VR, or at least AR, is obviously the future. But Meta, like so many companies before them, saw the future and tried to jump on board way before it was the right time. See: WebTV, the tablet PCs from the early 1990s (!!), Apple Newton, Palm Pilot, etc. (I call it the first mover disadvantage!)
I hate that I understand your last point by the way ha.
Gaming went mainstream because it went mainstream. Technogy improved, it became easy to setup and play (unlike a computer at the time), competition was high between Sony and MS which resulted in quick generational leaps. And finally, all the gamers grew up inviting more gamers to be gamers.
Once it became big money, gaming attracted attention propelling it further.
Like any technology, it's a combination of things that leads to high uptake.
My opinion is that VR will go mainstream when it becomes afford, useful and easy to use. IMO we are years away from good useful VR.
You can have realist environments but without people it's just a boring videogame with no interaction. And for that we already have Street View and multimedia CD's with virtual cities since the mid-late 90's.
koolala•6h ago
Steam Frame ships with a closed virtual environment to create a StoreOS but launching an alternative open environment might be feasible. Then we just need good contained programs to explore safely over the net.
ehnto•5h ago
It will be a huge, huge breath of fresh air. I know I for one have not been building in VR because it has felt quite vendor locked with regards to hardware and stores. Same reason I don't do software for mobile.