There's a post by Palmer Luckey somewhere that even if we drive down the price of vr headsets to 0 still it won't make it mainstream.. implying that content and the quality of experience are the main barriers today.. that's what has reflected in the above decision imo..
I don't understand why everyone sets 'undefined' targets like the term 'mainstream'.
So when anyone uses it, ask them to define 'mainstream'. So you know what they are really talking about.
I would agree that there is a shortage of 'compelling content'.
I define 'compelling' as something so useful or just damn cool you 'want it'. Even if you do not 'need it'.
We all know things that it is capable of, but so far we really have seen little more than a uncompelling or only lightly compelling proof of concept. Think vr chat rooms.
Let me give you a example...
We know about gaming so I will not go there. That is where the current demand is.
But if 'mainstream' means anybody would want it...my example...
Let's take virtual touring... from vacation promotion to seeing sights you might not ever see in you life in person. So we have 'some' content, but it is very limited. If you don't like one of the dozen or two places they have content for. There can't be much to compel you for the want. They (VR) are as nearly expensive as a cruise ship tour to go all in.
One more...
We all know the potential for sporting events live in real time.
We have only seen a few limited examples. There are plenty of folks that would 'buy-in' at prices higher than most would pay in person. It's just not there for various reasons. There are a lot of tech issues with some content that makes it cost prohibitive. And again, of the few who have a HMD, how many will pay a premium to watch sports this way. It would be compelling if it were delivered in the way we all envision it. but where is it ?
While you might think that folks like Oculus have bettered the industry by buying content makers... it's not so.
They end up making content for only 'their product' to give them some kind of edge in standards creation and choice when selecting a HMD. And as I have stated for over 5 years, standards creation will change a lot. We need it NOW. So dev's don't have the need to create a new program for each HMD. Everyone wins except for those that loose (LOL) and the chance of loosing is why nobody really pushes that button.
You have the classic chicken or the egg
Not worth many dev's and content creators to make content when there are so few to sell it to.
We do not have enough competition in the hardware market as well, and no standards.
I did not really think we were going to have standards till after the 3rd gen of HMD's when it will be clear it is beneficial.
But I think it's magic breakout point is within hand as we see HMD sales, currently hampered by production problems caused by the pandemic starting to flourish and the latest sets of numbers will be encouraging to dev's since they have a nicely increasing audience to sell to.
Now is that a mainstream moment... probably not. It may be the start of more content creators and that is the key to achieving some compelling content in wider variety.