The latest survey conducted by the Game Developers Collective, an organization bringing together professionals in the video game industry, reveals a worrying finding for the virtual reality market. More than half of developers believe the sector is “decline or stagnation”. Despite technological advances and the recent launch of the Apple Vision Pro, 56% of developers surveyed describe the VR market as uninviting. Of this total, 38% believe that the market is at a standstill, while 18% believe that it is in recession.
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The prices of virtual reality headsets remain one of the main obstacles to the wider distribution of this equipment. The PlayStation VR2 (which Sony stopped production), for example, started with a high price of €599.99, without any reduction to date, which slowed its growth. In contrast, Meta has opted for a more aggressive strategy by gradually lowering the price of its Quest headsets, or launching lower-cost models, to encourage consumer entry into the VR market. The Meta Quest 3S headset (128 Gb) is therefore priced at €329.99.
For many developers, this financial barrier is added to other structural problems: 88% of developers point to the limited scope and small size of the VR market, with a consumer ceiling too quickly reached for games are truly profitable. Other challenges raised include the complexity of creating immersive and comfortable experiences (38%) and the lack of funding opportunities (35%), factors that contribute to limiting the creative and commercial potential of the VR sector.
The majority of studios that are not yet developing VR titles do not intend to take the plunge: 53% of developers believe that their company will never invest in virtual reality. Only a small minority are considering a possible transition, with 13% of respondents considering a foray into this market in the next five years. Enthusiasm therefore remains moderate, especially when studies show that general public adoption of VR technologies is still struggling to take off.
Apple Vision Pro: the damp squib
To return to the case of the Apple headset, the announcement of the Apple Vision Pro, although hailed as a technical advance in the field of VR and augmented reality, did not generate the expected enthusiasm among developers. 72% of them believe that this device will have no significant impact on the future of VR gaming.
The results of this survey show persistent skepticism around the potential of virtual reality to establish itself in the video game landscape, even with high-end products like the Apple Vision Pro. In the absence of a drop in costs and a real breakthrough in terms of content and user comfort, the VR market seems to be stuck in an impasse, and developers are questioning its long-term viability.
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