Microsoft - Could Acquire EA or Valve

Also, no VR are going to replace the TV in any near future, it's way too expensive, you have to buy an headset for each people watching the same thing while you only need one TV for everyone.

"Why would anyone pay ten dollars to fly in that 'aero-plane' contraption when it's easier to ride a locomotive?"

Can someone please save this thread and bring it up in about 10 years?
 
Joined
Apr 5, 2011
Messages
1,748
Location
San Juan Islands, WA
"Why would anyone pay ten dollars to fly in that 'aero-plane' contraption when it's easier to ride a locomotive?"

Can someone please save this thread and bring it up in about 10 years?

Where I live it's cheaper and faster to take an "aero-plane" instead of the locomotive and there is still a lots of people in Europe, India and China who use the locomotive instead of the "aero-plane".
 
Joined
Oct 13, 2007
Messages
7,313
@azarhal;

"Why would anyone pay ten dollars to fly in that 'aero-plane' contraption when it's easier to ride a locomotive?"

Can someone please save this thread and bring it up in about 10 years?

Both you and ChaosTheory make good points. VR is too expensive. The only way most gamers will be able to acquire VR is if someone else buys it for them. But like you point out, VR is an exciting new technology and I don't think it's going away, though I'm personally not all that interested in it. It remains to be seen if mainstream gaming will adopt VR and if VR makers can solve other problems such as many users get motion sickness.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,897
Location
Oregon
I'm kind of on the fence when it comes to VR. The experience of the current tech gives a taste of a remarkable experience, but it's extremely rough around the edges. The question is whether the hardware, and the power required to drive it to the necessary quality, will ever reach a price point that allows it to become mainstream.

The other fundamental problem is that, whatever horsepower you have available, it will always be far more efficient to drive graphics on a monitor than the dual rendering of a headset; that is to say, if you want to push the cutting edge with game graphics, you would always have to cut them down for VR. Until such time as we have GPU power to spare, that's going to be a consideration.
 
Joined
Nov 8, 2014
Messages
12,085
My point is, once you have experienced Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, on a 1080 TI, playing a game like Elite Dangerous, it is hard for me to believe you wouldn't believe that VR is the future of Home Entertainment.

VR is not your smartphone strapped to your head with a cardboard holder. That's ghetto. Also, most HTC Vive and Oculus Rift demos just have you hit fruit with a samurai sword, they do not show you what it's capable of. Why on Earth they use that demo so much…

As is always the case with technology, prices come down, headsets will shrink, cords will go away and it will be affordable to the consumer within 5 years. Whether Microsoft has any plan on doing this, it was only speculation on my part. They would be stupid not to jump in the game again just because their hololens failed.

They may also be panicking after seeing Intel team up with AMD. Apparently, graphics processing is the way of the future in lieu of dedicated CPUs. Dedicated processors are not going to be around much longer as we will simply use higher end graphics cards as artificial intelligence prefers it and the GPU can do both anyway. CPUs are redundant.
 
Joined
Apr 5, 2011
Messages
1,748
Location
San Juan Islands, WA
Well, valve is a private company. So no way to be acquired.

M$ comes and offers a blank check. Gabe sells his soul in addition with his company :D

Steam is a blank cheque, its value is probably grossly underestimated. Microsoft has about what 150 Billion to throw around, frankly I don't think they could afford Steam, not from the perspective of owning Steam. The books may say they have enough to do it but considering the amount Steam makes for the tiny amount of work and non-existent risk even its own bloated books would undervalue it.

Gabe use to work for Microsoft and has no love for them, along with Steam making the kind of money that changes an entire family tree from that point on, money is no longer an issue. Unless there is something very strange behind the scenes Microsoft has a snowball's chance in hell of buying Steam.

Uh, Mindcraft was private and they were acquired. Public or private is irrelevant.

It's absolutely not irrelevant. There's no way to enact a takeover, if the owner/s don't want to sell and say "no" that's the end of it.
 
Joined
Jan 6, 2014
Messages
147
Much of the roughness of VR tech is going to be resolved sooner or later. VR tech will become smaller, more comfortable, cheaper, …
And some problems (e.g., issues for people who wear glasses) will also become easier to deal with (I do not really want to order some plug-ins for my VR set in Taiwan or whatsoever. Nah, thanks.).

Its much harder to resolve the motion sickness issue. That can be reduced to some extent but not fully resolved. I think this is a crucial point, because most of the _really_ interesting types of games will be heavily affected by this. Sure, augmented reality will work just fine (but puts strict limits on what games you can develop). Actual VR on the other hand? No.
Unless they start to hand out a box of anti motion sickness pills with each new set of VR glasses.

Regardless, I doubt that Microsoft will do anything convincing with VR. If they ever buy valve, steamVR is probably dead.
 
Joined
May 18, 2012
Messages
2,315
I do agree that the motion sickness issue is a serious one, and one that simply may not have a solution.

On the point of hardware inevitably catching up, I still think that the moving-target problem is also significant - whatever stage of GPU power we have, it will always be possible to push the envelope further on a monitor, than on a demanding headset. I think that will also be confounding factor, with most people using consoles or modest PCs, even when transposing the situation into the future.
 
Joined
Nov 8, 2014
Messages
12,085
There's definitely a future for VR, I'm just not sure it's primary focus will be gaming, as it is now. I see great potential in education, business and more passive entertainment, like T.V.

For gaming to be much more than a forgotten testing ground that used gaming hobbyists and their eagerly spent money, they need to start making VR games that don't suck 1/10 as hard as they do now.

I know there are exceptions, such as sim games (and Elite Dangerous is pretty much a spaceflight sim). It's good for those, if you have controllers, i.e. HOTAS joystick, with enough buttons so you don't have to look at anything in the real world. And therein lies the primary limitation right now -- controls -- just like how touch screens are limited.

But there are a few good games. Might I recommend X Rebirth VR.
 
Joined
Sep 16, 2010
Messages
4,813
Yes, I think the potential for education and training is enormous. You can see how tours of the solar system, or performing surgery, are only a short step away.

The main use I've found for the Oculus is the boxing game. The workout is serious, and I'd say it's almost certainly better training than shadow boxing. It wouldn't take much more refinement to really help train the sense of timing, distance and movement.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/494150/The_Thrill_of_the_Fight__VR_Boxing/
 
Joined
Nov 8, 2014
Messages
12,085
Heh, I have that boxing game. Well, I think there are 2. I have the good one. :p

Man, I am huffing and puffing after 3 rounds. Good fun, but not always the thing you want to do late at night after a long day. Killing orcs is easier. :p

And again, it's another simulation, essentially.

EDIT: Yeah, that's the one I have….that bald bastard….
 
Joined
Sep 16, 2010
Messages
4,813
Many of you point out (correctly) that many of today's VR barriers will be eliminated or greatly reduced (form, fit, function, price etc.).

Still, I don't think I personally will ever be an adopter of VR… though when it comes to the technology, I find it fascinating. For me, VR falls into the same category as alternative controllers (not that VR is a controller… it just for me falls into this category of controller issues I have) that require you to stand, move, jump etc. For me, gaming is relaxing time, either at my desk in front of my computer or on my couch with a wireless controller. I want to be really comfortable when I game, I don't want to be moving, jumping around, or in the case of VR, have a thing strapped to my face. It just isn't for me personally.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,897
Location
Oregon
Joined
Nov 8, 2014
Messages
12,085
I wish I could bring you guys over to my office here, sit you down and let you play with the Oculus for awhile… I've had probably 30 people see the demos and (try to) play Elite Dangerous, and every one of them were blown away. …and this tech is still in its infancy for the home user.

Couple things I've noticed after using it for HUNDREDS of hours:

1) The motion sickness thing goes away. Your brain gets slowly reprogrammed to 'deal' with the mixed signals. That said, there are ways to lessen the risk by those who make the media/games/movies, etc. For instance, the Chernobyl VR Project made me nauseous because your in-game movement wasn't natural, you couldn't look around in multi-axis (only left/right) and it allowed you to walk sideways for extended periods (BAD idea in VR). In contrast, Elite Dangerous has no plane of reference or horizon since space is 3-D. This should be horrible for motion sickness but it's not because you can move your head around completely, look up/down/behind, etc. That, plus the improved graphics/framerates is more than enough to 'trick' your brain into thinking you're doing what your eyes say you're doing.

Bottom line: Framerate is hugely important, followed by resolution and freedom of movement within the world. Then, it simply takes time for your brain to adjust. Not sure how much, but it's not just a few hours-- maybe a few weeks? It would be a neat research project if somebody wants to fund me…

2) The headset thing isn't as bad as you think it is. Again, if the created world is convincing enough, you immediately forget you're wearing a headset-- and the current stuff is huge/bulky considering what's coming in a few years. I'm not entirely convinced they'll be able to push dual 4k signals through WiFi anytime soon, so cordless will be a few more years off. My only issue is that I get a bit warm and have to have a fan blowing on me.

3) Gaming and educational things are just the tip of the iceberg. Right now, when you watch movies, you're watching a flat screen on the far wall. Imagine being in the scene watching a movie, walking around the actors as they play out their lines/actions. You can stand there, run with them, etc. You can tag along with Gandalf as you walk through the shire… Fly co-pilot in the Millenium Falcon… Find the body of the murder victim before Dana and Scully even walk in the room!

This tech is going to make watching movies on a TV a thing of the past, really quick. It's real, and it's coming soon to a living room near you.
 
Joined
Apr 5, 2011
Messages
1,748
Location
San Juan Islands, WA
Right now, when you watch movies, you're watching a flat screen on the far wall. Imagine being in the scene watching a movie, walking around the actors as they play out their lines/actions. You can stand there, run with them, etc.

This tech is going to make watching movies on a TV a thing of the past, really quick. It's real, and it's coming soon to a living room near you.

And, p-porn?

Wipes sweat off brow
 
Joined
Mar 5, 2016
Messages
151
Well, one of the first things I did with my Oculus was to fire up Elite, before I'd bothered to fish out my joystick setup - I thought I'd have a quick go with mouse and keyboard. Suffice to say, I left the space dock, went into an uncontrolled barrel-roll, and had to go for a little lie down. :p

When it comes to point 3, I can imagine a future where movies are made that way, but that's an awfully large leap in terms of technology and investment, and I wonder if that's a remotely feasible outcome in the foreseeable future.
 
Joined
Nov 8, 2014
Messages
12,085
Well, you can already shoot your own 4k VR at a very affordable price right now. And I was reading how the porn industry, of course, is way ahead of us here. Yes, that''s right, I was just reading about it, so there you go.
 
Joined
Sep 16, 2010
Messages
4,813
Well, so far, those are just rumors and speculations.

But, MS has much better chance to buy EA than buying Valve. EA's shareholders can see only one thing, so i doubt that they will hesitate if a good offer is on the table. Valve, as a private company, can resist any hostile takeover, so whatever offer MS would make, it should be one hell of an offer to be accepted.
 
Joined
Aug 12, 2013
Messages
398
Right now, when you watch movies, you're watching a flat screen on the far wall. Imagine being in the scene watching a movie, walking around the actors as they play out their lines/actions. You can stand there, run with them, etc. You can tag along with Gandalf as you walk through the shire… Fly co-pilot in the Millenium Falcon… Find the body of the murder victim before Dana and Scully even walk in the room!

This tech is going to make watching movies on a TV a thing of the past, really quick. It's real, and it's coming soon to a living room near you.

Sure. Looking at vid products heavily bent toward narration, they went for cinematographic staging as it is how a story is told. Vid products could already provide a mobile point of view. It is not compatible with achieving narrative effects.

VR is very good for devs. It resets the process of making vid products. A stalling process at the moment.
Hidden behind empty promises as there is in the quote.

10 years from now, video gaming will not be better. 10 years will have been bought though.
 
Joined
Mar 29, 2011
Messages
6,265
Back
Top Bottom