Virtual reality gaming continues to grow in popularity and sales but supply will not keep up with demand in 2016, according to a leading Australian tech company. Telsyte has released the findings of a study it carried out into the use of VR technology in Australia.
It found developers and manufacturers were expected to fall short of consumer demand this year, with 110,000 units to be sold.
“There are about one million PlayStation 4 consoles in the market in Australia,” Telsyte Manaaging Director Foad Fadaghi said. On these figures, up to 890,000 consumers could miss out on Sony VR headsets in 2016.
Mr Fadaghi said gamers were the largest readily available market for VR technology.
“The strongest pent-up demand is coming from gamers, who clearly see VR as the next frontier in immersive entertainment,” Mr Fadaghi told The Australian Financial Review.
“VR, in general in Australia, has a very slow uptake due to the price, especially in the Illawarra. The majority of applications at the moment are for developers,” UOW Video Game Association president Michael Koteski said.
“With the advancing of the technology and prices to drop in the future, I would say there will be a substantial market for VR products to become part of the norm of peripherals … even HUDs for cars or helmets to enable safer travel.”
A Goldman Sachs Global Investment study revealed VR would play a role in the public and the private sectors.
The study said VR hardware would most likely be used in healthcare, engineering, real estate, retail, the military, and education. It valued these combined markets at potentially more than $16 billion in 2025. However, estimated the private sector markets, including video games, live events, and video entertainment, would be worth almost $19 billion on the same timeline. It is claimed VR and AR (augmented reality) technologies and software will be a $35 billion a year industry from 2025.
