We ask our industry panel - the brightest and sharpest VR professionals from around the world - one question about the VR industry, business, technology or trending stories every week.

 

Question: So that’s E3 done and dusted for another year! With VR reveals from Intel’s VR eSports, Sony’s PS VR games, Ubisoft’s Hollywood hook-up and more, what were your standout VR/AR/MR moments from the show?

 

Paul Colls, Creative Director at Fierce Kaiju 

“VR had a great showing at E3; the PS VR title Moss by the fine folk at Polyarc was the standout for me. The mouse character named Quill is insanely cute, the puzzles seem intriguing and I love the way Polyarc is bringing the player into her world, fantastic stuff.

“VR arrived a while back and users now have access to some incredible VR content. We have many talented, experienced developers that understand how to get the best out of the medium, the beauty is that we’re seeing VR content getting bigger and better, which will continue.

“You’ve gotta love E3, few events have as much new content to absorb in one fell swoop; I still get giddy with excitement when E3 comes around and I’m rarely disappointed. There will always be room for improvement; it’s inevitable with events of that size, but long may E3 continue.”

Jonathan Wagstaff, Country Manager - UK & IE at CONTEXT 

"I wouldn't say that VR has arrived per se, more that it continues its steady growth. We're very much in the 'how do we play/make VR games?' phase, and HMD prices are still stubbornly high.

“That being said, AAA announcements are very welcome news, particularly from Bethesda, adding to the drive already seen from Ubisoft. Fallout 4 VR and Skyrim VR could be a turning-point for Sony PS VR adoption as word gets around, providing the experience is good enough.

“The real news this year is the convergence between PC/console gaming. Project Scorpio is looking more and more like a scaled-down PC, and Microsoft were touting cross-platform releases in 2017/18. After all, 'Xbox' is short for 'DirectX Box'. Interestingly, the top selling VR-ready desktop PC in our data this year in Europe is Asus' VivoPC X, which looks like a console, has a non-removable GPU, and is sold at the low(ish) price-point of <$800 without a display."

 

Brynley Gibson, Head Of Studios at Curve Digital 

“It was good to see VR have a steady and less hysterical presence at E3 now that we are post 'the year of VR' and into building the ecosystem. There were plenty of games and some great looking titles alongside some big IPs (hello Skyrim!)

“As we would expect, there is still boundless innovation taking place and for me, Stifled was the standout with its stark outline art style - perhaps this is what Daredevil sees. Gattai Games have taken a bold look and it looks like it’s paid off.

“There may be a glut of psychological horror and First Person Shooters, but we need to take into account that everyone is still learning and this is a fair way to do it; take something that you know works and add a little twist or your studio’s signature style. Everyone did think MS would be marking the sand with their VR offering but like every platform holder, VR is currently only a small part of their business. Still, it would have been good to see more detail on where they are going.”

 

Stephanie Llamas, VP of Research and Product Strategy at SuperData Research 

“Even though there are myriad games that are arguably better than most IP-based VR titles, when it comes to expanding awareness and adoption for the genre, these are the titles that are going to bring in attention from gamers. These additions will help Sony widen its lead in the console VR marketplace.

“Microsoft has been sending mixed messages on VR and MR. After saying at last year’s E3 that Xbox One X would, “Lead the industry into high-end VR”, they didn’t even mention VR at E3 this year. It sounds like they made a promise last year that they are finding hard to keep. Console VR - or MR - feels like an afterthought, so if they do decide to make the leap in the future, they will have to make a big move to overcome PS VR.

“Since Nintendo’s consoles don’t currently support VR, they are experimenting via location-based attractions. I suspect this will be the proof of concept they need to dive into VR.”