Digital Game Industry Sees Slow Adoption Of VR Technology

Three big digital game companies expect virtual reality won't have an immediate impact on their business, an analyst said Thursday. Although Facebook Inc.'s

soon-to-launch Occulus Rift virtual reality consumer headset is sure to get lots of attention, Wedbush's Michael Pachter said the gamers think a significant market will be slow to develop. Pachter met with industry executives at the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show, which wraps up Thursday the Los Angeles Convention Center. Electronic Arts Inc.

thinks motion sickness and integration for first-person shooter games are potential obstacles for the technology, according to Pachter. A substantial gaming market for virtual reality is five years in the future, Electronic Arts believes. Similarly, Activision Blizzard, Inc.

told Pachter that it plans to allocate significant resources to virtual reality "when the installed base is there," although the technology doesn't figure in its immediate sales plans. Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

told Pachter it expects VR will be "slow to develop." Occulus offered demonstrations this week of its VR headset at the Los Angeles trade show and The Wall Street Journal said the device " finally feels consumer ready." http://blogs.wsj.com/personal-technology/2015/06/18/an-oculus-rift-hands-on-session-at-e3-2015/ Sony Corp

and HTC Corp (TPE: 2498) already have VR products on the market, but Oculus Chief Executive Brendan Iribe told the Journal that few consumers are buying. "We need to build an actual market for this before we really can talk about competition," Irbe said.