You can always count on Apple to arrive at a party late with a gatecrashing spectacle to woo tired attendees with a shiny promise of a new dawn.
Apple Vision (Pro) launched, predictably, to “oohs” and “aahs” and, also predictably, to giggles of disbelief at the hefty price tag. Some things never change: the way Apple tries (and succeeds) to impress, and the way they use dopamine-inducing pricing as an indicator of prestige.
Their “mixed reality” description sought to change things. In the industry, extended reality or XR is already an umbrella term, covering the various branches of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). But while VR and AR are heavily–trialled fields in entertainment, medicine, education, and even gaming, MR has seemingly taken a back seat.
Not pioneer, but gamechanger
Apple has never really been concerned about being a first-mover. It might have changed the mobile scene with the iPod and iPhone, then later, with the iPad, but even going back to the days of the Mac, Apple has not been known to come up with new technology – only a way to popularise existing new technology.
The same with this Apple Vision, which was announced for sale early next year, they hope it will be seen in the same watershed light that the iPhone signalled.
This is because the relatively short but much-storied history of extended reality wearables is littered with the headstones of failed gear. All of them hyped to the max, and all of them fell well short of their promises.
Gaming seems to be where wearables go to die too. Nintendo smashed onto the scene with Virtual Boy as the 1990s’ first attempt at such an ambition, claiming 3D “stereoscopic” experiences and graphics in gameplay. It ended up being too pricey, too cumbersome, and too ineffective and later attempts by the giant game company have not been marketed with the same hype, perhaps borne of caution from earlier overhype.
Google Glass experimented with AR, hot on the heels of Pokemon GO, the game that brought AR into the spotlight. That didn’t do so well either for the same reasons: too expensive, too clunky, but also too intrusive because of the built-in cameras.
The outlier was Oculus VR – perhaps the only real success in gaming XR gear, that attracted the very biggest tech firms into gaming. But where it goes from here, into the metaverse and Web3 gaming, has so far fallen down into the same path of ridicule as others, with Zuckerberg’s dreams in tatters, as gamers continue to be disinterested in VR. Meta’s posted loss of almost $14 billion in 2022 was squarely blamed on the failure of its VR arm and Quest VR headsets.
This is where Apple hopes to change the dire course of VR gaming gear. Can it do so?
No demand (yet) for XR in Gaming
Generally, good business ideas have solid business plans, which identify a demand in the market and seek to fill it. New technology doesn’t necessarily go down this route – there was no demand for touchscreens, or foldable phones, was there?
Wearables and tech appear to be successful in other industries – Porsche uses the tech to let people test drive, Ikea uses an app to let people see how furniture will look in their homes, so there, businesses have found demand for tech from their audience, brought on by the insight from pandemic-induced remote shopping.
However, demand for VR (among the XRs in gaming) has always been low among gamers. A 2023 poll by Piper Sandler noted that while 29% of US teens had been convinced to buy a VR wearable, a mere 4% of owners used it daily, and only 14% used it weekly.
And the main issues? These devices have very limited uses, often, very specific to a particular software or game. And it would be fine if this game were worth playing for hours – like any great game. The fact is, most of the tech invests heavily in the graphics, but not in the playability or longevity of the software.
Simpler approaches that speak to the mainstream works – hence the success of Pokemon GO, that summoned legions of hunters all over the world, wielding a vast variety of smartphones to “catch” virtual characters.
Even that didn’t last, though, and it proved to be a mere fad.
Gamers want to be heard
The thing that gaming should understand is that gamers actually are a pretty simple bunch of people – they want good games, great experience, and they hate money-grabbing.
Web3 gaming, if it wants to succeed, must understand this. And we’ve extolled this value – putting gamers first and really understanding their soul – plenty of times at NextGenGames.
So if Apple Vision is to work, then it has to understand why gamers or consumers in general never warmed up to past failures in wearables. It has to connect with regular gamers, and regular people.
It might be too early to dismiss the idea that Apple could be the kickstarting catalyst for Web3 gaming, but if Web3 games that featured hundred-dollar NFTs caused so many players to shun them, it’s difficult to see how gamers might cough up $3499 for an Apple Vision Pro.
Instead, we’d be looking more at technology like Pillz, who earlier in 2023 raised pre-seed funding to create wearable devices for NFT collectibles and NFT gaming. They’re talking about earrings, watches, jewellery, anything that can be worn as an accessory, and used to load up digital NFTs.
People already sport NFTs on their social media to show off, it’s plausible people might want to flash their NFT in real life, on blinged-up wearables. Again, if Pillz has done their research and are looking to fill a demand, then they’re probably more on the right track than Apple currently is.