the product was released on July 21, 1995 and predicted where a higher sales figures that were possible and after months of being available in Japan eventually shipped to America and Europe. But by that time support for the console had dwindled with Nintendo finally cut not support the Virtual boy not even a year into its release on 22 March 1996 with the last scheme of 3-D Tetris being its final release. Due to the lack of support for the Virtual boy it quickly died soon after with very little prospect of coming back. 

Though there are similarities today with the oculus rest and the Virtual boy the Virtual boy was sold mostly at its own console and its own platform  in which Nintendo could market a whole range of new games and I think this is what ultimately led to its downfall that it had to establish itself not only hours of VR headset but as its own custom platform while the oculus rifts nowadays is more seen as a extension onto many different platforms like the PlayStation 4. Xbox one or PC and I think this is where oculus rest has an advantage that it does not have as much pressure to succeed as the visual boy does giving it a stronger chance to succeed within the games industry with Virtual boy failed.

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