Current VR Isn’t Fun Enough for Nintendo

Nintendo was one of the first companies to dip the toe into the world of virtual reality back in the 90s when they released the Virtual Boy. The headset displayed monochromatic 3D games using a parallax effect, but didn’t gain much traction at the time. It was either to futuristic or not enough and got pulled off the shelves just a couple months after it was released.

Nintendo has since dipped the toe in a little bit more with their 3DS system, but nothing major. Polygon had a chance to talk with Fils-Aime from Nintendo and wanted to hear if they had anything planned. We have after all just seen a lot of other players getting ready with their systems where Oculus Rift probably is the most known among them all.

What they learned was that we shouldn’t expect a Virtual Boy 2 or any other VR system from Nintendo in the near future, they just aren’t fun enough. And he might have a point, current VR technology is more focused on the technical aspects than the fun at gaming and Nintendo is traditionally a company that produces cartoon looking fun and family games.

“We have knowledge of the technical space, and we’ve been experimenting with this for a long, long time,” said Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo America. “What we believe is that, in order for this technology to move forward, you need to make it fun and you need to make it social.”

“I haven’t walked the floor [at E3], so I can’t say in terms of what’s on the floor today, but at least based on what I’ve seen to date, it’s not fun, and it’s not social. It’s just tech.”

Thank you Polygon for providing us with this information

Image courtesy of PlanetVirtualBoy