At the Quo Vadis Games Developer Conference held in Berlin last month, an expert discussion group stated that developers must enter the emerging market of VR games (virtual reality games) with a “red heart, ready for both hands†and keep their own articles. After the road. The market is indeed profitable, but betting on the consumer gaming market is a "dangerous business."
The panel’s view was inspired by an article by independent game developer Joe Radak. In this article, Laidak describes his experience of trying to make money through the VR game Light Repair Team #4 (for HTC Vive platform). Although Raidak paid attention, he eventually lost $36,000.
In an article, Laidak wrote: "From a businessperson's point of view, VR developers can be described as stupid, idiot and reckless. VR's prospects are very bright. To succeed in the VR market, you must do Stupidity, idiots, and recklessness. Without the reckless vigor, if companies such as Oculus or Intel don't fund developers to ease their financial blows, VR simply can't last long.â€
For developer Adam Streck, this article by Ladakh is thought-provoking. Streck and his team received 30,000 Euros (about 225,600,000 yuan) in investment and developed the "Duel VR" game for the HTC Vive platform. But nine months later, just one week after the game was on, Straker acknowledged that the funds had “nearly leftâ€.
Streck smiled and said: "If we don't develop VR games, we can certainly use this investment to make more money. In short, as a freelance developer, this is a very bad investment. Now we can only send I hope to regain investment and continue to operate the project. This is a multiplayer VR game. At present, the size of the market is not very large. We hope to have a place in this market.â€
Streker also said: "We hope to transform itself into a VR game development studio through this project, but we don't expect money from this project to sustain the studio's long-term operations. If you are thinking about making money now, then The direction is wrong."
Sara Lisa Vogl is the designer of “Lucid Trips†game (for HTC Vive). At the conference, she stated that although the sales momentum of this game is not very good, she And its development team is still updating the game. Today, Vogel spends half of his time on game development and half of his time spent setting up collaborative workspaces in some European cities and launching a new project called “VR Baseâ€.
Fogel said that as a pioneer in the field of VR games, this is also a way to make full use of its VR experience. But more importantly, create a "secondary revenue source." She said: "The VR market is still in an early stage of development. We have a lot of experience and contacts that can be used to attract investment. There are many strategic partners who hope to promote the development of the market, and we can wish them a hand."
Fogel also said that for most developers, the first game (even the first few games) is best used as a "touchstone." She said: "The development of the first batch of VR games is more about learning, iteratively upgrading, and exchanging opinions with others rather than making profits. Creating a brand and learning some knowledge is what the early games should do."
Of course, there are some fortunate players, such as Job Simulator, which have been profitable. But this is a minority after all. Most VR games are not yet profitable.
In contrast, the other two panelists’ attitudes towards VR games are relatively optimistic. Independent developer Thomas Bedenk believes that the future of the VR game market is absolutely guaranteed.
Bidanko said: "There is no doubt that this will be a huge market. Look at VR and AR. Almost all areas can be applied."
But Bidanko also emphasized that many industries are currently interested in VR. For example, some consumer brands want to use VR as a marketing tool. For developers, it is also necessary to improve their VR development skills.
VR application development company Force Field has more than 80 developers in Amsterdam and has developed a multiplayer VR war game "landfall" for the Oculus Rift platform. The company has achieved profitability.
The company's co-founder Martin de Ronde (Martin de Ronde) said: "The revenue that feeds us more than 80 people all comes from the VR industry. This market has a lot of money, but you need to pay attention to different areas: Hardware manufacturers have relevant budgets, Brand manufacturers also have to enter the VR market."
Dirond also said: "Putting all the money into the consumer market will have some risks. If you have to invest in the consumer market, the amount will be small. Or like us, cooperate with the hardware manufacturers, and then push the content to market."
Dirond said: “We entered the VR market in 2014. At that time, no one knew which type of game VR technology was suitable for. To control risk, we could not put all the eggs in one basket. In cooperation with manufacturers, we must cooperate with multiple companies; we must not only develop one type of game and develop multiple types of games; we should not only concentrate on the game, but also research on location-based entertainment, theme parks, and brand-oriented B2B businesses. In short, keep testing the water."
Di Longde finally said: "We really want to 'red heart, ready to go' and leave a trail for ourselves. I think this is very necessary. A studio only develops a game and puts all the money into it. Which is feasible? You can go to the casino to try one: Bet 27 each time to see what will happen!"
Original Electronics Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. , https://www.original-te.com