2016 could be dubbed the year of VR with three players having entered the market – HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and PlayStation VR. If the platform is to thrive, developers are going to have to get behind it in a big way by building all forms of experiences that cater to the wide and varying audiences that exist. For its part, EA, arguably one of the largest game publishers out there seems to be excited by VR which isn’t a bad champion to have in your corner when you’re a new platform. Here is EA Chief Financial Officer, Blake Jorgensen:

 For us VR is an unique opportunity, because we’re one of the largest makers of deep, engaging games. So it’s a new platform for us to be able to experiment with. 

From DualShockers:

 Jorgensen continued by mentioning that the publisher has the new Star Wars Battlefront Rogue One – X-wing VR Mission coming soon, and it’s a “spectacular experience” of flying an X-Wing fighter in VR, and “pretty stunning when you get into it.”

He then admitted that there are still “a lot of challenges” with VR, with motion sickness being “not a small issue,” with game developers having to work hard to figure out how to get around that. Processing speed is also critical, as you need to render to two screens instead of one. According to Jorgensen, part of the challenge is getting more processing speed, and that’s why we’re seeing faster consoles coming out. 

PS4 Pro is going to go a long way towards alleviating some of Jorgensen’s concerns and for anyone whose interested in VR, I can’t stress enough how much better the experience is with the more powerful console. And that’s something that’s likely to shine even more as developers further familiarize themselves with VR and PS4 Pro.

The only thing I remain on the fence about is if developers should create add-on experiences like the X-Wing VR Mission or entirely new experiences like PlayStation VR Worlds. What’s your take on that?