Console gamers are more excited for VR than PC gamers

Only 49% of gamers asked had interest in VR

Other than the PlayStation VR, virtual reality is almost entirely confined to the realms of PC gaming. For example, the Vive and Rift require a beefy rig, while and the Sulon Q straps a PC to the back of your head. So it may be surprising to hear that PC gamers just aren’t as excited for VR as their console playing counterparts.

This was found in a study run by market research company Ipsos for GamesIndustry.biz. Apparently, 63% of console players are interested in VR, whereas only 51% of PC players showed an interested.

If you’re looking more specifically at PS4 and Xbox One console players – who are more likely to buy a dedicated VR device when they become available – that interest shoots up to 72% interest. That’s quite a difference.

Looking at all gamers asked – 8317 respondents from all platforms – shows that we’re pretty mixed on VR, with only 49% of people having any interest in VR. GamesIndustry.biz points out the respondents were asked to ignore the costs of VR, which suggests it isn’t necessarily the lower cost of the PlayStation VR that’s netting it more interest.

The difference between PC and console players doesn’t look significant enough for companies like HTC or Oculus to panic about, but it’s still an interesting finding. I hope Ipsos or GamesIndustry.biz explain why this difference exists eventually, because I’m really struggling to think of any convincing reasons for it other than “us PC gamers sure are cynical.”

Survey: PlayStation/Xbox gamers more interested in VR than PC players [GamesIndustry.biz]