14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo did not make any big hardware-related announcements during the recently ended E3 2015 event, but it is pretty clear that the company does not have any plans to include any sort of virtual reality element in the coming NX platform.
Reggie Fils-Aime, who leads the North American division of the company, tells Polygon that "What we believe is that, in order for this technology to move forward, you need to make it fun and you need to make it social. I haven’t walked the floor, so I can’t say in terms of what’s on the floor today, but at least based on what I’ve seen to date, it’s not fun, and it’s not social. It’s just tech."
Apparently, Nintendo has been experimenting with virtual reality, although it's unclear whether the executive is talking about the entire history of the company or the past few years.
In 1995, the company introduced the Virtual Boy, which was one of the first VR solutions to be offered to gamers, but the concept did not manage to stay relevant in the long term.
Nintendo has already said that it wants to offer a full look at the NX hardware at some point in 2016, which probably means that a full launch might take place in about two years.
Virtual reality devices are coming in late 2015
The first of the VR solutions to be made commercially available to the public is the Vive, which is being created by HTC in collaboration with Valve.
In the first half of 2016, the Oculus Rift will also be introduced, with a package which includes the ability to stream Xbox One titles to Windows 10 PCs, a home console controller, and a wireless adapter for it.
Sony is planning to offer the Project Morpheus solution for the PlayStation 4 during the same timeframe.
Neither of the companies has officially announced price points for their devices until now, but analysts predict that they will all be introduced at over 300 dollars or Euro.
The biggest problem with virtual reality at the moment is the relative lack of video games and apps for it, which might impede wider adoption by the public.