A recent survey of over 500 virtual reality (VR) professionals conducted by VRX Event and VR Intelligence has found that almost half respondents reported industry growth over 2016 had been positive.
46% of respondents said that their growth had been ‘strong’ or ‘very strong’. Less than a third reported growth as ‘weaker than hoped’, reports GamesIndustry.biz. With VR being such a new industry, it was not certain how far the industry would develop, so many see it’s current rate of growth as a good sign.
The survey also indicated that there was a clean split in the industry regarding where content creators place their focus. One third reported that they were focused on mobile VR, another third were focused on PC and console tethered VR while the final third reported that they split their efforts between the two.
With regards to the challenges that the VR industry faces, there was some disagreement. More than half of content creators indicated that the high price of VR headsets was still a problem, while over half of VR tech such as hardware manufacturers, pointed to lack of quality content. While this may seem like two sides of the industry blaming the other, it should be noted that hardware manufacturers placed headset price as the second most significant obstacle, while content creators named lack of content as their second-most significant problem.
Other problems noted by respondents were lack of consumer awareness, headset size and design, motion sickness and headset usability. Content creators and VR tech workers both seemed to agree that motion sickness was the least significant barrier to overcome.
The VR sector is still growing at a rapid rate. Other reports, such as one from the Venture Reality Fund, have shown VR industry growth of 40% worldwide. Some analysts are predicting that the VR content market could be worth up to $41 billion USD by 2024.
VRFocus will keep you updated with reports on the growth of the VR market.