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Nvidia ( NVDA )-powered virtual reality devices manufactured by HTC, Facebook ( FB )-owned Oculus, and Sony ( SNE ) dominated the Game Developers Conference this week in San Francisco. But software, not the hardware behind it, will likely determine if this new form of ingesting content will become the billion-dollar industry that is the source of dreams for developers at the show. “Content is going to be king,” Nvidia spokesman Bryan Del Rizzo told IBD in an interview on the GDC show floor. “And there’s much more than just games, there’s business applications.” Nvidia stock was down a fraction to 32.82 at the close Wednesday. The company has an IBD Composite Rating of 99, the highest possible. Facebook was down more than 1% to 111.02, and Sony was up 2.3% to 26.09. On Wednesday, Facebook-owned Oculus announced the names of the 30 titles that will be available for its Rift VR headset that starts shipping on March 28. Priced between $19 and $59, the selection includes traditional shoot-’em-up titles as well as several much-hyped “experiential” offerings. There are 11 more titles to be released in the future, though the company has not announced an exact date. Oculus will cost $599. When the price was first announced there was backlash from the gaming community which expected considerably less. In response, the company said it is not going to make a significant profit on the hardware — placing the burden for profit even further on the content that Facebook is able to bring to Oculus Rift. Meanwhile, HTC is going to market with 50 titles , but none of them will be exclusively available on its VR headset, called Vive, priced at $799. HTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. E-commerce juggernaut Amazon.com ( AMZN ), Netflix ( NFLX ) and other content producers also are making VR plays, and exploring video opportunities. This week at the conference, Sony announced its own VR bet for the PlayStation console. Sony’s offering is priced below both its chief competitors at $399 — a $370 PlayStation 4 is required, plus several accessories — but will not get to market until October of this year. In its fiscal third-quarter earnings report to investors, the company said it had sold 37 million PlayStation 4 consoles since its launch in 2013. Though content may determine the industry’s future, the hardware it relies on — Nvidia’s graphics processing units generate the graphics — has never before been available to consumers. Of the PC-based VR options, Oculus Rift will hit the market first on March 28 — giving the Facebook-owned company a head start on HTC, which will hit the market sometime in April . Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) graphics cards also can be used to power VR headsets. “PCs will be the preeminent platform for VR,” says Del Rizzo. One issue for Sony is that the PlayStation 4 is aging. Several developers told IBD at the gaming conference that it could be a speed bump for bleeding-edge content. Sony declined to comment. Both Vive and Oculus Rift require top-of-the-line graphics hardware to run. Del Rizzo says that may generate more profits for the companies involved since gamers have a tendency to upgrade their graphics cards to ensure that they get the most out of the latest titles. Still, it’s too early to say VR will stick. There have been attempts to take VR mainstream in the past, notably in the 1990s, but they have failed — in large part because the hardware then was not as advanced as today. Now, at least with the devices from Sony and Oculus that IBD tested, the hardware appears to be able to deliver a palatable experience. The question becomes: Will developers and content creators produce offerings that will convince customers to open their wallets? Scalper1 News
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