For virtual reality makers, a new version of an old struggle
After delaying orders because of component shortages and angering wannabe early adopters, VR company Oculus is confronting another headache as it seeks to technologically and culturally establish the immersive medium.
In less than four weeks after the March 28 launch of the $600 system, cunning amateur coders figured out how to unlock the cartoony platforming game "Lucky's Tale" and VR vignette collection "Oculus Dreamdeck" for the HTC Vive, an $800 competing VR system released April 5 by smartphone maker HTC and gaming company Valve, which operates online marketplace Steam.
For now, the reverse isn't an issue for HTC and Valve, whose online hub is headset agnostic, meaning content purchased from Steam can be used for the Vive or Rift.
[...] gamers can only hop into a "Super Mario Bros." installment on systems created by Nintendo, while the "Uncharted" series is exclusively on PlayStation machines.
The Vive's sensors and wand-shaped controllers offer VR across a room, while the Rift only works seated with a traditional gamepad, until Oculus releases its Touch controllers later this year.
By the end of 2016, all three major VR systems are slated to essentially feature the same functionality: a headset and a pair of controllers capable of mimicking hands in virtual world.
With each operating their own marketplace for VR experiences, it is possible that consumers could see the dawn of "the VR wars," depending on how Sony, Oculus and HTC tackle content exclusivity.
From VR treadmills to VR gloves, many peripheral aficionados have already constructed prototypes that could make the medium feel more, well, real.