Why the Virtual-Reality Hype is About to Come Crashing Down

Why the Virtual-Reality Hype is About to Come Crashing Down [if paywalled, enter headline into Google to try to read for free]

The key to these compelling VR experiences is what experts call “presence”—the illusion that you are somewhere else, instead of in a room with a computer attached to your face. It is a fragile illusion, aided by the ability to move through, and interact with, a scene, as you can most easily on HTC’s Vive.

Unfortunately, much nongame VR content, including so-called “360 video,” doesn’t support that illusion. Rather than feeling that you are in a place, experiencing an event, current 360 video tends to make you feel like your head is “in a fishbowl of video,” as Mr. Pinnell puts it. Such experiences make me fear that 360 video will be the next 3-D TV, something nobody asked for and few will use.