During a corporate strategy meeting with investors held by Sony in Tokyo this week, the company's chief Andrew House explained to the attendees that virtual reality is best experienced in short intensive bursts.
"I've been very vocal that I tend to believe this generation of VR lends itself more to short-form content, than perhaps it does to long-form experiences," he said. "I don't see that as a deficit or a negative."
"I tend to liken the VR experience more to something like a theme park ride, in that it's short, but it's very intense and it's very enjoyable."
The big positive I do see for VR [games] is that unlike conventional game experiences - which tend to be similar to blockbusters in terms of production values and complex game mechanics- they can offer simple mechanics and experiences that are still very, very enjoyable because they can give users something they've never done before.
That, I think, is where its true potential lies."
House's opinion resonates with our VR experience so far. In fact, several VR game developers have expressed similar opinions in the past few months.
Interestingly enough though, it looks like this point of view was not embraced by Sony who's E3 VR presence was dominated by feature-length games such as Resident Evil 7 and Final Fantasy XV. Both games were said to be playable start-to-end in virtual reality.
It is worth noting that a lot of E3 goers who tried the Resident Evil brief demo reported feeling nausea a few minutes into the game.
