I have mentioned several times that it looked like Virtual Reality may or may not be the newest fad. In spite of major companies investing in products for consumers like the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive, and the PlayStation VR, it is possible that this new technology will not "catch on". A recent development on Steam shows that VR could actually become as big as Pokemon GO. It is because Raw Data is a VR-only shooter still in Early Access that made its way to the top of the Steam Top Seller list at launch.
Raw Data is a game described on the Steam Store as "built from the ground up for VR, Raw Data's action combat gameplay, intuitive controls, challenging enemies, and sci-fi atmosphere will completely immerse you within the game world. Go solo-or team up with a friend-and become the adrenaline-charged heroes of your own futuristic techno-thriller".
Based on the video, Raw Data looks to be a first person shooter in some future world full of robots. I would say "it looks like" because I don't have an HTC Vive to try it out with. It has a pretty good tagline of "Join the Resistance. Humanity Depends on You". It is exciting and reminds me of the I, Robot movie, and it is one of those games where a big corporation takes over the world, and everything is cyberpunk and dystopian.
The fact that this game, which is designed for only Virtual Reality, has got so high at the number 2 spot shows that there is going to be a lot more virtual reality titles in the future. In fact, that was the big worry about VR, that there would not be enough content to sustain it.
Granted, it would be very easy to turn a 360 video, which are starting to become more plentiful, into a VR experience. However, it has to be very complicated to create a Virtual Reality game, even in this age of simpler programing. There are a lot of video games that are first person shooters that would work very well for VR, and hopefully they will be optimized.
Not only is Raw Data a VR-only game, but it is an Early Access Game, a way for players to get involved "with the game as it develops". The fact that it is 20 percent off is also helping it, I would imagine.
So, is Raw Data going to be "the" game that is going to be a literal game changer when it comes to VR? All I can say is that some game had to be that.
