VR at Game Developer’s Conference 2017

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VR at Game Developers Conference 2017
Game Developers Conference is that global
platform where great ideas are exchanged to
create innovative products, investors and
marketers galore to showcase their independent
games and most importantly a solid platform for
virtual reality. This year the GDC kicked off
from February 27, 2017 to March 3, 2017 at San
Francisco and we can say that this was the best
week ever for Virtual reality. The major
highlights of the GDC 2017 were.
Sony revealed that the official sales of
PSVR(PlayStation VR) headsets in the year 2016
was 915,000 units up to February 19, 2017. Sony
launched its headsets in October 2016 with a mere
price of 399. Later their target of selling 1
million headsets was achieved and the company
also affirmed that the sales will grow in the
coming months as they will launch it in Latin
America. Facebook announced a 100 price cut on
the Oculus Rift and Oculus Touch controllers
where the all in price for the system came
down to 600. The whole strategy is to attract
more and more people. Less the prices of the
hardware more will be the people buying it.
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Even though expensive, HTC Vive headsets are one
of its kind and are surely not affordable to
anyone. But this year HTC gave its users a
chance to buy their headsets in instalments. It
announced a payment plan in which you can take
your favourite Vive just for 66 a month and that
tool for 12 months. Sounds good right!! This will
be more helpful to average consumers as they
will need less upfront expenditure.
As a VR gamer, we are always enthusiastic of what
new will be announced each passing year. Keeping
this enthusiasm in mind, thrilling new titles
were announced at GDC which included From Other
Suns- A Multiplayer Starship Simulator,
Arktika.1 which showed some amazing off-deep
stories and mind-blowing visuals. Sprint
Vector was another game which was introduced
which used the fluid locomotion system as its key
factor. The much awaited Robo Recall was
launched by Epic for free on Oculus home. The
Robo Recall allows the user to control the
various aspects like the sounds, environment and
physics. Microsoft introduced Windows
holographic VR headsets. It highlights the real
need of multi-tasking as one can watch movies,
play games at the same time, can check the
current weather forecast and can handle his
social media accounts. And for your surprise,
this happens in a go.
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As a part of VR family, we are delighted for the
advancements that are taking place in the VR
world. And for everyone out there who has been
dreaming of this day for decades, it wouldnt be
wrong to say that there has never been a better
time to be part of the VR family. With GDC
ending on such a good note, VR has actually found
a stronger place than ever. The industry is now
more powerful, more appealing and more
accessible than it has ever been before. So for
now, just relish the moment and enjoy the
feeling.