Nintendo’s tangled VR story continues to grow all the more complex this week.
Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America President and COO, recently spoke about the technology at Variety’s Entertainment and Tech Summit but, sadly, he didn’t have much good to say on the subject. Talking about the possibility of VR coming to the company’s latest product, the Nintendo Switch, Fils-Aime said that the “problem with VR is that there aren’t a lot of experiences that are truly fun.” He added that the company has no plans to experiment with VR for now, though it may happen in the future.
Fils-Aime was, however, much more positive about the future of AR, which Nintendo has been experimenting with since the days of the 3DS. Pokemon GO, a product of Nintendo subsidiary The Pokemon Company, has also been hugely successful on smartphones.
We’ve been following Nintendo’s love-hate relationship with VR for some time now on UploadVR. The company’s statements about the tech have sometimes conflicted, saying it’s working on VR in some way whilst also pointing to issues with isolation. Despite this, a patent for a VR headset supported by the Switch surfaced earlier this year, suggesting the device could perhaps get an add-on peripheral integrating VR later down the line. That said, with the 720p display, we’d need to see some major revisions if it was to offer a smooth experience.
A few months back we also saw Nintendo jump into the world of VR arcades with a VR edition of its ever-popular Mario Kart series on display at an arcade in Tokyo. It offers just a taste of what Nintendo could bring to the platform.
Do you agree with Fils-Aime’s comments about VR? Or do you think Nintendo should be the ones to make truly fun VR experiences?
