What’s (Still) the Hottest Trend at GDC 2018

Turns out, virtual reality isn't dead yet.

Game Developers Conference (GDC) is happening this week in San Francisco and if you asked people walking even near the South Hall of the event what they noticed first, they would say “Virtual Reality,” and to be fair, you’re not really allowed to miss it.



One of the most interesting demos I experienced was the Microsoft “Pinball” challenge. The initiative of the game was to throw bugs against buildings. Why is it called pinball you may be asking yourself? The Rebound motion of the bugs for bonus points emulates a tradition pinball game, and in all was a creative twist on a classic game! The goal, like many games, is to beat the high score and the winner at the end of the week gets an Xbox One X. The other fascinating experience was a new game coming out based on the movie Creed.

The second experience puts you in a boxing ring raised about 5 feet off the ground while wearing an Oculus Rift, Oculus Touch handsets, and a pair of headphones. They did what mocked a “sound-alike” version of a comically bad Sly Stallone, but that could have just been the headset I had on  Other than that, the experience was surreal as they did a great job of immersing you in the fight through dodging, jabbing, and physically moving out of the way of your opponent’s punches. They even make it fun for the audience as when you get knocked down, you have to move your arms like you’re running back into your body, which looks hilarious (and yes, that’s me).

VR Boxing

While Oculus and HTC aren’t giving us their total sales numbers for now, they are clearly still fully intent on supporting their developers while they create new and unique experiences. We may be entering the perfect time in the VR market for the platform as a whole to take off. With more computers being built that are able to process the games and with hardware becoming less expensive, it’s clear that the sky is the limit for VR. (Next step is haptic feedback…)


ready player one