TranslationHave anyone made anything that looked like a profit (covered their expenses) on VR projects?
Been reading up on VR and if it were financially sane to even think about VR in games, so wondered if anyone in the danish game cluster have any real experience with it yet?
I am personally rather skeptical if it is possible to make a profit on VR games yet, but have heard arguments that VR is a must to include - just haven't seen any valid proof in terms of data that support that claim.
These two articles are rather glum about venturing into VR as well.
https://www.vrfocus.com/2016/07/what-st ... ecosystem/
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/arti ... lity-games
Anyway what do you say? any experience that you can share?
Have anyone made any kind of a profit on VR?
Re: Have anyone made any kind of a profit on VR?
On the local scene. Khora VR seems to be most certainly profitable.
Mainly through work for hire client projects.
So I guess it depends on how you approach the business.
One shot game releases is as big a risk as any other platform. And yes, in many cases even more so.
Bölwerk games, VR Unicorns still hanging on.
And there is a small handful of (relative to market size) hit games out there already.
These are some of the slightly older SteamVR sales... can't remember the source right now. There was an article.
Currently the VR space is naturally very limited in install base. It's very early days still. As the technology matures with lower price points for the hardware. Better software etc. Everything in VR, WILL only become better and better.
I can only see steady (not explosive) growth in the sector for the foreseeable future. There is a lot of negative press on VR at the moment. But in 3..5..10 years and on, it will be very different ballgame.
I think we will see VR and AR merge eventually. So the new AR/VR world will be both highly useful AND have amazing immersive entertainment. And with enough time. Possibly become the dominant computing platform of our time. It will take quite a while. Decades. But never say never.
So if you are thinking about doing a startup? With the right partners and long term investors. I don't think it's the worst idea at all to do a VR startup. Might actually be a really good idea to be one of the defining companies in the early days of VR. Instead of trying to fish in bloody red oceans.
Big 'IF' you can survive the early days that is.
Mainly through work for hire client projects.
So I guess it depends on how you approach the business.
One shot game releases is as big a risk as any other platform. And yes, in many cases even more so.
Bölwerk games, VR Unicorns still hanging on.
And there is a small handful of (relative to market size) hit games out there already.
These are some of the slightly older SteamVR sales... can't remember the source right now. There was an article.
Currently the VR space is naturally very limited in install base. It's very early days still. As the technology matures with lower price points for the hardware. Better software etc. Everything in VR, WILL only become better and better.
I can only see steady (not explosive) growth in the sector for the foreseeable future. There is a lot of negative press on VR at the moment. But in 3..5..10 years and on, it will be very different ballgame.
I think we will see VR and AR merge eventually. So the new AR/VR world will be both highly useful AND have amazing immersive entertainment. And with enough time. Possibly become the dominant computing platform of our time. It will take quite a while. Decades. But never say never.
So if you are thinking about doing a startup? With the right partners and long term investors. I don't think it's the worst idea at all to do a VR startup. Might actually be a really good idea to be one of the defining companies in the early days of VR. Instead of trying to fish in bloody red oceans.
Big 'IF' you can survive the early days that is.
Re: Have anyone made any kind of a profit on VR?
I think that one might be able earn some kind of profit, if the scope was making interactive experiences (maybe not traditional games?) for museums and such (and if you know how to network to get the job / get them to realize it would be a good idea 
).
This is based on no experience of my own, but I know my brother (he makes VR art) has been approached by some which might be interested in something similar.
Also he is making a profit from his projects, but they are not games and I'm pretty sure most of this work is funded by fonds, some commissioned work and occasional hired jobs as art director or similar on a VR project.
).This is based on no experience of my own, but I know my brother (he makes VR art) has been approached by some which might be interested in something similar.
Also he is making a profit from his projects, but they are not games and I'm pretty sure most of this work is funded by fonds, some commissioned work and occasional hired jobs as art director or similar on a VR project.
Re: Have anyone made any kind of a profit on VR?
Just a quick reply to the two posts that I missed on this topic here (shitty migration to office365 made me loose oversight of a lot of mails)
@Althia,
Only looked at it from a game perspective, B2C and not from a B2B point. But do think that B2B work is the only way to survive for now in the VR/AR domain. From the way I see it then it's not the time for a small scale company to go into VR.
@Jonas
Thanks mate, great graph, I will keep it for later.
Honestly, then I don't see VR as a viable option for gaming start ups - only if you are playing with your own money. Getting investors to throw money into VR without a kickass portfolio is DOA if you plan to do VR games for the B2C domain from the way I see it, and the investors that I work with (and in the past worked for) will not even look at VR consumer projects any longer, B2B projects is the way to go to get experience and know how, but that is all something that you as a company can buy/get later on when there are money in the transition from traditional gaming to VR.
Sony have (almost) stopped investing in small scale VR productions and are now solely looking towards big houses who are interested in doing at least an 50/50 risk split on the production costs. What they are looking for is a AAA killer-game that no one can say no to play and will launch VR games into what every VR evangelist have preached about for the last years. i.e. make VR games truly consumer oriented.
From what I hear (on the sideline) then not many VR titles make it outside the industry and on to consumers who have no stake in the creative industry.
I am(we) are starting up and have the initial investors on board, but unfortunately have hit a snag so it wont be a start-up in Denmark from the way it looks.
A potential VR title will only be somewhere 3-4 titles down the production line because I don't work on anything that are as uncertain as VR sales are at the moment.
@Althia,
Only looked at it from a game perspective, B2C and not from a B2B point. But do think that B2B work is the only way to survive for now in the VR/AR domain. From the way I see it then it's not the time for a small scale company to go into VR.
@Jonas
Thanks mate, great graph, I will keep it for later.
Honestly, then I don't see VR as a viable option for gaming start ups - only if you are playing with your own money. Getting investors to throw money into VR without a kickass portfolio is DOA if you plan to do VR games for the B2C domain from the way I see it, and the investors that I work with (and in the past worked for) will not even look at VR consumer projects any longer, B2B projects is the way to go to get experience and know how, but that is all something that you as a company can buy/get later on when there are money in the transition from traditional gaming to VR.
Sony have (almost) stopped investing in small scale VR productions and are now solely looking towards big houses who are interested in doing at least an 50/50 risk split on the production costs. What they are looking for is a AAA killer-game that no one can say no to play and will launch VR games into what every VR evangelist have preached about for the last years. i.e. make VR games truly consumer oriented.
From what I hear (on the sideline) then not many VR titles make it outside the industry and on to consumers who have no stake in the creative industry.
I am(we) are starting up and have the initial investors on board, but unfortunately have hit a snag so it wont be a start-up in Denmark from the way it looks.
A potential VR title will only be somewhere 3-4 titles down the production line because I don't work on anything that are as uncertain as VR sales are at the moment.
Re: Have anyone made any kind of a profit on VR?
Well happy to hear you have some early investors on board now! Best of luck with your project!
Any pointers to what direction you are taking?
In the end. If you are looking for safe bets.. you probably shouldn't do games.
Any pointers to what direction you are taking?
In the end. If you are looking for safe bets.. you probably shouldn't do games.