At a recent Gamescom conference, Oculus VP Nate Mitchell talked about the success of the Oculus launch, though saying there were aspects that the company does regrets. The discussion did move on to topics like future hardware releases, the upcoming launch the Oculus Touch controllers, and rivalries, such as with PlayStation VR and the HTC Vive. On the topic of future hardware, Mitchell essentially said that it’s being worked on, but nothing is happening right now. Speaking on rivalries, he echoed HTC’s statement that the biggest focus in the industry right now was getting VR tech into as many hands as possible. When the conversation shifted to the Gear VR though, things got a bit interesting. For starters, Mitchell made it clear that he thinks that Google Daydream will have to up its game to compete with the Gear VR, not the other way around.
Google’s Daydream VR system is, for the time being, shrouded in mystery. It’s being touted as the be-all of mobile VR, the one great standard that will unite content makers in the mobile space. The issue with those claims however, is that right now, there are no consumer products based on Daydream currently available. The high specs needed for a phone to be Daydream-ready are some indication of what to expect, and the laundry list of high-end developers like Epic Games working hand-in-hand with Google on the platform’s debut speaks volumes, but there is still nothing entirely concrete, and that’s largely the angle that Mitchell takes.
On the Gear VR, Mitchell is quick to point out that the system currently boasts over 1 million users. He also zeroes in on the lack of fragmentation, saying that the Gear VR library can be hyper-optimized because, unlike Daydream, the Gear VR system only has to support a few different pieces of hardware. Gear VR is also of course, backed by Oculus, one of the oldest premium consumer VR systems, which will ensure support for a wide variety of content from a wide variety of developers. Mitchell caps things off on a high note by adding in that, in the mobile space, Gear VR is “far and away the best experience for a while.” While Mitchell notes he will be waiting to see what state Daydream is in at launch, it does seem clear that the emphasis from his perspective is that Daydream will be playing catch-up.