Gamerista.net 2014 Oculus Rift DK 1 Virtual Reality User Experience Survey

OCULUS RIFT DK 1 VIRTUAL REALITY
USER EXPERIENCE SURVEY
gamerista TM (c) 2014 www.gamerista.net
CREATIVE COMMONS - ATTRIBUTION
NON-COMMERCIAL 4.0 INTERNATIONAL LICENSE

gamerista.net
VIDEO GAME R & D
gamerista TM
DIGITAL VIDEO GAMES STRATEGY
ADVANCED VIDEO GAME DEVELOPMENT
USER AND AUDIENCE EXPERIENCE TESTING & RESEARCH
DIGITAL VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY ECOSYSTEMS MARKET RESEARCH
gamerista TM STUDIOS & LAB
AUSTIN STUDIOS,
RED BUILDING, #401
1901 E. 52nd. STREET
AUSTIN, TEXAS 78723
+1.512.825.6866 - Direct
+1.512.897.7100 - Main
info@gamerista.net
www.gamerista.net
@thegamerista
facebook.com/gamerista

REALITY IS REALLY REAL …
FACEBOOK 2013 PURCHASE OF OCULUS RIFT
$2 BILLION

USERS GENERALLY LOVED RIFT DK 1 …
OUR SURVEY SHOWS THAT USERS WERE VERY ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT THE RIFT DK 1 USER
EXPERIENCE. THE MAJORITY OF THOSE SURVEYED FOUND IT “TOTALLY COOL”.
ALMOST 80%, FOUND THE RIFT EXPERIENCE “MIND-BLOWING”.
OR Development Kit 1 (DK 1)
THE SLOWER FRAME RATES FEATURED ON DK 1 CONTRIBUTED TO A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF USERS
REPORTING HAVING SOME FORM OF DISORIENTATION OR DISCOMFORT. THE NEWER DK 2 AND FUTURE
MODELS FEATURE HIGHER FRAME RATES (Frame rate is a partial contributor to user virtual reality
disorientation and nausea).
WHILE DK 1 USERS TESTED WERE ONLY ABLE TO EXPERIENCE LIMITED DEMOS, PROTOTYPE
GAMES AND APPLICATIONS, MOST FELT THAT GOOD FUTURE CONTENT WILL DRIVE ADOPTION
OF RIFT AND VIRTUAL REALITY IN GENERAL.
THE TOP 3 PLATFORMS USERS WOULD PREFER TO HAVE RIFT EXPERIENCES ON ARE:
PC, SONY PLAYSTATION 4 AND STEAM.
ALMOST 80%, ON AVERAGE, WOULD RECOMMEND A RIFT PURCHASE TO A FRIEND WHEN IT BECOMES
COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE.

RIFT: SMART OR DUMB MONEY?
Facebook surprised everyone in December, 2014 and purchased Oculus Rift (OR) for an astounding
$2 billion. At the time, OR had no commercially available product nor any revenues as a startup
company in the R & D stage of growth. Many lauded the Facebook move as a visionary bet on a whole
new user experience paradigm. Time will tell.
At the time of the Facebook acquisition, OR only offered one experimental R & D head-mounted
display (HMD) known as Development Kit 1 (DK 1 or “Rift”) to approximately 60,000 OR developers on
a limited basis. The Facebook acquisition has resulted in major acceleration and growth in the Rift
development effort. New R & D versions of the Rift HMD are being introduced regularly.
OUR OCULUS RIFT “OPEN SOURCE” CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION SURVEY
Our Oculus Rift DK 1 User Experience Survey was developed to gather initial user experience
impressions of the Rift DK 1. Our commitment to those surveyed was that we would keep their
responses and profiles blinded, nor would we use these findings for commercial gain. Respondents
were told we offer the findings for free to all, in order to help the Rift development community and
beyond. These data may be used by anyone with the caveat that they must credit and provide
attribution to gamerista TM (c) 2014 (www.gamerista.net) if used in other presentations or derivative
works and not be used for commercial gain under the Creative Commons - Attribution Non-
Commercial License.
NEW IMPROVEMENTS SINCE DK 1 RELEASE
Virtual reality is not new. It has a long and uneven history going back many decades.
We will not review that history but rather provide some data from user experience surveys
we conducted in the first half of 2014, when the Rift DK 1 was released.
As such, these data are now confined only to the DK 1. Rift DK 2 replaced DK 1 in August, 2014. The
“Crystal Cove” Rift HMD release was announced in September, 2014, and is projected to replace DK 2
in April 2015. Despite the many improvements and innovations which have been made to the R&D
versions of the Rift HMDs, no commercial product was available in the general marketplace as of
November, 2014. OR has announced a number of future plans, including a development partnership
with Samsung to use its mobile Samsung Note 4 phone in a portable MMD without wired
connections (a/k/a “tetherless headset”).
May, 2013
August 2014
Crystal Cove
April 2015
Initial development HMD
with 60 fps frame rate
Second generation HMD with
75 fps frame rate plus
positional tracking added
Third generation HMD with
90 fps frame rate, plus
3600 tracking added
THE FUTURE OF VIRTUAL REALITY
Our Oculus Rift DK 1 User Experience Survey was conducted to gather first user experience impressions
of the DK 1. Most users surveyed had either seen a DK 1 demo at a trade show (45%) or said they were DK 1
developers themselves (44%). While this R & D version of the Rift is now obsolete, this survey does
provide some interesting insights into how new users and developers experienced the Rift in its first
“demo” offer. As such, there are some lessons to be learned about the future of the Rift and HMD-based
virtual reality user experiences in general.
SURVEY DISCLAIMER & SAMPLE SIZE
gamerista TM has no commercial ties to Oculus Rift or Facebook and independently conducted an
anonymous online user survey from December 2013 to March, 2014. We had 29 completed blind responses
to a set of 14 questions on the OR Rift DK 1 user experience. In the field of User Experience Testing, a
sample of 7 to 10 users is considered valid and survey design research shows that results do not vary
significantly if the sample is expanded exponentially.

TRIED RIFT AT TRADE SHOWS…
How often have you ever used Oculus Rift?
TAKEAWAY
THE MAJORITY WERE
FIRST TIME USERS,
SO THERE WAS A
“NOVELTY” EFFECT
WHICH MAY HAVE
CONTRIBUTED TO
THEIR REACTIONS.

ENJOYED THE HEADSET EXPERIENCE
What is your overall reaction to wearing the OR headset?
TAKEAWAY
MANY ENJOYED THE RIFT
HMD, BUT MOST FELT
FORTHCOMING IMPROVE-MENTS
COULD HELP
MAKE IT BETTER.

FRAME RATES & GAME STICKS
If you are familiar with configuring OR, did/do you do any of the following
things in using the OR?
TAKEAWAY
WITH A MIX OF TRADE
SHOW DEMO USERS
AND DEVELOPERS, WE
ASSUME ONLY THE
DEVELOPERS KNEW
ABOUT CONFIGURATION
DATA ISSUES AND FRAME
RATES.

RIFT MOSTLY USED WHILE SITTING
When you wear (or wore) the OR headset, were you standing or sitting or both?
TAKEAWAY
MOST USERS SAT DURING
DEMOS AND IN OTHER
VENUES SUCH AS A DK 1
DEVELOPER’S STUDIO.

MOSTLY PREFFERED SITTING
Which position do/did you prefer when wearing and using the OR headset?
TAKEAWAY
SITTING SEEMS TO BE
THE PREFERRED MODE
OF USING RIFT TO DATE.

WEARING A HEADSET IS A NOVEL EXPERIENCE
What was your physical experience of wearing the OR headset the first few times?
TAKEAWAY
THE VAST MAJORITY
FOUND THE RIFT HMD
COMFORTABLE TO WEAR
OR DIDN’T HAVE ANY
NOTABLE DISCOMFORT.

RIFT FELT “TOTALLY COOL”
Once you were in a game or app environment wearing the OR headset,
how did it make you feel physically?
TAKEAWAY
WHILE THE MAJORITY OF
USERS HAD A “TOTALLY
COOL” EXPERIENCE, A
SIGNIFICANT NUMBER
EXPERIENCED SOME
FORM OF VR DIS-COMFORT
AND
DISORIENTATION.

HANDLING RIFT VR DISORIENTION
If you felt/feel disoriented and/or nauseous while wearing the OR headset,
what do/did you do about it to stop it?
TAKEAWAY
MORE THAN HALF OF
THOSE WHO HAD VR
DISCOMFORT OR
DISORIENTATION ADAPT-ED
TO THE EXPERIENCE.

MAJOR RIFT GAMES & APPS TRIED
TAKEAWAY
USERS HAD TRIED MOST
OF THE COMMONLY
AVAILABLE ORIGINAL
DEMOS AVAILABLE FOR
DK 1 AT THE TIME.
What OR DK 1 supported games or apps have you tried?

LIKED THE DEMOS SEEN BUT…
Which statements best describe your experience with OR and
the games and apps you have tried?
TAKEAWAY
MOST USERS LIKED THE
GAMES THEY SAW AND
WANT MORE IN THE
FUTURE AS THE RIFT
DEVELOPS.

PC’s, PS4 & STEAM PREFERRED
What game platforms would you most want to use with the OR
in order of preference?
TAKEAWAY
RIFT USERS AND
DEVELOPERS WANT
TO SEE IT ON THEIR
TRADITIONAL GAMING
PLATFORMS.

CONSUMERS WILL ENJOY THE RIFT
Do you think that based on the overall virtual reality experience you had
with the OR headset, that most people will enjoy them and use them?
TAKEAWAY
THE VAST MAJORITY OF
THOSE TESTED FELT THAT
CONSUMERS WILL BUY
AND USE RIFT ONCE
AVAILABLE AT THE RIGHT
PRICE POINT.

CLOSE TO A MINDBLOWING EXPERIENCE
How would you rate your overall experience using a OR headset, where
"10" is "MINDBLOWING!" and "1" is "TERRIBLE".
TAKEAWAY
WHEN ASKED TO RATE
THE OVERALL RIFT
EXPERIENCE ON A SCALE,
ALMOST 80%, RATED IT
A “MINDBLOWING”
EXPERIENCE.

WOULD RECOMMEND TO A FREIND
How likely would you be to recommend to a friend to buy an OR headset
when they become available?
TAKEAWAY
ALMOST 80% OF USERS
SURVEYED SAID THEY
WOULD RECOMMEND
BUYING A RIFT HMD TO
A FRIEND.
PRICE POINTS WERE
NOT ASSESSED. THAT
COULD POTENTIALLY
IMPACT THIS RESPONSE
GREATLY.
THAT SAID, MANY DEMO
USERS AND MOST ALL
OR DEVELOPERS
ARE ANECDOTALLY
AWARE THAT THE
TENTATIVE PRICE
WOULD BE AROUND
$300 TO $400 US.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
gamerista TM
VIDEO GAME R & D
DIGITAL VIDEO GAMES STRATEGY
ADVANCED VIDEO GAME DEVELOPMENT
USER AND AUDIENCE EXPERIENCE TESTING & RESEARCH
DIGITAL VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY ECOSYSTEMS MARKET RESEARCH
gamerista TM STUDIOS & LAB
AUSTIN STUDIOS,
RED BUILDING, #401
1901 E. 52nd. STREET
AUSTIN, TEXAS 78723
+1.512.825.6866 - Direct
+1.512.897.7100 - Main
info@gamerista.net
www.gamerista.net
@thegamerista
facebook.com/gamerista

Gamerista.net 2014 Oculus Rift DK 1 Virtual Reality User Experience Survey

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Gamerista.net 2014 Oculus Rift DK 1 Virtual Reality User Experience Survey