Nintendo is no stranger when it comes to virtual reality, as many early Nintendo fans remember the classic flop of the Nintendo Virtual Boy. While it remains iconic as one of the niche products that never succeeded, 2016 looks to be the year the industry begins taking virtual reality seriously as a possibility for gaming’s future.
With Sony pushing the PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and HTC going head-to-head for PC gamer’s attention, virtual reality seems like it’s about to explode. Nintendo has classically been shy of virtual reality thanks to its early efforts and Nintendo of America head Reggie Fils-Aime seems to think current tech “just isn’t that fun.”
Despite this, virtual reality was a topic during Nintendo’s financial briefing, though it was a small mention. Here’s the account according to Dr. Serkan Toto, an analyst in Tokyo.
So Nintendo (at the briefing) just said no change in plans for the smartphone app roll out. Says they "are looking" at VR – with no details.
— Dr. Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) February 2, 2016
Obviously Nintendo isn’t going to reveal their plans for virtual reality at a financial briefing, but this reads to me like Nintendo will be watching the industry to see how well it performs and whether or not they want to dip their toes into it. They were similarly cautious with the toys-to-life effort when they were presented with the opportunity to make Skylanders an exclusive, so it’ll be interesting to see if Nintendo jumps on board at a later date.
What do you think?
