u/hanrwerewr

I was thinking about the state of VR fantasy games recently, and I keep coming back to Zenith: The Last City.

Love it or hate it, the launch of Zenith proved one massive thing: the VR community is desperately hungry for deep RPGs, magic, and actual class systems. People went crazy for it. But because the developers tried to build a massive, sprawling MMO, it eventually collapsed under its own weight and maintenance costs.

What absolutely blows my mind is that since Zenith's downfall, no one has really stepped up to fill that void. The fantasy/RPG genre in standalone and PCVR seemingly died with it.

Why didn't studios learn from Zenith's failure and say, "Okay, building a full MMO is too ambitious for the VR market right now, let's make tight, 4-player co-op instanced RPGs instead"?

Instead, it feels like everyone just gave up on RPGs and went right back to making more zombie wave shooters. Are devs just too scared to touch class-based combat now, or is there some hidden gem I'm missing?

Looking at the top charts over the last year or so, it feels like the entire ecosystem has split into two very specific buckets. You've got the massive flood of Gorilla Tag clones taking over the movement/social side, and then for the action/combat side... we are permanently stuck in an endless loop of realistic military shooters and zombie wave-survival games.

Don't get me wrong, I've put a ton of hours into Pavlov, Contractors, and After the Fall. I respect the tech behind them. But how many times can we rack a slide and shoot a grey zombie in a dark hallway before the formula gets completely stale?

As a VR dev myself, I totally understand why studios rely on shooters—guns and flashlights just translate incredibly well to VR controllers. It’s the safest bet. But as a player, I'm just getting so tired of the exact same combat loop. It feels like the industry is so hyper-focused on perfecting "manual reloading" and gun physics that we are completely ignoring different ways to fight.

Outside of the Gorilla Tag movement trend, what action genres do you guys think are severely underrepresented in VR right now? Am I the only one experiencing this massive shooter fatigue?

Earlier last week, I made a post in another VR sub venting my frustrations. I've been an indie VR dev in China for 8 years, and watching the domestic ecosystem collapse (Pico's massive layoffs, Qiyu going under), combined with Meta seemingly starving Reality Labs to chase the AI trend, put me in a really dark place.

It’s a brutal feeling when you pour your life into a project, launch it into EA, and only see a trickle of like 5 new players a day. I was honestly ready to throw in the towel.

But the response to that post surprised me. Instead of just agreeing that VR is dying, a massive chunk of the comments pointed to one specific thing: Valve’s upcoming Steam Frame.

People were calling it a massive positive shift and the lifeline we need. Since this is the PCVR hub, I wanted to bring the question directly to you guys for a reality check:

Is the Steam Frame actually the ecosystem reset we need, or are we just huffing hopium because we desperately want an alternative to Meta?

On paper, I get the hype. The idea of Valve stepping in with a standalone/PCVR hybrid running SteamOS sounds incredible. A hardware ecosystem built purely for gaming, breaking us out of the walled gardens, and directly connecting users to their Steam libraries.

But is that enough to actually bring the player base back to life and sustain indie devs? Or is it just going to be a niche device for hardcore enthusiasts?

I'm trying to figure out if I should keep pushing forward and focus my energy entirely on SteamVR. I’d love to hear your honest, unfiltered takes. Are you guys actually holding out for this?

Earlier this week, I made a post venting about the state of VR. I've been an indie dev here in China for 8 years. Watching the domestic ecosystem collapse, combined with Meta seemingly scaling back Reality Labs to chase the AI trend, put me in a really dark place.

It’s brutal when you launch a game into Early Access and only see like 5 new players a day. I was honestly ready to give up.

But surprisingly, a huge chunk of the comments I got pointed to one specific thing: Valve’s upcoming Steam Frame.

People were calling it the ecosystem reset we need. But I wanted to ask this community specifically, since you are the core standalone player base: Do you actually see the Steam Frame as a viable alternative to the Quest?

I get why PCVR players are hyped, but for the average Quest user, is a Valve standalone headset running SteamOS actually appealing? Or is Meta's grip on the standalone market already too strong with their library and pricing?

I'm trying to figure out if I should hold out hope for this new hardware or if we are just being overly optimistic. Would love to hear your unfiltered thoughts.

Man, I just need to vent for a sec.

I've been an indie VR dev here in China for 8 years. I survived the early 2016 hype cycles, the headset wars, all of it. But looking at the state of the industry right now, it's getting really hard to keep the faith.

Things over here in the domestic market are looking incredibly grim. In 2023, Pico (backed by ByteDance) just gutted their VR teams with massive layoffs. They were supposed to be our answer to the Quest. Then Qiyu VR (the #2 player here) basically imploded and went under. Almost overnight, the whole domestic ecosystem just froze. Funding dried up completely.

I used to look at the western market to keep me sane, but now? The AI boom feels like it just sucked all the oxygen out of the room. Watching Meta quietly scale back Reality Labs while throwing billions at LLMs is honestly depressing. They were practically subsidizing this whole standalone VR ecosystem. Now it feels like Zuck has a new shiny toy, and we're being left behind.

We spend months and years of our lives optimizing for these mobile chips, making games we actually care about, and right now it just feels like screaming into a void. Investors don't care about XR anymore.

Are we just riding out a rough patch, or is VR actually shrinking back to being a super niche hardware gimmick? Any other veteran devs or players feeling this burnout? Because right now, I'm seriously questioning my career choices.