EA Cautious About Developing Games For Virtual Reality

Many companies are betting big on virtual reality. For example we have Facebook, Sony, HTC, Valve and even Disney, all of whom are investing in virtual reality technology in one way or the other. Even Google is no exception with the creation of Google Cardboard along with enabling 360-degree video support on YouTube.

However while all these companies are eager to jump into the fray, EA is still playing it a bit cautious. Speaking during the UBS Global Technology Conference, EA’s CFO Blake Jorgensen revealed that the reason they aren’t as eager yet is namely due to the size of the market, which admittedly at the moment is still small for virtual reality.

According to Jorgensen, “There’s some challenges still and I think the biggest challenge is just the size of the market. We don’t make games anymore for the Wii or the Wii U because the market is not big enough, the PS Vita – the Sony product – we don’t make games for that anymore because the market is too small, so it’s all about the size of the market.”

He then adds that he believes it might need at least 1-3 years before a sizable market can be built up. “I think the reality is, the next one to three years, it’s probably going to take some time to build up a sizable market place and you might see alternative uses for virtual reality first before it becomes gaming.” This seems to be in line with HTC who despite developing a VR headset with Valve, also expressed a bit of reservation, but what say you? Do you guys agree?

Tyler Lee
Categories: Gaming
Tags: EA, Virtual Reality (VR)