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1 In 4 US Teens Say They Play Games On a VR Headset (uploadvr.com) 83

An anonymous reader quotes a report from UploadVR: 1 in 4 U.S. teens told Pew Research Center they play games on a VR headset. The survey was conducted on 1453 U.S. teens aged 13 to 17. Pew claims the participants were "recruited primarily through national, random sampling of residential addresses" and "weighted to be representative of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 who live with their parents by age, gender, race and ethnicity, household income, and other categories." Broken out by gender, 32% of boys and 15% of girls said they play games on a VR headset. The survey doesn't ask whether they actually own the headset, so this will include those who play on a sibling or parent's headset.
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1 In 4 US Teens Say They Play Games On a VR Headset

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  • by rtkluttz ( 244325 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @08:15PM (#64472529) Homepage

    Until they are as open as a computer monitor, I'll refuse to give any of them any money.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      What a stupid comment. That's like saying you refuse to buy a Playstation until it can play XBox games.
      • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

        Refuse to buy either until all game consoles can play all games without signing and connect to open multiplayer. Honestly since flat gaming has essentially matured I'm surprised nobody IS building open gaming consoles.

        • by batkiwi ( 137781 )

          Who would develop for a new console that doesn't have the production scale of msft or sony? Even the steam PC failed.

          • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

            Who would develop for a console that is free to develop for? Indies for one. And since that is where new devs come from I imagine plenty would end up doing so since it is essentially just a gaming PC with a streamlined interface and a fixed hardware target. You are just talking about detecting the platform and loading a preset at that point.

            • The key problem is probably that it will be more expensive than an XBox or PS, simply because that console would lack the cross-financing from the games they hope to sell. Also, a lack of AAA games that get bribed to be console exclusives.

        • A PC is an open gaming console.
        • since flat gaming has essentially matured I'm surprised nobody IS building open gaming consoles.

          When they're open they're called general purpose computers. I have 10, they're pretty cool you can even shitpost on slashdot with them. Highly recommend you check them out.

          • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

            By definition a general purpose computer is not a purpose built gaming console. It does not provide a fixed target for seamless game loading without tweaking settings, you don't have a nice appliance interface for the loading and running of games, accessory and control configs are all over the map.

            Not having to deal with, understand, or worry about any of that is why consoles are so popular. PC's have always been superior in technical terms to consoles.

      • by Shane A Leslie ( 923938 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @09:26PM (#64472643) Homepage Journal

        As someone that owns two different VR helmets I think that your criticism of their statement is unfounded. Making the VR helmet interface standard to be the equivalent of the HDMI connector so that any helmet can plug into any system and provide a VR signal that 'just works'; and having any of a variety of hand devices be Bluetooth enabled and easily configurable should be the minimum that everybody into VR is expecting from everybody that wants to sell us VR products.

        VR interface devices should be like TVs; you should be able to hook then up to any computer's auxiliary output and use them as a vr 'monitor'.

        • As someone that owns two different VR helmets I think that your criticism of their statement is unfounded. Making the VR helmet interface standard to be the equivalent of the HDMI connector so that any helmet can plug into any system and provide a VR signal that 'just works'; and having any of a variety of hand devices be Bluetooth enabled and easily configurable should be the minimum that everybody into VR is expecting from everybody that wants to sell us VR products.

          VR interface devices should be like TVs; you should be able to hook then up to any computer's auxiliary output and use them as a vr 'monitor'.

          Hmmm.

          What's the HDMI standard for Stereoscopic Video?

          • What's the HDMI standard for Stereoscopic Video? OK, there is not one, but at least promise whole-life imprisonment for any member of the USB committee that says a single word in relation to any standard whatever.
            • What's the HDMI standard for Stereoscopic Video?

              OK, there is not one, but at least promise whole-life imprisonment for any member of the USB committee that says a single word in relation to any standard whatever.

              I think your sig sez it all. . . ;-)

          • As someone that owns two different VR helmets I think that your criticism of their statement is unfounded. Making the VR helmet interface standard to be the equivalent of the HDMI connector so that any helmet can plug into any system and provide a VR signal that 'just works'; and having any of a variety of hand devices be Bluetooth enabled and easily configurable should be the minimum that everybody into VR is expecting from everybody that wants to sell us VR products.

            VR interface devices should be like TVs; you should be able to hook then up to any computer's auxiliary output and use them as a vr 'monitor'.

            Hmmm.

            What's the HDMI standard for Stereoscopic Video?

            Isn't that pretty much what people are trying to hint at? There isn't one. There should be. End of line.

            • As someone that owns two different VR helmets I think that your criticism of their statement is unfounded. Making the VR helmet interface standard to be the equivalent of the HDMI connector so that any helmet can plug into any system and provide a VR signal that 'just works'; and having any of a variety of hand devices be Bluetooth enabled and easily configurable should be the minimum that everybody into VR is expecting from everybody that wants to sell us VR products.

              VR interface devices should be like TVs; you should be able to hook then up to any computer's auxiliary output and use them as a vr 'monitor'.

              Hmmm.

              What's the HDMI standard for Stereoscopic Video?

              Isn't that pretty much what people are trying to hint at? There isn't one. There should be. End of line.

              So do we wait for a Committee?

          • The standard is called HDMI.
            HDMI 1.3 worked okay but the bandwidth improvements of HDMI 1.4 allowed much better resolution.
            BTW: You ought to be aware that they sold 3D TV's and Blue-Ray players for years, right?
            The tech worked well.
            Big failure was the exorbitant premium pricing of the 3D versions of movies.
            Worse yet they released very few 3D theater movies to disc.
            Disney/Paramont/Sony greed killed the sales.

            • The standard is called HDMI.
              HDMI 1.3 worked okay but the bandwidth improvements of HDMI 1.4 allowed much better resolution.
              BTW: You ought to be aware that they sold 3D TV's and Blue-Ray players for years, right?
              The tech worked well.
              Big failure was the exorbitant premium pricing of the 3D versions of movies.
              Worse yet they released very few 3D theater movies to disc.
              Disney/Paramont/Sony greed killed the sales.

              What part of the HDMI Standard Defines Stereoscopic Displays?

        • "Plug in"? We had that. It sucked. Tethered VR ultimately failed on the market for good reason. We're pushing wireless now and you know what... We do have that, it's called Open XR and literally every headset on the market supports it.

          We were at a LAN recently and wanted to show someone the Quest 3 compared to the Quest. So we did. I gave him the Quest 3. He put it on, clicked on Virtual Desktop button, saw his computer in the list, clicked it and bam his Steam library available to see and run on his comput

          • Thanks for the info, I guess I got complacent with the wired in Rift S and WMR sets that I've been using for the past few years (still playing the same three games I got when I got them) and fell behind on the state of the art.

      • VR headsets should be treated like monitors. A monitor that works with a Playstation works with an XBox, but a headset does not: see the difference?

        Standardization, if VR ever gets it then the hardware may actually be everywhere.
        • But a vrheadset isn't just a monitor, it also needs to send the tracking information and get information back. And most, if not all, standalone headsets have a way to stream VR to it. So what more do you need?
        • VR headsets should be treated like monitors. A monitor that works with a Playstation works with an XBox, but a headset does not: see the difference?

          Standardization, if VR ever gets it then the hardware may actually be everywhere.

          Not sure what you're complaining about here. The Playstation and Xbox are locked down? A VR headset works on any PC (or Mac). There is an open standard they use called OpenXR. We at our last LAN party already shared VR HMDs between PCs and it was seamless. Though we did have to download the OpenXR driver for the Vive - which like many drivers in 2024 is only distributed with an app.

          Point is, when you have a driver in place you can move seamlessly as you want, all games talking to your devices via the same s

      • Exactly.

        This is why I play on a PC.

    • As in HDMI/DP headsets? There are lots of options. Xreal has a very well reputed line-up.

      • by narcc ( 412956 )

        Xreal has some great hardware. At its best, it feels like you've stepped into the future. Unfortunately, Xreal are operating under the delusion that they're the next Apple and that their goofy Nebula platform is something people actually want. They're not exactly friendly to developers and stubbornly refuse support important standards like OpenXR.

        There has been some reverse engineering work, but it's not quite where it needs to be, leaving third-party efforts with a frustrating amount of drift. This sta

    • The Valve Index and many other PC headsets would fit that description.

    • Well, they are open, you can sideload on the quest and pico, and there are already very excellent games you can play thanx to it.
    • You'll never use VR then. The direction after Quest 2/3/Apple Vision Pro is clear, everything will become a standalone headset, with connections to external computers as at most an afterthought. I assume you've also never had a phone, or a laptop, or any other kind of integrated computing device, perhaps not even a calculator.
    • Which computer monitor? The ones running proprietary G-Sync? The ones locked down by HDCP?

    • by Errabes ( 711809 )

      That standard is named OpenXR.

      Though like many devices, you'll have a hard time finding open-source drivers and VR compositor. But you can have a look at Monado (Open Source, cross-platform XR runtime).

  • by marcobat ( 1178909 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @08:23PM (#64472545)

    The image in the article say "% of teens ages 13 to 17 who say they ever play video games on a ...

    The little word, "ever'" changes everything. They might have played it once and it still counts, I don't beige most teens have embraced VR yes, and i'm not sure they will.

    • Was wondering what the scam was. I hate how everything's a grift now.
    • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

      A word does change everything, like the word 'play' vs 'played', nice try Nancy.

      Embracing VR doesn't mean it suddenly becomes all someone does or their only mode of operation. Fairly sure the overwhelming success of the quest 3 and Apple's overpriced thing have pretty much blown away the 'will VR catch on' nonsense, VR is mainstream.

      • A quick Google says the install base of Quest 3 is about 900k to 1.5 million units. But another article says it might not even be 500k. Apparently Meta isn't releasing numbers and it's really hard to judge.

        That's not really that high. Compared to other products like game consoles that are actually mainstream, and it's really just a drop in the bucket.

        As a comparison, the Ouya sold about 200K units, which kind of shows the scale. If the quest 3 is only a little more popular than the Ouya, why would anyone

    • Eh, if we're dissecting the wording, "do you ever play" (what they asked) is very different from "have you ever played". If a smoker quits smoking, I don't expect them to answer "do you ever smoke" with "yes" just because they have in the past; there's an implied "will you again". But the wording is still more ambiguous and open to interpretation than it ought to be, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of folk said "yes" for the reason you cite.

  • by drainbramage ( 588291 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @08:39PM (#64472571) Homepage

    Just curious, asking for a friend, how many 3D games are there that can be played one handed?

    • I'm pretty sure bonetown can be played one handed...
    • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

      One handed? Hundreds of cheap options for teens.

      For adults there are MUCH better games... like sexlikereal.com and Virt-a-mate. But for adults there are there are things like https://www.aliexpress.us/item... [aliexpress.us], https://www.aliexpress.us/item... [aliexpress.us], and https://www.thehandy.com/ [thehandy.com] which can be used handsfree and syncs to the content. For instance, you could load pretty much any celebrity lookalike into virt-a-mate with passthrough so you can see her going down on you, load up a scene that uses AI to generate a blo

      • One handed? Hundreds of cheap options for teens.

        For adults there are MUCH better games... like sexlikereal.com and Virt-a-mate. But for adults there are there are things like https://www.aliexpress.us/item... [aliexpress.us], https://www.aliexpress.us/item... [aliexpress.us], and https://www.thehandy.com/ [thehandy.com] which can be used handsfree and syncs to the content. For instance, you could load pretty much any celebrity lookalike into virt-a-mate with passthrough so you can see her going down on you, load up a scene that uses AI to generate a blowjob and feel that blowjob. If you want to chat with her and get a little dirty talk in the action there is always Voxta.

        Feel free to follow this NSFW link to see an example of a six axis script controlling a toy simulator, the six axis machine above will move a fleshlight, sleeve, or onahole in the same manner.

        At least, that's what a friend told me.

        OK, just DAMN.................

        • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

          Yeah, lets just say we've come a long way from grandpa's nudie cards, dad's magazine, or even the pornhub of my generation. Porn was the killer app of the internet and porn is the killer app of VR/MR.

          Here is that NSFW link I referenced but forgot to add https://discuss.eroscripts.com... [eroscripts.com].

      • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

        Whoops, forgot the NSFW link

        https://discuss.eroscripts.com... [eroscripts.com]

  • by MindPrison ( 864299 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @09:46PM (#64472677) Journal

    Or a Teen, that was back in the 80s with Commodore 64 ...but ..once a gamer, always a gamer.

    So I can safely say I believe it.
    I had HTC Vive in 2016, with the best graphics card money could buy, it was the first time I've seen actually convincing VR, it was accurate, good tracking, and fluid play. But the setup was horrible, tedious and cables, oh the cables, 3 wall adapters, tons of cables, cables from headphones, from wall adapters, from hub-adapter to headset, from headset (huge 3-in-one cable) and it would frequenly "zone out" if you were not near by the lighthouses or your body would cover one of them.

    And it was such a pain to set up, because windows would sometimes mistake your VR headset for a 2nd monitor, and start up the main display randomly so your main screen would go blank, so yeah - that was a thing that lasted 1 honeymoon period aka 1 month, and then it'd be the most expensive dust collector.

    Not to mention the way it literally ripped the hair left on my head, it was yeah - cumbersome.

    8 years later (last year) I got this idiotic idea of buying a Q3, just "because" and then Steam VR was released on it just 1 day later, and that changed everything for me.

    Now I've been playing VR wirelessly for 6 months, and I can say - VR is finally here. Now it's not a dust gatherer anymore, I do have to say that I play mostly Steam VR via VR Desktop (because it is SO much better at it than Steam Desktop alone), but it's amazing. I get 120 FPS at ultra settings in No Mans Sky (and that game runs 4.5K in Quest 3 VR).

    After you've played similar stuff with the new pancake lenses and MUCH wider FOV, and the feeling of total freedom, just pick your headset up anywhere in the house, it remembers up to 15 rooms.... yeah, there's no going back now. I actually do believe VR is the future of gaming now. because I use it every day.

  • by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @10:38PM (#64472767)

    They are lying. All VR headsets, aside from the Bigscreen Beyond -- which very few own, are VERY heavy. There is no way 90% of humans can last more than 20 minutes with a VR headset on their head. Max is 27.2 minutes by a guy with a fat face and neck. And btw, I own an Apple Vision Pro .. and used it only a few times in the first week, never for longer than 15 minutes and that's when though I have pretty strong neck muscles and facial pain tolerance.

    • They are lying. All VR headsets, aside from the Bigscreen Beyond -- which very few own, are VERY heavy. There is no way 90% of humans can last more than 20 minutes with a VR headset on their head. Max is 27.2 minutes by a guy with a fat face and neck. And btw, I own an Apple Vision Pro .. and used it only a few times in the first week, never for longer than 15 minutes and that's when though I have pretty strong neck muscles and facial pain tolerance.

      Oh Come On!!! I'm tired of this bullshit.

      SuperKendall claims to use his Vision Pro for several hours per day to do Dev. Work. He said after about 3.5 hours, he takes a break for a few minutes to go to the bathroom and stretch his neck. That's about as long as most people care to stare continuously at any display!

      Importantly, at 600-650 grams (1.3 -1.4 pounds; or a 1 month-old kitten), The AVP is right in the herd of VR Headsets. Some are even heavier, and the Quest 3 is only 100 g. (3.5 oz.; or 1/2 a kitten

      • Here is the Kitten-Weight Chart:

        https://petloversarena.com/kit... [petloversarena.com]

      • by narcc ( 412956 )

        SuperKendall claims [...]

        SuperKendall wouldn't care if it was 70 pounds and held in place with nails driven into his skull. If 3.5 hours is his limit, that's really saying something.

        If you honestly can't stand the weight of [...]

        The problem with the VisionPro, as we've heard from countless owners and reviewers, isn't the weight so much as how the weight is distributed. Anyone with a Quest 2 or Quest 3, after upgrading to one of the better third-party head straps, can tell you what a remarkable difference proper weight distribution makes. (The official Elite straps aren't grea

        • SuperKendall claims [...]

          SuperKendall wouldn't care if it was 70 pounds and held in place with nails driven into his skull. If 3.5 hours is his limit, that's really saying something.

          Bullshit.

          If you honestly can't stand the weight of [...]

          The problem with the VisionPro, as we've heard from countless owners and reviewers, isn't the weight so much as how the weight is distributed. Anyone with a Quest 2 or Quest 3, after upgrading to one of the better third-party head straps, can tell you what a remarkable difference proper weight distribution makes. (The official Elite straps aren't great. I can recommend the Kiwi design straps.)

          Have you tried it with the Top Strap?

          Also, the AVP Design is such that Third Party Straps are supported (no pun).

          any "discomfort" should go away with a few weeks' use.

          That's more than a little unreasonable, don't you think? That might be fine for the VR enthusiast, but not for the average person. There really isn't anything in VR worth suffering a stiff neck for a few weeks. Even some of the better productivity stuff isn't worth the headache.

          I dunno; you tell me: You're the one that says only a prime specimen of humanity should be able to even make

    • You're completely wrong. I'm not a fatneck and with my HTC Vive Pro (1) with wireless module, I can play hours on end, 6 hours is the longest so far and that was cut short due to it just being late, not because I felt tired from wearing the headset. Also own a Pico 4, and that one is also light as F and can be worn for long times, I have worn that one many times now until the battery just died (which is at about 2.5 hours), but haven't tried longer with a powerbank yet (as I only have the headset for about
    • They are lying. All VR headsets, aside from the Bigscreen Beyond -- which very few own, are VERY heavy. There is no way 90% of humans can last more than 20 minutes with a VR headset on their head. Max is 27.2 minutes by a guy with a fat face and neck.

      LOL. You have a piss weak neck. 20min isn't even enough to get you through an After The Fall campaign, or enough to finish a round of Walkabout Minigolf. Yet people have no problem finishing campaigns there, nor an issue with starting another afterwards.

      90% of humans don't have neck muscle atrophe. Get yourself checked. No seriously, I'm not poking fun at you here. This is something that I would definitely go see a physio about, weak neck muscles can lead to a lot of heath problems later in life.

    • I've been in our military. Marching for miles with the old school metal helmets.

      That VR headset is barely a cap compared to that neckbreaker.

    • There is no way 90% of humans can last more than 20 minutes with a VR headset on their head. Max is 27.2 minutes by a guy with a fat face and neck.

      I'm imagining that guy breaking the record, then ripping the headset from his wide head, smiling like the simpleton Lenny from Of Mice And Men. "Did I wear it right, George?" Hilarious imagery.

  • The other three were not immediately available for comment because they were too busy vomiting
  • I have a hard time believing 25% of teens are using VR headsets, I'm not sure they really the prevalent but I'm a fossil so I may be out of touch with the hip trends the kids are yeeting these days, eh?

    But honestly, it just seems a bit of a stretch- I'd expect a LOT more coverage of VR headsets in the media and advertising if that many people were using them, especially teens.

  • by TwistedGreen ( 80055 ) on Wednesday May 15, 2024 @12:59AM (#64472965)

    This is like saying 1 in 4 US Teens read the Wall Street Journal because they saw a copy once. Nice try. It's almost like this "UploadVR" site has some kind of agenda...

  • by XO ( 250276 )

    ...why are nearly 100% of the people in multiplayer VR environments somewhere around 6 years old?

  • 1 in 5 cannot use them at all or only for extremely short periods - which is why they will never be universal

  • by dohzer ( 867770 )

    What about me? I play games on my PC using a VR headset as a display. Does that count?

  • 1 in 4 teenagers got laid last night.

  • Wither science and reason.
  • The questions asked make it kindof vague what they mean.
    The specific question was: "Do you ever play video games on any of the following devices?", with VR amongst the answers.
    So every teen that has ever tried a HMD will of course answer that they do. Because they think this is about them and VR makes them look hip.
    So this is going to be a very very skewed statistic and imo you can't conclude the same thing as the title of this article suggests.

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