UPDATED 15:41 EDT / AUGUST 11 2017

EMERGING TECH

Google woos virtual reality customers with Daydream summer sale

In a move to get more people to buy into virtual reality, Google Inc. today started the “Daydream Summer Sale” for VR apps on its Daydream VR headset.

During the sale, which runs Aug. 11-17, numerous apps available for Google’s Daydream View mobile VR headset will be reduced up to 60 percent.

Apps affected by the sale include the popular puzzle game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, half off, to $4.99; tiny-planet warfare game Battle Planet, also half off, to $5.99; desk top toy-based warfare game Toy Clash (pictured), 60 percent off at $1.99; and multiplayer magic dueling game Wands, half off at $2.99. For artsy VR users, SculptVR, a sculpting and building app that uses a 3-D canvas, is down to $1.99, or 60 percent off.

The Daydream View headset itself is $79 – reduced to $59 for one more day. It requires a high-end smartphone such as the Google Pixel or the recently supported Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8+.

This sale comes amid other VR developers running sales and reducing prices on their own VR equipment. Facebook Inc.’s Oculus started its “Summer of Rift” sale, including daily deals on VR apps, then dropped the price for its own Rift headset to $399 for a limited time.

Google introduced Daydream VR at Google I/O 2016 as a mobile VR offering that allows users to install a smartphone in a headset. Daydream competes with the Samsung Gear VR and also comes with a motion-sensitive handheld controller that makes it easier to control VR apps. Google also recently announced plans to release an Android-powered standalone VR headset that will run Daydream apps.

According to a report from IHS Markit, Google Daydream is expected to ship 2.23 million headsets in 2017, but the rival Samsung Gear VR is anticipated to maintain market leadership at 4.1 million sold.

These two headsets, along with their respective apps and experiences, also lead the way into a VR market that analysts believe is still struggling to produce content. According to a report from Allied Business Intelligence Research Inc., the VR market as a whole is expected to reach $60 billion worldwide by 2021, but it’s still limited by a lack of compelling content.

A sale on the Daydream VR platform may also drive more installations of apps and experiences. A report in December said Daydream apps saw poor installation performance. For example, currently SculptVR has only 100 to 500 installs (added in April), and the same with Battle Planet (added in February). Wands shows 1,000 to 5,000 installs. The most popular, Keep Taking and Nobody Explodes, shows the best number at 10,000 to 50,000 installs. They all fall well short of the free Netflix VR app, which has 100,000 to 500,000 installs.

VR apps and experiences available on the Daydream View cross over to an extent with the Samsung Gear VR, since both use Android-based phones. However, Samsung VR is only compatible with Samsung phones and Daydream now includes a wider variety.

Image: Google

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