Steam Gauge: What VR games are popular with HTC Vive’s early adopters

One month in, Ars analysis shows what people are buying and playing in VR.

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[akurczyn]

Thanks for the summary, I'm keeping an eye on other users experience before jumping into VR. I'm still not entirely buying the idea but oddly enough, my wife and kids love it and are asking for one.

 

[MosquitoBait]

Thanks for the summary, I'm keeping an eye on other users experience before jumping into VR. I'm still not entirely buying the idea but oddly enough, my wife and kids love it and are asking for one.

It is worth every penny to just stand in the intro tutorial room and actually feel like you're there in a different place.

If you don't want to mount the lighthouses permanently, a couple of quality camera lighting tripods and ball joints are only an extra $50-$60 on top, and then you can rearrange the setup whenever you want without leaving holes in your wall.

 

[fitten]

Audioshield is fun to play.

In The Lab, the Castle Defense game is fun as well... very cool... you're shooting a bow and can use the nearby braziers to light your arrows on fire before shooting them. It's pretty cool moving up to look down off the tower you're on and shooting the enemies from above.

 

[Genetix]

A lot of people are still waiting to get there headsets. Great data for the first month, I imagine we will see the grow each month for awhile - and then spike during the holiday season.

Great article - look forward to more in the future as things continue to develop.

 

[Elgonn]

The average playtime is pretty abysmal across the board. I was hoping there would be some standout game.

 

[HiroTheProtagonist]

Elgonn[/url]":1d2r1kft]The average playtime is pretty abysmal across the board. I was hoping there would be some standout game.

To be fair, it's a relatively new technology that hasn't had a chance to really develop into something with length. The first movies were maybe 30 seconds in length, but it didn't take long for the technology to produce minute-long and eventually hours-long material. Soon enough, someone will create truly long and engaging VR material.

By the same token, the Vive is also a fairly kinetic experience, so the average user might get tired after an hour or so of play, plus there's the general disorientation that comes from switching between reality and VR.

 

[Rainbird]

Full disclosure, I've been buying a few Vive games without actually owning a unit yet; it's my way of investing in VR (Plus, not having to pay for software at the same time as I eventually splash for a brand new PC + Vive)

 

[mpfaff]

Surgeon Simulator VR has one short surgery and that's it, and it's free.

VR is still small and most of the games are collections of minigames or are a bit one note themselves. Elite Dangerous is one of the few full fledged games in VR and it has issues at the moment with the Vive.

Also I'm guessing from the similarity in numbers between tilt brush and fantastic contraption it would be safe to say that HTC has moved about 38,000 Vives so far.

 

[Zak]

The article picture illustrates pretty much why I'm not interested in VR yet: too many pieces and too many cables. I can't deal with that mess no matter how awesome the experience is.

 

[Quatre707]

The average playtime is short because most launch titles especially room scale titles are short. Plus most of us are playing all the various games so we can provide feedback. There's so much untapped potential. I look forward to games like boxing, virtual table-top-like real time strategy, and of course all the creative original ideas game designers think up.

I've loved every minute of gameplay using my vive and i've played most of the room scale titles and just love moving around to play.

 

[mitEj]

I have one and probably my favorite personally is space pirate trainer. My favorite to show other people are the archery in the lab and The Blue (specifically the Blue whale experience)

I am enjoying a lot of the games but I picked up quite a few and I am sampling them for short periods of time to find the ones I like best.

Also a few of them have greater room space requirements than others and it makes them tough to try out properly. ( I am looking at you Vanishing Realms)

All and all I and everyone I have showed it too have really enjoyed it.

 

[mitEj]

Quatre707[/url]":1oijicy4]The average playtime is short because most launch titles especially room scale titles are short. Plus most of us are playing all the various games so we can provide feedback. There's so much untapped potential. I look forward to games like boxing, virtual table-top-like real time strategy, and of course all the creative original ideas game designers think up.

I've loved every minute of gameplay using my vive and i've played most of the room scale titles and just love moving around to play.

I want a miniatures RTS/Battle game using a map like the Archery Demo in the Lap that you can step into one of the heroes at any time in the battle. How awesome would a Warhammer game like that be ?

 

[samred]

mitEj[/url]":252cnmpf]

Quatre707[/url]":252cnmpf]The average playtime is short because most launch titles especially room scale titles are short. Plus most of us are playing all the various games so we can provide feedback. There's so much untapped potential. I look forward to games like boxing, virtual table-top-like real time strategy, and of course all the creative original ideas game designers think up.

I've loved every minute of gameplay using my vive and i've played most of the room scale titles and just love moving around to play.

I want a miniatures RTS/Battle game using a map like the Archery Demo in the Lap that you can step into one of the heroes at any time in the battle. How awesome would a Warhammer game like that be ?

Flight Control isn't a full-scale RTS by any stretch, but it does offer this exact jump-in-shoes twist.

 

[gijames1225]

Elgonn[/url]":x47xit6m]The average playtime is pretty abysmal across the board. I was hoping there would be some standout game.

Does Elite: Dangerous support the Vive yet? Or is it only for Oculus at this point.

 

[Jurrasic]

gijames1225[/url]":2ounmbzz]

Elgonn[/url]":2ounmbzz]The average playtime is pretty abysmal across the board. I was hoping there would be some standout game.

Does Elite: Dangerous support the Vive yet? Or is it only for Oculus at this point.

Believe me, it supports it. However it's been sold for a long time both on steam and off it, and there dosen't seem to be a clear distinction between VR and non VR so likely dosen't show well on this type of chart.

My bro's unit arived last week, Audioshield, The Lab and Space Pirate have been getting the lion's share of non-Elite Dangerous gametime.

*edit* clarified my statement re: ED on Steam.

 

[Elgonn]

gijames1225[/url]":292o0gck]

Elgonn[/url]":292o0gck]The average playtime is pretty abysmal across the board. I was hoping there would be some standout game.

Does Elite: Dangerous support the Vive yet? Or is it only for Oculus at this point.

I checked for it specifically and didn't see it in the list. Anecdotally it gets the most played time by far among friends.

 

[Genetix]

Zak[/url]":1i7hg6di]The article picture illustrates pretty much why I'm not interested in VR yet: too many pieces and too many cables. I can't deal with that mess no matter how awesome the experience is.

The Vive is amazing - but also probably the most complicated VR solution to setup (at the consumer level).

The Oculus Rift might be a lot better solution for you - it is significantly easier to setup and doesn't even require any power slots. Just plug in a USB cable and an HDMI cable and go.

 

[tfx2]

HiroTheProtagonist[/url]":xtc52cez]

Elgonn[/url]":xtc52cez]The average playtime is pretty abysmal across the board. I was hoping there would be some standout game.

To be fair, it's a relatively new technology that hasn't had a chance to really develop into something with length. The first movies were maybe 30 seconds in length, but it didn't take long for the technology to produce minute-long and eventually hours-long material. Soon enough, someone will create truly long and engaging VR material.

By the same token, the Vive is also a fairly kinetic experience, so the average user might get tired after an hour or so of play, plus there's the general disorientation that comes from switching between reality and VR.

Space Pirate Trainer, Holopoint, Holoball, and similar are like this. It feels like you've been playing for much longer than the ten to twenty minutes its actually been. In the case of Audioshield, it's much easier to get sucked in for an hour or so, but you're going to be limited by your fitness.

The games on my current regular playlist are SPT, Holopoint, Holoball, and Audioshield, and I am spending about an hour and half to two hours each night divided between them.

 

[Causality]

Given my very poor experiences with Cardboard and Gear VR not adjusting enough for my nearsightedness, I very much look forward to the day I can spend fifty bucks and rent a Vive setup for a weekend. A lot of people including me are scared to spend $800 and find out they get a headache after 20 minutes or get motion sick or just can't quiiitee get it to focus right for their eyes. 60-second store demonstrations just aren't going to cut it.

 

[gijames1225]

Jurrasic[/url]":7913prsc]

gijames1225[/url]":7913prsc]

Elgonn[/url]":7913prsc]The average playtime is pretty abysmal across the board. I was hoping there would be some standout game.

Does Elite: Dangerous support the Vive yet? Or is it only for Oculus at this point.

Believe me, it supports it. But it's not through Steam, so dosen't count for this case.

My bro's unit arived last week, Audioshield, The Lab and Space Pirate have been getting the lion's share of non-Elite Dangerous gametime.

Thanks, it seemed like the obvious Elder Scrolls of VR right now, but I figured it must not be the Steam version or that would be reflected here.

 

[FailCondition]

Jurrasic[/url]":37kr2hww]

gijames1225[/url]":37kr2hww]

Elgonn[/url]":37kr2hww]The average playtime is pretty abysmal across the board. I was hoping there would be some standout game.

Does Elite: Dangerous support the Vive yet? Or is it only for Oculus at this point.

Believe me, it supports it. But it's not through Steam, so dosen't count for this case.

My bro's unit arived last week, Audioshield, The Lab and Space Pirate have been getting the lion's share of non-Elite Dangerous gametime.

Elite is most definitely on Steam.

 

[Roguish]

I was dead-set on holding off on VR until the next generation. Then I got the free Gear VR when I bought my S7 Edge.

As simple and pixelated as that thing is, it's still mind-blowing, and it's made me strongly reconsider my previous stance. Now I'm compelled to schedule a demo at Best Buy (luckily there's one just a few miles away) to see how the Rift compares.

 

[SiberX]

I received my Vive on the 3rd and have been using it nearly every day since. I had people over to demo it every day I've been home since except for the last couple, so my playtime is spread very evenly between the ~20 titles in my games list as different individuals try out the experiences they're most interested in.

Personally, I have found The Lab is a fantastic introduction to VR that lacks sufficient depth (by design!) for extended play by an owner of the headset. I find I've spent most of my time on the device so far in Fantastic Contraption, Space Pirate Trainer and Windlands. The budget cuts demo is top notch, and were it a full released game I would've probably spent nearly all my time in that - I expectantly await the completed title!

Indie developers have done a heroic job of putting compelling experiences up on Steam so far, but they're still constrained by limited budgets and short development cycles in terms of producing lengthy, deep experiences. The technology itself is no gimmick, and I'm even more excited today for the potential available for new games than I was before I got the Vive. There's not much (other than Hover Junkers) out so far that supports multiplayer of any sort, and I think there's huge potential for shared cooperative multiplayer games (exploration, puzzle solving, asymmetric) that have (at this point) no titles available.

The future is very exciting!

 

[Buran]

FailCondition[/url]":3iqqixum]

Jurrasic[/url]":3iqqixum]

gijames1225[/url]":3iqqixum]

Elgonn[/url]":3iqqixum]The average playtime is pretty abysmal across the board. I was hoping there would be some standout game.

Does Elite: Dangerous support the Vive yet? Or is it only for Oculus at this point.

Believe me, it supports it. But it's not through Steam, so dosen't count for this case.

My bro's unit arived last week, Audioshield, The Lab and Space Pirate have been getting the lion's share of non-Elite Dangerous gametime.

Elite is most definitely on Steam.

And Ars keeps ignoring it while mentioning random crapware games most of us have never heard of while plenty of us want to know how well Elite works with the final shipping headsets. There were plenty of articles about Elite and various tech, including test versions of the Oculus, in the past. The silence now that the final headsets are out is very strange.

Elite is the only game I want an Oculus or Vive for (don't know which yet) and the lack of a review is bizarre. Job Simulator? No thanks. My real job gives me plenty of that kind of boredom.

 

[zobeid]

Those chart positions seem downright weird to me. Are you sure this thing is working?

The Lab at #1, I can understand. I think I've spent more time in it than anything else too. For the most part I blame "Slingshot", although there are quite a few other amusing diversions in there.

Surgeon Simulator VR? I hadn't even heard of this. Doesn't sound too hot to me, but I guess I'll have to check it out. Heaven Island Life and Water Bears VR are also complete mysteries to me. Lots of unfamiliar names all over this chart, for that matter.

And then, if I'm counting right. . . Cloudlands Minigolf is waaaay down at #45 on the chart? I thought it was one of the major Vive games. It's right below the listing for Blarp! And Blarp is, well. . . It's not bad, but it's kind of trivial for a stand-alone game. Blarp wouldn't be out of place as a mini-game in The Lab.

 

[rockclimbingfool]

Roguish[/url]":235ahc8v]I was dead-set on holding off on VR until the next generation. Then I got the free Gear VR when I bought my S7 Edge.

As simple and pixelated as that thing is, it's still mind-blowing, and it's made me strongly reconsider my previous stance. Now I'm compelled to schedule a demo at Best Buy (luckily there's one just a few miles away) to see how the Rift compares.

I too have the Gear VR. I think the Gear VR is good enough (espeically for only $100 on top of something i was buying anyway) to demonstrate the potential of VR and have some fun.

I am very exited for revision 2 of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. That is when i will jump in, build a computer and set aside a room in the house for VR.

 

[zobeid]

Elite: Dangerous is actually the only game I've bought that I have a bit of a gripe against. I guess I may have made a mistake in waiting for the Vive and not getting into the game earlier. It's not an easy game to get into. It seems like you have to set up an account, and then learn the basics of controls and gameplay outside of VR, and then figure out how to map all the controls to a gamepad, and THEN you can try playing it using the Vive. So that's actually a pretty big set of hurdles for somebody wanting to get into the game. All the other Vive games have been designed so I could put on the headset and dive right in.

 

[Kyle Orland]

zobeid[/url]":3rxr6v7z]Those chart positions seem downright weird to me. Are you sure this thing is working?

The Lab at #1, I can understand. I think I've spent more time in it than anything else too. For the most part I blame "Slingshot", although there are quite a few other amusing diversions in there.

Surgeon Simulator VR? I hadn't even heard of this. Doesn't sound too hot to me, but I guess I'll have to check it out. Heaven Island Life and Water Bears VR are also complete mysteries to me. Lots of unfamiliar names all over this chart, for that matter.

And then, if I'm counting right. . . Cloudlands Minigolf is waaaay down at #45 on the chart? I thought it was one of the major Vive games. It's right below the listing for Blarp! And Blarp is, well. . . It's not bad, but it's kind of trivial for a stand-alone game. Blarp wouldn't be out of place as a mini-game in The Lab.

Some of the positions were inflated because they were included with Vive development kits, it turns out. But yeah, some games just aren't doing as well as you might expect, while others are doing way better even if you haven't heard of them.

And Water Bears was free for a while, which I mentioned in the text.

 

[Grashnak]

I spent a couple of hours at my friend's house while he demoed it for me. I must say, the potential is obvious. I spent some time in first person, wandering some dungeon hallways and fighting a couple of primitive skeletons. The gameplay was nothing to cheer about, but the experience was totally immersive. Once the gameplay catches up and you can play something like Diablo 3 in first person VR, it will be unbelievable.

When I see where this initial tech is, I salivate at the thought of where it will be in 5 years.

 

[grendel151]

I'm waiting for a couple things. One is a steam sale. There's not many reviews I'm finding out there, and I don't want to spend a lot of money trying to figure out for myself what's good and bad. That and I simply don't have the time to spend figuring out for myself what's good and bad. Also, just getting the headset put a huge dent in the game budget.

Second is more seated / standing scale games. Those are honestly want I want to play, I got a Vive over the Rift because it has more options and because Facebook.

I'll probably get Elite Dangerous when it goes on sale, and a number of other games, but none of them are compelling enough right now for me to pay full price. Well, except the free ones. I'm also not too hot on Elite after the whole "Yes there will be standalone mode! Wait, nope, we lied."

I'm betting you'll see a lot more games being experimented with after the first Steam Sale that's out when people actually have the hardware.

 

[KT421]

gijames1225[/url]":btn7pyz4]

Elgonn[/url]":btn7pyz4]The average playtime is pretty abysmal across the board. I was hoping there would be some standout game.

Does Elite: Dangerous support the Vive yet? Or is it only for Oculus at this point.

Elite certainly is supported. But there's no way for Steam Gauge to distinguish VR and non-VR players, much less those who purchased Elite outside of Steam.

While the numbers of units moved may or may not be impressive based on whatever benchmark you're using, there are two things to keep in mind:

1) Not all preorder units have been shipped. It's hard to say what the adoption rate is until they've filled all the preorders, supplied retailers, and retailers can keep a unit or two on the shelves. Only then will we know what the demand really was and what kind of install base we're looking at.

2) It's really, really unlikely that the install base is going to reach a point where AAA titles will be developed exclusively for VR. There just won't be enough people to buy the game to make it worth it. Instead, the future of VR games lies along the lines of Elite, or the upcoming Obduction, where it can be played on a screen or in VR, depending on your hardware and what you feel like at the time. Developing VR as an add-on is much more palatable to investors than as an exclusive, because the potential for big profits for VR exclusives just isn't there.

 

[Grashnak]

grendel151[/url]":2qg15l1i]I'm waiting for a couple things. One is a steam sale. There's not many reviews I'm finding out there, and I don't want to spend a lot of money trying to figure out for myself what's good and bad. That and I simply don't have the time to spend figuring out for myself what's good and bad. Also, just getting the headset put a huge dent in the game budget.

Not be put too fine a point on it, but if it was a financial burden to buy a headset to go with your $1000 VR gear and your high-end PC, then you may not be the ideal early adopter.


Edit: I just realized I totally misunderstood what you meant by "headset". You were actually talking about the Vive, I now realize, and not a "headset" as we usually mean it. Sorry, my bad.

 

[trs8]

I've a Vive and several games. Most of the games I enjoy are early access and don't have the content quantity yet to complete on a game time basis as fully released games.

 

[groghunter]

KT421[/url]":2ngvyguy]
2) It's really, really unlikely that the install base is going to reach a point where AAA titles will be developed exclusively for VR. There just won't be enough people to buy the game to make it worth it. Instead, the future of VR games lies along the lines of Elite, or the upcoming Obduction, where it can be played on a screen or in VR, depending on your hardware and what you feel like at the time. Developing VR as an add-on is much more palatable to investors than as an exclusive, because the potential for big profits for VR exclusives just isn't there.

Not sure what you mean by "install base"(all VR, or vive only?) but I expect AAA titles to follow PSVR release pretty closely, & for any 3rd party ones to hit PC as soon as possible after.

The farther we get into retail availability for VR, the more I'm convinced Oculus & Vive are previews to the main event, WRT to sales numbers & game releases.

 

[blackcrayon]

gijames1225[/url]":2skc4qmg]

Elgonn[/url]":2skc4qmg]The average playtime is pretty abysmal across the board. I was hoping there would be some standout game.

Does Elite: Dangerous support the Vive yet? Or is it only for Oculus at this point.

Elite does support the Vive, but there are currently some visual issues. It appears that the game is rendering the output at a lower resolution than it should be on the Vive (vs the Rift right now where it's working as it should).

Frontier is aware of the issue and supposedly it's partially fixed in the latest beta. So perhaps it won't be long until it's running at full quality. At least for me, the game is at least playable in its current state on the Vive. But some text is more difficult to read.

I don't think I could ever go back to Elite on a 2D monitor after living out my childhood scifi fantasies in VR...

 

[DOOManiac]

Every time I see an article on VR I can't help but be enthralled by it.

Alas the cost is simply too high right now. :/

- New video card
- VR Headset
- Divorce Attorney
- Child support payments
- Life-long daddy issues from my abandoned children
- Eventual guilt over a life wasted in VR while my real family was cast aside
- Buyers remorse if I get the wrong VR Headset
- etc.

Best I can hope for is that there's some alternate universe out there where Bizarro DOOManic is having a blast in Job Simulator and Elite right now...

 

[Steak and potatoes]

I wonder how much these numbers will change once Pascal and Polaris are out. I have been on the fence all year until last weekend when I got to try out a vive and I am now 100% sold. That said, I need a new computer to run it and I just can't justify getting a new one right now with a new generation of GPUs on the horizon. Once the new cards are out and reviewed, I will definitely be getting a vive.

 

[ziegler]

Is steam the largest retailer of VR games or just the easiest to parse data from? Not sure how good one sample source is.

Also..what is the pr0n uptake on these units. I know I read an article out there about there being like a 1000, yes, 1k, VR porn movies. Source

I'm assuming that movies arent going to be platform specific?