AR vs VR: Fight!

From the outset, 2016 was heralded as "the Year of Virtual Reality" with regards to the development of the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and several other PC/console VR platforms. The internet buzzed with excitement, and a wave of VR titles seemed set to dominate the market.

In reality, VR platforms have largely been ignored post-launch despite the interest they initially generated. A relatively high price point (with the Vive topping the charts at $799) and a shortage of playable titles at launch could attribute to the lackluster reception, or, an over-hyped audience disappointed with the product they received. Whatever the reason, the VR industry hasn't seen anything close to the numbers projected early in 2016. SuperData, the research firm that often provides insight into the world of game and hardware sales, closed the year by revising its expectations. The firm downgraded 2016 expectations for PlayStation VR in particular, from 2.6 million to under 750,000 while Google Daydream saw a reduction from 450,000 to 260,000.

A quick look at the online industry discourse and it seems that VR has all but disappeared from the conversation. In full disclosure, this comes as a personal surprise as our house still runs like a Best Buy showroom with friends eagerly coming over to try the PSVR and leaving to contemplate purchasing a system of their own.

The first significant PSVR release of this year, Resident Evil, is less than a week away. It could very well be the breakout title for PSVR and the one to shock some excitement back into consumer VR.

Meanwhile, Augmented Reality began an unexpected comeback after the lukewarm launch of Google Glass. With Google itself investing heavily in the startup Magic Leap, and Microsoft launching their own Kinect-inspired HoloLens, the tech giants seem to be in a race for supremacy in AR's emerging market.

But new hardware doesn't come quickly, or cheap. Despite nearly $1 billion in funding, Magic Leap doesn't have a retail product available, while Microsoft's is currently sitting at $4,500.

On the software end, we're all familiar with how Pokémon Go took over the mobile gaming scene in mid-summer of last year. Pokémon Go itself saw 50 million active users and over $600 million in revenue in its first three months, as reported by SensorTower. It was a mobile gaming juggernaut.

The amount of active Pokémon Go players has dropped significantly since the game's early days, with unsatisfied users citing a lack of available content as the driving reason for their departure. Even after heavy losses to its player-base, Pokémon Go sits near the top of both the Android and iOS marketplaces. More importantly, it introduced a broad audience to the concept of AR and more deeply, demonstrated that the success of AR is in its mobility.

The future of the AR/VR landscape remains exciting but uncertain. The demand for user-integrated gameplay is still very real, and the technology to deliver it is developing fast, but as 2016 demonstrated, we're not quite there yet. With the lackluster launch of multiple VR platforms and AR being still in its infancy, a clear winner has yet to emerge.