In 1995, Nintendo released the Virtual Boy video game console. The Virtual Boy was a virtual reality headset selling for $180, which is the equivalent of about $280 today. It was expected to be a huge revolution in the gaming industry, but was instead a commercial failure, only selling 350,000 units by the end of 1995. This March, the virtual reality company Oculus ships its first virtual reality headset, the Oculus Rift, for $600! The Oculus Rift is expected to be a huge commercial success.

If virtual reality headsets have been failures in the past, what makes the Oculus Rift more enticing to buy at over three times the price? Since the Oculus Rift streams PC and console games, instead of being a standalone console as the Virtual Boy was, the graphics are far superior to the Virtual Boy and up to par with today’s life-like video game graphics with the addition of stereoscopic 3D. The Virtual Boy came out just before the fifth generation of video game consoles (Nintendo 64, Playstation 1, etc.), so the entire industry was aware that 3D graphics were the next big thing. The Virtual Boy not only featured 3D graphics, but also stereoscopic 3D. Unfortunately, this was at the expense of detail and color. It only allowed simple line graphics and the color red. The Oculus Rift features two 1200p displays (one per eye), which is more detailed than todays HD TVs (1080p). The Oculus Rift weighs 380 grams, while the Virtual Boy weighed 760 grams and came with a tripod to put it on because they were to heavy to wear.  While the Oculus Rift is expensive at $600, when compared to the Virtual Boy and other video game consoles today, its price is justified.

The Virtual Boy was far ahead of its time, but the technical limitations of that era prevented it from being the commercial success it was predicted to be. Now that technology has advanced, companies like Oculus are able to manufacture capable virtual reality headsets that are far more consumer friendly.

Oculus is not the only company jumping into virtual reality. Sony and Valve are both working on virtual reality headsets of their own, while Microsoft is taking a different approach in augmented reality with their Hololens headsets. The Oculus Rift is available for preorder now at $600, and will begin shipping on March 28. The future of gaming is here!