The virtual reality (VR) landscape is growing at unprecedented rates. And the recent announcement of Facebook changing its name to Meta and shifting its efforts to the new metaverse trend is only making VR technology gain more weight in the industry.
Virtual reality is taking digital technologies one step further and 2022 could be the year when consumers finally begin to embrace VR technology. Take an industry like casinos, which had to adapt to the digital environment by introducing online casinos that have become so popular as to be reviewed by numbers on platforms that allow players to benefit from the same entertainment of a land-based casino but from the comfort of their homes. Online casinos now have state-of-the-art games like slots that manage to give users a superior game experience than what they can find in physical casinos.
The next step for online casinos in the virtual reality industry would give suit them with technology capable of offering their clients an even more immersive gaming experience. To enjoy the games not only thru the keyboard or mobile screens but thru their own eyes.
And perhaps the greatest challenge for virtual reality will be to integrate other industries into their zone of influence the same way as it has managed to do with the gaming industry.
The ground is set for businesses and companies to be the next great benefactors of VR as the increase of telework in the past months will have as consequence the further digitalization of companies in order to maintain the productivity of working places at home.
Facebook’s project called Horizon points towards this direction, as it will allow Meta users to have an online space where meetings will be able to take place thanks to the help of avatars. Avatars will be able to work and present projects online in a more compelling way than with the traditional video conference apps.
At present, virtual reality’s main partners are the headsets with which a person can experience escaping into virtual worlds to play games, exercise, or even attend business meetings.
The hardware has experienced fascinating improvements. In the early stages, VR headsets were seen as expensive pieces of hardware that didn’t justify the investment. Low-quality graphics, heavy headsets, and an uncomfortable set of wires made the whole VR experience not very enjoyable.
All the downsides of past VR headsets now seem buried as companies like Facebook, HP and Sony have launched very powerful hardware that’s set to revolutionize the industry in 2022.
Facebook acquired the company Oculus back in 2014, a move that already signaled the will of the social network giant for their future. Now, they have launched the Oculus Quest 2 and it’s become the best standalone VR headset in terms of quality and price.
A completely wireless headset with foam covers that allow greater comfort, motion tracking, high-resolution display, and built-in speakers are some of the specs that make the Oculus the best option in the market for a VR headset. The most notable downside of the Oculus is that being part of the “Meta metaverse”, it’s attached to Facebook’s privacy policy and if you rather keep your online sessions private, it might not be the best headset as different news reported that Meta can record every session on the Oculus.
But there are many alternatives and more will appear over the year. Recently, HP launched their pair of VR headsets that make an entrance to the market as being the piece of hardware with the best resolution. This is a big advantage for gamers and knowing that the resolution specs would suit this industry, HP developed a bridge with Steam, the biggest marketplace for videogames.
And in case you still want to wait for the next big VR, Sony is set to launch their new PlayStation VR in 2022. It will be made specifically for the new PS5, and this means that users will be able to enjoy the vast game library of the console which is something that the rest of VR’s can’t offer.
It will be soon until other big tech companies start venturing into the virtual reality world, like Apple, and other companies like Samsung and Google will surely want to make a big return after the failure of projects like the Samsung Gear VR and the Google Daydream. The VR “mania” is just starting.
