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Bethesda's Todd Howard Predicts VR Will Take Off In The 'Third Generation'

Bethesda's Todd Howard Predicts VR Will Take Off In The 'Third Generation'

While plenty of interesting new VR apps are being released by the week, it’s no secret that the wider world doesn’t see VR as a huge success story just yet. But one of the makers of VR’s biggest games isn’t worried right now.

In fact Todd Howard, Executive Producer and Game Director over at Bethesda Softworks, expects it to take a little longer for VR to hit the mainstream. Speaking at the Gamelab developer conference in Spain last week (as reported by VentureBeat), Howard spoke a little about his thoughts on the future of VR.

“I’m a little more VR than AR [augmented reality],” Howard told a crowd. “We did Fallout and Skyrim in VR. We’re just about to enter the second generation of VR. Historically, the third generation is where it starts to become popular.”

It’s interesting to hear Howard refer to where the industry is at now as the beginning of the second generation of VR. Many VR enthusiasts would argue that the arrival of Bethesda’s high-quality ports of Skyrim and Fallout 4 in VR hailed the arrival of the second generation, but perhaps these are first-generation titles in Howard’s mind. Perhaps the real question, though, is how long will it take to get to that third generation Howard predicts will help the tech take off, and what game and/or hardware will signal its arrival?

Bethesda has another VR game on the way in the form of The Elder Scrolls: Blades, though it’s set to hit mobile platforms first. The company’s wider publishing efforts are also bringing out Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot and a VR update for Prey in the coming months, so there’s plenty more to look forward to from the studio.

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