"The Martian VR experience" was launched yesterday for the PSVR and HTC Vive. This VR feature is literally what it says its, an experience, not a game.
Based on Ridley Scott's Blockbuster movie, "The Martian VR Experience" is the first VR entry from Fox Innovation Labs. The VR experience was launched a couple of days ago with a price tag of $20 The Martian VR Experience is considered as the most expensive non-game VR release so far.
The movie "The Martian" is a story of an astronaut left behind and presumed dead in the Red Planet. The astronaut who happens to be a Botanist utilized his knowledge and skills to survive until his rescuers arrive. The movie's VR counterpart is an immersion towards the left-alone in Mars experience. The player can explore the red planet's surface or play with his organically grown potatoes, an article from CNet states that: "At $20, the virtual-reality piece based on Matt Damon's movie is an experiment on whether people will pay for VR content that isn't a game."
"The Martian VR Experience" is also said to be just a polished version of the CES demo. The release of the VR content is seen as a "new media opportunity" for the movie industry, and this is just the start of Fox's VR plans, according to Engadget. The VR content is currently getting poor reviews from VR owners who bought the content. According to one of the customers who bought the game on Steam: "From start to finish it barely took me 20 minutes and most of that time I was bored. This is a glorified advertisement for the movie and the fact that it's being charged for is pretty much a crime." Another consumer on Steam wrote: "Do not spend $20 on this demo. This 'demo' has a lot of fun and great ideas, but it's definitely not worth the price tag. This should've been free!"
A $20 VR content that can be explored within 20 minutes is not everyone's cup of tea. VR experience should be fun or educational. The consumer who paid for the content expects more than a 20-minute experience. And whether or not this was one of Fox's social experiment, a project like this should come for free, not overpriced.
