VR Isn’t Dying Or Dead - It Is Uncomfortable Though

Today I went to put on my headset after a long day of work. Since most of my work, such as writing articles like these, consists of sitting down and typing on a keyboard, I figured it would be nice to actually move my body while I enjoyed a video game and unwound.

For those with more sedentary jobs and lives, this is one of the big appeals of Virtual Reality gaming. After a long day of sitting it’s a very entertaining way to do a little moving whether or not you’re aiming to do a full workout. While normally this would be great, today it wasn’t.

Maybe it was the aggressive amount of work I did that day, but I just could not get the Meta Quest 3 headset to sit comfortably on my head. This is despite upgrading from the default headstrap to the Elite Strap. Honestly, the headset feels almost unusable for more than thirty minutes without the elite strap and I think that it should come with one by default, but that’s only part of the problem.

What bothered me more was the weight of it, despite the Meta Quest 3 being slimmer than the Quest 2, it is still about as heavy. Sure the weight sits closer to your face so it feels lighter, but the weight of the device is apparent despite it being packaged more comfortably.

Regardless of the improvements made in Virtual Reality head mounted display technology, it’s still a big hunk of stuff strapped to your face, and the fact that you need to strap it in place, even if those straps are well-designed and comfortable, means that there’s going to be pressure on your head from the weight of the device.

So today I quickly got a headache and discarded the headset after about fifteen minutes, a real shame. I really wanted to have some fun in Virtual Reality while I got off my butt and limbered up a little. Going out for a run instead was still good for the fresh air, but I would rather have been punching robots to bits or ducking and weaving while blasting through waves of enemies.

Here’s a screenshot from UNDERDOGS just for fun

It was a real shame, and it was clear that the weight of the headset was just bothering me that day as it sometimes does. It did make me think though.

I realized that a lot of people probably feel the same way all of the time, but something keeps them away from the headset. Whether it’s motion sickness, or possibly just being too tired to want to move around after a day of more physical labor, there are tons of VR headsets gathering dust in closets for many reasons.

I think a chief one is the weight of the headset. It’s no secret that Virtual Reality headset sales have been down since last year. I’ve heard a lot of stories from people who love VR, yet the headset sits unused. A big part of this is that strapping a machine to your face is just uncomfortable. That doesn’t mean VR is dying, there are still so many people, myself included, who will use it forever for a number of reasons.

I love VR, but even I sometimes opt not to hop back into it because it’s hard to be entirely comfortable with the big HMD on your face, and that also cuts into the immersion of many experiences. Even the Apple Vision Pro, a headset designed to be worn constantly and comfortably, has been seeing an alarmingly high number of returns not only due to motion sickness but also due to wearing it giving people headaches.

There’s only so far ergonomics can go. Before mass adoption is possible Virtual Reality headsets need to be lighter and easier to wear. Right now the weight of the headset cuts down on how often even dedicated Virtual Reality users will utilize it.

Maybe it’s time to save up for a Bigscreen Beyond.