Some Daydream View apps and games appear to have low install numbers, and while this is likely just due to the fact that Daydream content as well as the hardware that supports it is still new, some of the content comes from larger publishers who usually have no issues reaching a massive amount of downloads, which might suggest that some of the most anticipated Daydream content isn’t as engaging as both users and their teams of developers and publishers may have hoped. It also might be too early to tell what’s causing the low install numbers, and it needs to be considered that cost could also be a factor in user’s decisions to hold off on buying something.
As an example, EA’s Need For Speed VR which is essentially a virtual reality version (with some slight differences, of course) of Need For Speed No Limits for Android, has only between 1,000 and 5,000 installs. This is one of the newest games available for Daydream, which certainly has some role to play, but it also launched with a rather hefty $19.99 price tag. That cost is now down to $14.99, but even with the $5 price drop it’s still a lot more than most people are used to paying for mobile content, especially when you consider that the mobile version of this game was a free title to install, relying instead on a freemium pay model with in-app purchases to bank the revenue.
This of course, isn’t the only app or game for Daydream which has low numbers. Gunjack 2: End of Shift, another high-profile and highly anticipated game has so far only reached the same amount of installs, and it also carries a high cost of $12.99. To contrast, lower-priced games such as Hunter’s Gate, one of the first available launch titles, only costs $5.99 and has about 5,000 to 10,000 installs, where as free apps, such as The Turning Forest from BBC, as well as Google’s own YouTube VR both have between 10,000 to 50,000 installs and 100,000 to 500,000 installs respectively. Google doesn’t release exact download and install numbers for its content from the Play Store, so the numbers that can be seen which give of a range of install numbers are all there is to go by, and it’s also possible that these numbers aren’t factoring recent installs which may have happened since Christmas when more users may have received the Daydream View. There are other factors to consider as well, such as whether or not the install numbers are accurate. Having said all that, it certainly seems that no matter how high-profile and well-known the publisher or the content is, the high cost may be holding people back, even if the VR content is more premium and truly worth it.