I love my Steam Deck, as any regular reader will know. It's my favourite gaming device but it could always be better right? And with competition hot (hi Nintendo), I hope Valve have more plans.
I really want to see Valve champion PCVR as much as FB has been pushing stand-alone VR. There is a decent-sized market there, but it feels like more and more large players are existing VR, leaving FB/Meta as the only one left standing (see Microsoft killing WMR, Sony pretty much abandoning PSVR despite it being the #2 selling VR platform). And as much as I commend Meta/Oculus for their innovations and continued research in this space, I don’t think it’s in anyone’s best interest to see the market get monopolized by Meta.
Especially now they’re forcing people to have FB accounts to use the hardware. I don’t care how much cheaper they are, that alone means I’ll never buy from Oculus.
It’d be news to me if they did but it’s still an account under the FB umbrella and I trust Zuckbot as far as I could throw him, which isn’t far no matter what alloy he’s made out of.
Fair. It’s my main reason for not owning an Oculus headset. Sadly Microsoft decided to turn my WMR headset into e-waste later this year, so I will need to find a replacement in due time.
The HP Reverb G2 v2 was the highest resolution headset on the market for a while. And it comes with the same headset solution the Index uses.
Sure. It has some flaws, such as the hand tracking accuracy not being as good as some other headsets (some people felt the inside-out tracking wasn’t as accurate as traditional lighthouse based approaches, but it’s still plenty accurate for pretty much any game I’ve played with it) but at the price point this occupied when new there was really no better value for people that wanted a headset with as little setup as possible and absolutely fantastic fidelity and resolution.
It’s a true travesty that Microsoft can just axe the entire platform with no way for users to continue using their still perfectly functioning devices.
In this day and age, I really think that should be illegal and Microsoft should face legal fallout. Just the nerve to claim to be a “green” company while actively making decisions to brick working hardware is bull.
I know. I’d just like the market to be more than a defacto monopoly with Meta selling 85% of all headsets. Especially given their privacy track record.
I really want to see Valve champion PCVR as much as FB has been pushing stand-alone VR. There is a decent-sized market there, but it feels like more and more large players are existing VR, leaving FB/Meta as the only one left standing (see Microsoft killing WMR, Sony pretty much abandoning PSVR despite it being the #2 selling VR platform). And as much as I commend Meta/Oculus for their innovations and continued research in this space, I don’t think it’s in anyone’s best interest to see the market get monopolized by Meta.
Especially now they’re forcing people to have FB accounts to use the hardware. I don’t care how much cheaper they are, that alone means I’ll never buy from Oculus.
Didn’t they introduce Oculus accounts because of the complaints about having to use FB accounts?
It’d be news to me if they did but it’s still an account under the FB umbrella and I trust Zuckbot as far as I could throw him, which isn’t far no matter what alloy he’s made out of.
Fair. It’s my main reason for not owning an Oculus headset. Sadly Microsoft decided to turn my WMR headset into e-waste later this year, so I will need to find a replacement in due time.
Sorry for your loss, my friend. I heard WMRs were pretty decent equipment.
The HP Reverb G2 v2 was the highest resolution headset on the market for a while. And it comes with the same headset solution the Index uses.
Sure. It has some flaws, such as the hand tracking accuracy not being as good as some other headsets (some people felt the inside-out tracking wasn’t as accurate as traditional lighthouse based approaches, but it’s still plenty accurate for pretty much any game I’ve played with it) but at the price point this occupied when new there was really no better value for people that wanted a headset with as little setup as possible and absolutely fantastic fidelity and resolution.
It’s a true travesty that Microsoft can just axe the entire platform with no way for users to continue using their still perfectly functioning devices.
In this day and age, I really think that should be illegal and Microsoft should face legal fallout. Just the nerve to claim to be a “green” company while actively making decisions to brick working hardware is bull.
You can use a Quest headset to play Steam.
I’d guess this has taken a lot of motivation out of Valve. They probably couldn’t do any better, as Meta has basically limitless funding.
I know. I’d just like the market to be more than a defacto monopoly with Meta selling 85% of all headsets. Especially given their privacy track record.
Oh don’t get me wrong, I would as well. That’s just the reality of the situation.