While Oculus has been drumming up its soon to launch Touch VR controller for many months now, the company doesn’t expect motion input to supersede the gamepad gameplay that Rift users are using today.
The introduction of an Xbox One gamepad as the default input device for the Oculus Rift at launch came as a surprise to many, especially given prior comments from the company’s founder singling out the gamepad as a poor choice for VR input. Meanwhile, the HTC Vive, which launched with motion controls in the box, has garnered praise for its immersive input. Combined with Oculus’ announcement of Touch all the way back in 2015, Rift users have been very eager to get their hands into virtual reality. But that doesn’t mean VR titles designed for gamepads will go the wayside, says Oculus.
Speaking with Road to VR at Gamescom 2016 last month, Jason Rubin, Head of Content at Oculus said that the company doesn’t expect gamepads to disappear from VR once Touch controllers hits the market.
“…we’re really strong proponents of the gamepad. We think there are some types of games that play incredibly well with gamepads, and we don’t believe gamepads are going away,” Rubin said. “There are developers that want us to continue shipping a gamepad [in the box with the Oculus Rift headset]. Whether or not we continue forever or just a small amount of time is undecided and unannounced, but gamepads have a valid place in the ecosystem.”
Rubin pointed to the apparent success of gamepad-only titles found on the Oculus Home platform, and says he remains skeptical of locking into a sort of standardized VR input at this stage in the ecosystem.
“We don’t share the belief that ‘if it’s a gamepad, it’s an atrocity and not a VR title’, and the proof of that is the ratings consumers are giving the games that we have out right now. In the long run it’s hard to say what the final control spec will be, or if there will be a final control spec,” he said.
He elaborated on what he called “VR purists,” and suggested that some were applying a double-standard to VR games designed for the gamepad, saying that many of the people hating on games lacking motion controls also wanted to play them themselves.
“There are VR purists that believe ‘if it doesn’t have motion controls, it isn’t VR’. I happen to not agree with that, and I don’t think Oculus agrees with that. Interestingly, many of the same people are dying to play our titles brought out on gamepad. They’re extremely vocal about [them],” Rubin said. “So you really can’t have it both ways. Titles that we brought out are some of the best reviewed, most full titles out there, and at the same time there’s a small population that believes VR has to be a certain amount of purity. VR is much broader, and we think the audience is broader, and we think what VR represents is much broader than some other people.”
Rubin went on to point to the company’s work with Samsung to launch Gear VR—which is a relatively affordable VR headset compared to the likes of high-priced units like the Rift and Vive—as an exemplar of the company’s “broader” approach to VR.
Oculus says Touch will launch in Q4 of this year, but has yet to announce a price of specific date. We’re expecting to hear more on Touch at the Oculus Connect developer conference in October.
Additional reporting by Scott Hayden