Amazing info dump about mobile vs. desktop VR usage by Josh Farkas

Josh Farkas, from Cubicle Ninjas, posted a bunch of interesting information on Twitter about what they have learned from having apps at #1 on Oculus Connect and Steam.

It's good stuff, I had to share!

Our team has now had apps as #1 in both Steam's VR category (tag?) and on Gear VR. Below is what we've learned.

Position: Steam guarantees # of views and randomizes those views. It's so clear that I can explain in a tweet and still have 100 characters.

Audience: In general, Gear VR users graze across multiple apps, Steam users dine. Time in app is 5x higher for non-mobile (likely heat).

Audience: UI/UX needs much more QA love on mobile. Very easy to frustrate on Gear VR, as often less VR/tech oriented. Should 'just work'.

Audience: This is an assumption based on review style, but Gear VR seems much broader, but also often younger. Plan accordingly.

Audience: Free content will have greater engagement on Gear VR. It will also often produce more media interest (at least in our exp).

Audience: We're enabling IAP in a month on Gear VR so can't speak to this yet, but word on the street is GrooVR and vTime are crushing it.

Dev Support: The backends of both systems are beautiful and highly functional. The examples are wonderful now as well. A genuine pleasure.

Dev Support: Steam has email support, forums, best practice guides, and applies these consistently.

Dev Support: Oculus doesn't reply to emails, has odd forums, best practice guides that are outdated, and inconsistent in approach of all.

Dev Support: Saying this means I'm likely in trouble. Many VR devs live in this fear. It is disheartening.

Future: I love both the Gear VR and Vive/Steam as platforms and believe both have insanely bright futures.

Future: Hoping this info helps someone out there. VR isn't a black box. Sharing is the first step to solving. Now, back to making stuff. :)

I guess Oculus needs to step up their dev support. Not really surprising as many regular people have to go to third-party places to find help for their Rift.

Thanks for posting this.

So the people of Oculus need more and better man force to help there, aren't they hiring? I am very interested on it :D

I think that explains a lot of the actual situation, I think maybe they are missing the importance of the being that produce content for the devices they are selling.

The folks at Oculus seem aware of this problem from my conversations at OC3. Here's hoping they have a plan in place soon to deal with it.

Part of the reason for skimming on the Gear VR (at least from my consumer perspective) is that few apps have enough depth to them to "dine." When I do use apps, however, I stay in them as long as they continue to engage me.

Posted via the VRHeads App for Android