Carmack says VR can’t rely on novelty for long

Virtual reality developers will need to step up and start offering titles that offer more than just a novelty appeal.

That’s according to Oculus CTO and industry veteran John Carmack, who told an audience at Oculus Connect that the appeal of the new cannot be the sole selling point of VR software, Games Industry reports.

"We are coasting on novelty, and the initial wonder of being something people have never seen before,” he said. [Developers] need to be harder on ourselves. We need to start judging ourselves. Not on a curve, but in an absolute sense. Can you do something in VR that has the same value, or more value, than what these other [non-VR] things have done?"

He went on to target several areas of improvement, including loading times. He argued that while for games designed to offer extended gameplay sessions, longer loading times may be acceptable, for VR titles that typically have a more ‘jump-in jump-out’ nature, such design is poisonous”.

Added Carmack: Imagine if your phone took 30 seconds to unlock every time you wanted to use it. You’d use it a lot less. I would say 20 seconds should be an absolute limit on load times, and even then I’m pushing people to get it much, much lower."