Wired UK discussed the future mobile VR with CCP Games, developers of EVE Online. The developer’s Shanghai studio is working on smaller games like Gunjack, which fit into the EVE universe (the recent book Empires of EVE gets into just how deep the world has run thanks to players), but there’s some interesting talk about how free-to-play will affect the future of VR. Right now, Gunjack manager Michael Lee sees some parallels to the beginning of the mobile gaming market, where early adopters are willing to pay for content because they’re shelling out for the hardware and want content for it. But that could change someday, according to Lee.
At some point, in the future, I think when mobile VR becomes more ubiquitous, we’ll probably move to a free-to-play scheme. I can certainly see that. Just like mobile games did – when they first came out they were $1.99-$2.99, money up front. Now, some people consider it suicide to even charge for the game out the gate.
It seems inevitable that free-to-play mobile VR will someday happen. I’ve heard of at least one firm trying video ads in VR. I’ve talked to developers, and part of the concern with mobile VR is that interfaces aren’t as quick and easy as they are on a 2D screen. Think about how easy it is to buy IAP in mobile games now, especially with Touch ID. That might be a bit trickier in a VR environment. As well, popular monetization strategies such as customization may not work as well if you’re talking about mostly first-person games. There’s a lot of hurdles to make it work, but when you hear about the millions of mobile headsets already out there, whoever makes free-to-play VR click on mobile is bound to be quite successful indeed. Still, seeing a major developer like CCP trying to make mobile VR work in some form – and to sell to that paid game market – is promising. Definitely give the article a read.
