John Carmack sees the Nintendo Switch as the main competition for Oculus’ latest VR headset, the Oculus Quest.
The Oculus CTO said as much in his keynote speech at Oculus Connect today. “Realistically, we are going to wind up competing with the Nintendo Switch as a device,” Carmack stated. He continued, explaining that he sees Quest as the mobile gaming device that existing console owners would pick up. “I don’t think there’s going to be that many people that say “I’m not going to buy a PS4, I’m going to buy a Quest instead,”” he said.
Quest is indeed a mobile gaming device, though it offers a drastically different experience to the Switch, which has sold around 20 million units since launch last year. Switch acts as a hybrid home console that you can pick up an take with you, though Quest will undoubtedly still mostly be played in people’s homes rather than, say, on the train. Quest will also cost $399 when it launches next year, whilst Switch is $100 less at $300. Quest will have an uphill battle for consumers wallets against Nintendo for sure, though Carmack never actually said he expects Oculus to win.
Oculus Quest is coming in spring 2019.
