Speaker A
hello everybody and welcome back as always I am Mato 311 and this is your channel for everything VR related today we have a brutally honest look at the current state of VR as we move into 2025 now as much as I love to be a
Matteo311 gives a brutally honest 2025 look at VR: Quest 3S dominance, the fading PCVR era, hardware trade-offs, and why games lag flat-screen titles.
Key Takeaways
- PCVR's golden era has ended, and standalone headsets like the Quest 3 now deliver acceptable performance for most users.
- The Quest 3S offers the best value in VR hardware, though Meta's market dominance limits consumer choice.
- VR games still trail flat-screen titles in scope and polish, largely because of market economics rather than hardware alone.
- Growth depends on continued investment from platform holders and new competitors such as Android XR headsets.
What the video covers
- The host declares the 'Glory Days' of PCVR are over as the market has shifted to standalone headsets.
- The Quest 3 has closed much of the performance and graphical gap with PCVR, which the host considers acceptable for its price.
- The Quest 3S at $299 is described as unmatched in value, while most PCVR headsets start around $500 or more.
- Meta sold early Quest headsets at a loss, which the host argues let it corner the market and limit consumer choice.
- Pimax headsets around $2,000 are criticized for unfulfilled promises and issues; Apple's Vision Pro at roughly $3,500 is noted as barely functional for gaming.
- VR games are behind flat-screen titles in graphics, mechanics, and length, partly due to limited hardware and a smaller, less profitable market.
- Showcase first-party VR titles like Half-Life: Alyx and Batman: Arkham Shadow are funded by platform holders to grow the industry, not as profit makers.
- VR is a different medium, and mechanics like those in Beat Saber could not work on flat screens.
- Developers are still going through growing pains in level and mechanic design.
- Multiplayer VR communities suffer from a young player base, toxicity, and games dying quickly after launch.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Sponsor
- 00:59Critical Perspective on VR
- 02:05The End of PCVR Glory Days
- 03:15Current State of VR Hardware
- 05:21Meta's Market Dominance and Competition
- 06:29VR Games vs. Flat-Screen Gaming
- 07:32Developer Growing Pains and Design Challenges
- 08:58Multiplayer Communities and Player Base
- 11:13Platform Holders and Industry Investment
- 14:13Future Outlook and Hopes
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
cheerleader for VR I'm not pulling any punches in this video and we'll be going over VR shortcomings when it comes to Hardware software gaming and overall mainstream appeal now there are of course links in time stamps if you want
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to skip ahead but before we jump in this video is brought to you by my long-term sponsor kiwi design if you're looking to make your quest headset much more comfortable or you want a top-of-the-line battery pack for up to 3
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hours of extra gameplay well then I highly recommend their brand new K4 boost headstraps it's now available in both traditional and Halo strap versions and not only are they cheaper than what meta has to offer they're also way more
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comfortable with some extra plush material there's a link to Kiwi down in the description and don't forget to use discount code Mato 311 for 5% off and to help support my channel now over the years I found myself being everything
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from Super super critical all the way to the point of cynical when discussing aspects of VR and now that I've been so much more involved over the past few years just knowing lots of additional players in the industry seeing how much
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work goes into basically everything from the hardware to the software to the games I have a higher appreciation and I find myself being a little bit more of a cheerleader neither of those positions are ideal so today I'm just going to
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take a refined critical look at the state of VR discuss all the shortcomings and the potential hope for the future I hope you guys enjoy this it's going to be a little bit more ranty than normal but I think it's really important to
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acknowledge shortcomings because that's the only way you improve it doesn't matter if it's a hobby it's a company that you enjoy anything in the world you need to be critical and evaluate where you truly stand and that's what we're
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doing today so let's start things off just by saying that the Glory Days of pcvr are over I know some people don't want to accept this they're mad that the majority of the industry has moved over to Standalone devices and they long to
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be back in the days of 2019 where halflife Alex released now I was personally in this place for quite some time I was really upset when everything started moving to the quest one the downgrade was so significant I felt like
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that my preferred medium of gaming meaning VR was just like killed it wasn't as immersive the graphics went to crap this just wasn't as good but we have to acknowledge that over the years now with the quest 3 that Gap has closed
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a lot it'll never fully close pcvr is so much far beyond what a standalone device can do you have to acknowledge it is definitely caught up and I feel like it is now Beyond acceptable like I feel like for the cheap price of entry and
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everything else you get with the quest 3 we've finally made up for the lack of overall performance or graphical Fidelity I feel like we're there I know some people don't agree but just got to move on the Glory Days of pcvr are over
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and we have to acknowledge that so that's step one in this video there's still some really cool stuff going on in the overall mod industry so there's plenty of really cool flat games to experience in VR but that whole
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situation is less than ideal for the average user now I know I already started discussing the quality of games but before we fully move into that topic let's just talk about the current state of Hardware when it comes to VR it is a
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constant Battle of concession you need a price T that's low enough to get mainstream consumer appeal and if you're looking for Success you want to give people the biggest bang for their Buck now it's undeniable that that device is
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the meta Quest 3s what it delivers for only $299 is completely unmatched in the industry especially when you consider the average pcvr headset that still needs to be connected to a computer in order to work starts at 500 or more now
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a lot of people will complain that the meta Quest 3s Was a Race to the bottom had to get the cheapest crappiest Hardware out to as many people as possible at as quick as possible but I cannot agree with that assessment one
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the value is definitely there gives you much more than anything else and they've struck the right balance between weight battery life performance heat all the things you really have to worry about in a device that goes on someone's head
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that you know needs to have a lot of functionality they struck the right balance and I know that's not easy there's headsets that don't have a whole bu built-in operating system and Standalone Hardware all they do is connect to a PC and they're still way
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heavier or they're not as comfortable or they produce more heat so honestly they struck a really good balance but there's one aspect of this that is rarely discussed this is meta throwing their money around a lot of times especially
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when they sold the original Quest headsets they sold them at a loss which means pretty much no one else in the industry can compete so they Corner the market good business for them not great for consumers because if there's only
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one real option out there then we kind of get crapped on cuz we have no other choice now I will get to this later in the video but that will soon change now in terms of all other VR Hardware out
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there it's still a battle of concessions but these days it becomes extremely hard to recommend anything besides a quest 3 or Quest 3s because the value is just not there even the high-end Enthusiast products from pimax that break the bank
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around $2,000 just never deliver on their promises and tend to come with a lot of issues apple is the only company that delivers a true super high-end XR headset but you're going to pay nearly $44,000 for it and
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it barely functions as a gaming device now speaking of games this is another area where plenty of people have some huge issues VR Gaming is constantly compared to flat screen gaming and people just need to accept that they are
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very different mediums now I'm going to use Batman aam Shadow as an example here because it's one of the best VR games ever made made and it recently released it is 100% as good as the Arkham titles that released on flat
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screen however those games released nearly 10 years ago and I would slide it in right next to them they are still amazing games but when you look at things like Graphics some of the gameplay mechanics yeah they're a little
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bit behind the curve and that's where VR is we have to accept that VR is behind the curve in terms of flat screen gaming when you're comparing it to overall mechanics or gameplay length and you know AAA quality now yes the stone
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Hardware is a contributing factor to WHY games aren't more robust but it's more mainly about the fact that the money just isn't there in the VR industry as of yet it's growing and games are definitely getting bigger and better but
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showcase first poy VR games like halflife Alex Horizon Co of the mountain and Batman Arkham Shadow are not money makers in the industry this is companies throwing around a lot of money to help grow the V industry and promote their
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product other VR Studios can't produce games of this caliber because they actually need to make a return so it's undeniable that VR games are a bit behind the curve in terms of Graphics overall gameplay mechanics and length compared to flat screen but we have to
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acknowledge that they are very different games and a lot of aspects in traditional gaming don't work in VR VR is a lot more about the mechanics that's why you see titles like Beat saer Just explode that would never work on flat
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screen so mechanically it's different but also the way people play the games you can't have a physically intense game and then expect to play it like World of Warcraft where you sit in front of a computer screen for 12 hours a day it
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just doesn't work it doesn't add up so Developers for the past couple of years have been going through a lot of growing pains finding out what works and what doesn't and this is from Level design to mechanic design to basically
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storytelling everything every aspect it's one thing to sit on your CCH couch and watch Kratos from God of War go to town on somebody beat them up and you're like wow this incredible scene but it's very different to sit in a VR
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environment and kind of just listen to people talk it gets extremely boring it just doesn't work you need a very different delivery system so we're going through the motions right now and we're finding out the shortcomings or where VR
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exls and luckily over the past 78 years a lot of studios are learning what works and what works is very different from flat screen games now VR also suffers from another issue and that's with its player base not only is it much smaller
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than flat games making things like multiplayer experiences harder to keep up because there's just so few people to keep engaged and obviously your titles are usually smaller than flat screen so they don't have all the elements keeping people engaged the player base kind of
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deteriorates really fast but it also has a very young player base now there's no shortage of little kids in free-to-play games on in the flat screen World obviously you know you jump into something like Roblox or any other title
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like that yeah you're going to get a bunch of squeakers but you see that a lot in VR to and especially in their main social app Horizon world they're trying to push this but if anyone over like 16 jumps into a horizon world and
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is just bombarded with squeakers you're probably never going to go in again so this is something they need to deal with and like I said the much smaller player base makes multiplayer experience is hard also so yep it's a tricky situation
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and that's just going to come with growth high quality games and growth will fix the player base I understand meta kind of targeting a younger audience CU you want to get them into VR early get them you know used to the
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technology especially when you start moving the technology out of gaming you want them to be walking around the treats with one of your you know your AR glasses whatever the case may be so it makes sense that they're targeting the
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younger audience but it doesn't leave people with a overall great experience in a lot of these VR worlds and there's nothing worse than picking up a multiplayer game and finding it basically Dead online after only a few weeks not only will it discourage
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consumers from buying more of these games but it also pushes developers away from creating these experiences now don't worry guys this video is not all doom and gloom I am about to aggress ively poke every VR company out there
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right now but after that I will discuss why I have some high hopes for VR in 2025 so let's start off with the easy Target in the XR industry pretty much the only big player and that's meta from past experience we know that
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meta can actually betray us and I'm not talking about leaking your information or anything like that we've seen that they are willing to use a small group of people as a stepping stone to access a bigger group so I'm not saying this is
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going to happen but I wouldn't be surprised if all of their AR stuff their glasses you know things that put meta products into more of the main stream like wearable AR glasses stuff like that if that becomes a lot more popular they
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will put gaming on the back burner they won't be giving us the first party titles anymore they'll be leaving it all to third party Studios and not caring as much we've seen in the past they are willing to do that they will step over
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one group if that group's only 5 million they will step right over them and betray them to get a group of 30 million unfortunately that's where it is and sure the industry can move more into AR or just uh General usage you know
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glasses with ar functionality that give you directions translations whatever the case may be that is meta's ultimate goal that's where they are aiming for they want to be your next Computing device your next wearable that is their end
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goal and unfortunately VR Gaming can be left on the back burner when that happens now when it comes to Sony and the PlayStation VR2 it's pretty clear to see that the company doesn't care much about VR this is nothing
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personal and there's probably plenty of people within Sony that do believe in the technology but in simple terms Sony has much bigger fish to fry they've overblow their budget on some of their biggest IPS like Horizon they wasted an
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insane 200 plus million on the development of the completely failed Concord and I'm not sure who's right idea it was to make a horizon Lego game but that was also another pretty costly failure even if the PlayStation VR2 was
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extremely successful overall it still Nets them a minor profit so in business terms it's not important at all there's no path for them to grow their VR industry to the point where it starts making major returns so now they're
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trying to make lemonade out of lemons and using the pcvr adapter to help sell off the remaining stock of headsets they're also supposedly working with apple now and we should see the PlayStation controllers working with the Apple vision Pro in the near future and
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speaking of Apple yes they are a new player in the XR industry but their price of the product is way too high for mainstream appeal and they've never been focused on gaming so in terms of what I'm looking for out of the XR industry
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right now they're never going to deliver they're gearing themselves up to be a competitor against meta in terms of all day wearables or just becoming the next Computing platform now there's also a handful of other minor players Pico is
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the closest in terms of meta but they're not in the Western Market and they're definitely not funding games to the same extent now the real wild card that can shake things up are the upcoming Android XR headsets and meta relasing The
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Horizon OS and this brings me to the last part of the video why I'm actually really pumped for VR in 2025 obviously new competition is great Android XR can definitely shake things up the Horizon OS going out available to
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everyone is also pretty big because it allows for new hardware so if someone wants them make Hardware that's more robust OLED screen maybe more powerful processor whatever the case may be they want to make an Enthusiast Quest someone
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is free to do that now and there's a market for it so I'd love to see that and it's going to have the same game compatibility cuz it's got the same OS so that should be really solid definitely can shake things
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up but why I'm really excited is cuz I follow the trends and everything that meta has kind of been selling us over the years is finally coming true I know people say listen XR is only here because meta dumps billions every single
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year and that's true but if this wasn't their plan if this wasn't something they said 5 years ago that we're going to keep dumping you know tens of billions into this industry every single year more and more and more and then
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eventually the amount of money we make in return crosses the line like how much we're spending versus how much we're making and eventually that line crosses which it's getting very close to then yeah the industry becomes viable they're
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making this industry viable and for the first time they also prove to us that they could give us that future they promised that project oryan that they showed off this year is incredible now it's definitely a few years out before
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it becomes mainstream the tech is too way way too expensive right now like it's something like $110,000 to build those units however they finally proved it's possible and we will get there they're salving all the technical and software hurdles which is extremely
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impressive and year after year all of these VR studios are getting better and better the production value on their titles is going up their experience level is going up they're in it for the long haul you have companies like
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vertigo games resolution games shell all of these companies that have been doing it year after year successfully and they're getting better and better and the quality of games gets better and better so I'm pumped this should be a
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really good year I can't wait to see I know meta is sitting on a bunch of other Studios they own I'm expecting them to give us a first- party title every single year so let's see what's in the
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rotation next maybe I know something maybe I don't we'll see what happens I am excited there's definitely great stuff coming and that was today's video you guys enjoyed it you do this if you're new here please consider subscribing like 90% of the people watch
Speaker A
this channel are not subscribed that's a mistake please fix that and of course I'll see you guys on next time [Music]
Topics:VRvirtual realityQuest 3SMeta QuestPCVRHalf-Life AlyxBatman Arkham ShadowVR gaming 2025PlayStation VR2Android XR
