EA taking 'wait and see' approach to VR market

Publishing giant Electronics Arts has indicated that it is taking a cautious approach to the burgeoning virtual reality market, stating that it will 'wait and see' how big it becomes before targeting its users.

Virtual reality is enjoying a boom kicked off by the incredible crowd-funding success of the still yet-to-commercially-launch Oculus Rift headset. Despite the 80s and 90s both being when virtual reality was due to take off, the 2010s is looking like when it might actually happen thanks to companies like Oculus VR and its owner Facebook, Valve, HTC, and Sony all putting in considerable time, money, and effort to convince buyers that head-mounted displays are the next big thing.

EA, though, isn't sure. Speaking at the UBS Global Technology Conference, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz, EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen was distinctly cold on the boom. 'I think the biggest challenge is just the size of the [VR] market,' he explained. 'We don't make games anymore for the Wii or the Wii U because the market is not big enough, the PS Vita - the Sony product - we don't make games for that anymore because the market is too small, so it's all about the size of the market.'

Jorgensen was not indicating that his company will completely ignore VR, though. 'We'll build software for various [virtual reality platforms,' he told attendees, 'but we'll really wait and see how big the market is going to be.'