Nintendo doesn't think VR is ready for the mainstream just yet

Reggie Fils-Aime says that Nintendo will embrace VR when mass markets are ready for it.

Nintendo doesn't think VR is ready for the mainstream just yet

As both Microsoft and Sony readying VR for their upcoming consoles, one might wonder why the third member of the Big Three hasn't jumped in yet. According to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, the answer is simple: When VR is ready to be embraced by a mass market audience, the publisher will be there, but the audience is too limited at this time.

"We’ve been looking at the VR space since the days of the Virtual Boy," Fils-Aime told Bloomberg. "With us, we want to make sure our next content is going to be mainstream, mass-market approachable, and when something like VR is at that point, you can expect Nintendo to be there."

Fils-Aime added that Nintendo has approached technology this way for a long time, and usually it's been for the best. "There was a lot of gyroscopic technology out there in the marketplace, but it took the Wii and the Wii Remote to really make it mainstream," he explained. "Even going all the way back to the Nintendo DS, that was the first electronic device that really made extensive use of a touchscreen." While Fils-Aime implies that VR does have value, it's currently restricted to "short snacks" of entertainment that aren't guaranteed to succeed on a large scale.

To be fair, Nintendo did have a disastrous experience with the Virtual Boy, so being reluctant to jump into the fray is understandable. The question is whether Nintendo would be embracing VR at the right time, or entering a market that's become saturated with multiple headsets.

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