@mwnciboo: Just to let you know: They had an offer from a big publisher already, which they have declined. They experienced this issue back then with Illusion Softworks and they won’t do the same mistake again. If we (the community and WH) keep up with the marketing for the game and the devs properly implement the features then we don’t have to worry about the success of the game and WH in the future.
And about the news regarding Facebook buying Oculus Rift: This event has opened the market for new competitors. Take a look at http://www.trueplayergear.com/ which supports more than just the PC (Rift) or PS4 (Morpheus). Maybe it was a good decision by Facebook to buy Oculus VR, although the majority of supporters are not happy about it. However the original backers got their product, so there’s nothing to complain about for them IMHO.
Who knows if we would ever see a finished VR product which is satisfactory for the consumers. Even with the very long development time of True Player Gear’s Totem, they’re at least addressing many issues that gamers (including me) had with the first Oculus Rift DK and also adding vital features. Next to motion sickness and the lack of visual quality I was annoyed by being blind all the time in the real world which is solved by Totem using 1080p cams. And the possibility for AR functionality (not a fixed feature yet) and the support for many platforms and engines makes this product even better than the current and upcoming Rift DK. Those last two features are vital in today’s market and Oculus VR didn’t take care of the whole game industry. All they did was improving and not evolving their own technology which is a common mistake nowadays in any technological industry, including game industry.
Well, I actually disagree with that tbh. Imo people misinterpreted to a great extend what the Kickstarter campaign for the Rift was all about. It was never about “bringing a full consumer version to the market”. It would be highly illusionary to believe that a few million dollars would be sufficient for a mass market introdution of a computer hardware peripheral. The kickstarter campaign was just about the first batch of development kits, about “giving the the whole thing the initial impulse to be able to continue”. The keyword is continue here. People with a little inside in the business knew from the very beginning that Oculus Rift would need a lot more funding to actually be able to finish a consumer version and to bring it to the market.
A hardware like Oculus Rift is not the same as a game. It’s possible to create a rather big game with 5-10 millions and bringing it to the market (with digital distribution it’s easier and cheaper than ever). You can’t compare that to hardware. You need money for development, production, marketing, logistics and distribution. A lot of money. A whole cashload of money. 5-10 million dollars are only sufficient for the first few years of intial development and a first or even second prototype (the way it happened here with Oculus). After that you need additional funding and there are only few reasonalbe and realistic possiblities: either you “sell” yourself to a much bigger company with a lot more resources or you try to get additional funding by financial investors and banks, trying to keep complete ownership. But the latter version is also the much more difficult version and not always the better version. Financial investors and banks are only interested in your sales numbers or expectations. They’re not interested in the tech or the passion or the possibilites. They are interested in their return of investment. And it’s also much harder to get that third party funding if you are a new company without any existing and successful product already placed on the market. Like Carmack said himself that route would have meant a lot of ups and downs and maybe even a running out of cash, which means nothing else than becoming bancrupt in the process. So it’s (sadly?) the only realistic possibility left to sell your idea, your knowledge and your trademarks to a bigger company to secure ongoing development and the mass market introduction of your product with a consumer version.
Some people (me included) would likely have preferred a tech and game company like Microsoft or Valve taking care of that and buying Oculus. But I guess Microsoft has something on their own not shown to the public yet and Valve is still trying to stay away from the hardware market themselves. So who else? You maybe don’t like Facebook but at least it’s a kind of a tech firm with people like Zuckerberg believing in the product itself and its possibilites and giving Oculus some freedom to continue their path. That’s imo much better than being bought by a non-tech firm who is only interested in the sales numbers and expectations again, isn’t it?
Another reason to search for more funding is the upcoming competition by Sony and others. Although Morpheus is much likely a PS4-only peripheral and therefore much less interesting to dedicated PC gamers it’s still a tech that could minimize Oculus chances on the mass market. Sony has the resources, the knowledge and the experience to make games hardware like that. The only competitive advantage the Rift had so far was its market initialisation. But it was lacking the funds to actually compete with a company like Sony. Your tech and your knowledge is only so much worth as you can successfully market it and sell it to the people. So maybe with its Facebook sellout the Oculus people got some backlash by their intial funders and some hardcore fans but in the end it’s likely the right strategy to gain mass market potential. And VR needs mass market appeal in order to convince developers to actually make stuff for VR. A nice indie Oculus Rift VR is worthless if they aren’t any games or applications for it.
I personally love the idea of a grassroot tech company like Oculus fully funded by enthusiasts on kickstarter. It’s a nice dream for people not believing in the classical ways of capitalism. But that’s just not the reality we live in. To actually become a reality the Oculus Rift needed ten times as much backers as they had or even a hundred times as much backers. And that just not happened.
@StarkReality: First off: watch your language please.
Second off: How do you come to this conclusion? Just because there is not so much info? That’s like GTA V for PC. Everyone knows it’s coming but nobody has seen it anywhere. Or like the next Assassin’s Creed… well there is always a next Assassin’s Creed (for a loooong time), but nobody knows anything else about that, And since True Player Gear is going to have a Kickstarter in summer, I think as regards marketing it would be stupid to show off all the material you have before Kickstarter. Kickstarter should be exclusive at first. KCD wasn’t any way different. The trailer was known before, but the clip for KS was unique and really showed what they’re trying to accomplish.
hopefully a Oculus Rift support is coming, that would be a nice experience.
I ordered the ORDK2 and the ANTVR . together with the STEM / CONTROL VR controller it might be great feeling and to walk on the OMNI around in the KC world.
Twenty years ago, I was very unhappy when the first VR-wave died. Now a dream comes true! A game like KDC in VR!! Please think of old gamers like me! If I have to wait for another twenty years, I have to buy the stuff with my very low old-age pension!
I am tired to hear the “Occulus sells itselve to the evil”-stuff, again and again. Sometimes I think of young Chinese women, dying from cancer for my cheap smartphone, workers in Indonesia that were burned for my cheap clothes, animals were tortured for my toothpaste, wars were started for my cheap fuel, children in Africa dying for my cheap food or workers in South America being poisoned for having my coffee 1 Euro cheaper per pound.
But I really don’t mind if a great product is saved by the money of a company that tries to steal the information what I plan to have for dinner, tomorrow.
I pledged for Kingdom Come with my main interest in playing this game, being ONLY in Virtual Reality on the Oculus Rift; using either my current DK2, or, more likely a CV1 (Consumer Version 1) by the time the final version of Kingdom Come is released in December 2015 or later.
All I can ask of Warhorse Studios, is PLEASE make this game as compatible as possible with each update of theOculusVR software as possible!
And please, also, create an Android-based trailer that will run on the Samsung-Oculus GearVR headset for the new Galaxy phones; so Kingdom Come will be seen be everyone all over the world when they are trying out the headsets in all of the Samsung store locations world-wide.
If this game had support for Oculus Rift or other VR glasses, it would be one serious reason for me to buy them. There would have to be other nice games to support VR, but it would be the first big step.
Oculus Rift pre-orders went live almost 2 hours ago. It will release in April. Is everyone else as excited as I am?
I really hope this game supports full Oculus integration. VR is the future of immersive gaming, and that should be what Kingdom Come is all about.
I would also love to see future support for the Oculus Touch controllers, I can’t imagine how awesome it will feel to have to swing my arms around to virtual sword fight.
I myself were excited as well, because they said you can use VR with KC:D (even if its not full supported as far i understand). But now as they announced, HOW much Occulus Rift cost, i don’t think i will buy it. 700 Bucks(€) is WAY too much for that thing, and with such a high price i think it will flop. 300-400 as they said back then it would be most likely the price of the thing, was a much amount of money to bit in, but these is insane. And i know a lots of people, who were excited with Occulus Rift, but did Jump off the high price yet. Truth to be told, i like more in spending in new plattform(aka Consoles) or to upgrade my Specs(or save the money to upgrade my whole rig) before to throw it out of the window for such an gimmig. I will wait if the Price Drops, if it will stay like this, then sorry i don’t care about Occulus Rift anymore and hope with Project Morpheus on PS4 or Valve’s Vive i will get a cheaper alternative…
I agree, the sticker shock for a 1st Generation device is always high. Palmer himself said that prices will drop eventually. I’m not usually an early adopter myself, but I’ve spent 2 years backing games on Kickstarter and saving for this. When LCD monitors first came out to replace CRT’s they were well over $1000. For an LCD monitor that isn’t nearly as good as a $100 monitor you can pick up at any store.
It’s not going to flop, it’s just not an every day device yet.
