I received my Gear VR yesterday and played around with it for an hour or two. For what it is and for $100, I am fairly impressed. Naturally, when you have what basically amounts to magnifying glasses right in front of a AMOLED phone screen, you are going to see the pixels. With that being said, sitting on a virtual couch, looking around a beautiful virtual home and watching Netflix on "the big screen" was pretty fun. I also downloaded an underwater simulation with sharks, turtles, etc.
With that being said, would I have bothered with this if I didn't already own a compatible phone? No. Would I have actually bought this if my wife hadn't won it from Samsung? Possibly. Will I continue to tinker and enjoy it? Definitely.
The problem with VR is the cost of entry, at least so far. Gear VR is a cool, but niche product that only users of Samsung's latest flagship phones can use. Oculus Rift is a niche product that only owners of a pretty potent, powerful PC can use.
I know that they claim they are selling it "around cost", but when the dev kits cost $350, I can't see how the retail unit would be $600+. The storage box can't cost all that much. Even tacking on $60 for an Xbox controller only brings it up to $410. And the two games are worth what, about $40 for the pair? $60 tops? That makes it $470. And please note, if you look up the costs of buying development kits for just about any hardware platform, they are always outrageously priced compared to a retail model.
With all that being said, I believe VR can and will be a viable platform. My hope is that PlayStation VR comes in around $300-$350 for the standalone kit. I know it has that extra CPU box, but without needing a camera, controllers, bundled game, etc. it should be cheaper. I hope anyway.
