Google has confirmed that they are ending sales for Daydream View headsets, following the revelation that the newly-announced Pixel 4 Smartphone will not support the VR platform.
While the Daydream app will continue to work for users on older devices, this marks the end of Google’s VR experiment, a troubling sign for the future of consumer VR. In a released statement, a Google spokesperson addressed the disappointing sales of the Daydream: “[There hasn’t] been the broad consumer or developer adoption we had hoped, and we’ve seen decreasing usage over time of the Daydream View headset.”
The announcement does not come as an enormous surprise, as Google has been visibly moving away from VR for some time now: last year’s Pixel 3a didn’t support the platform either. Additionally, Hulu dropped support for Daydream last month, and Google closed their Spotlight Stories VR studio in March this year.
Google stated that they do not see mobile VR as being a long-term viable solution for the moment, citing “clear limitations constraining smartphone VR.” Alongside the recent demise of the Samsung Gear, this comes as another blow to VR.
Google’s initial announcement that they were entering the VR space proper back in 2016, following the buzz of created by its Project Cardboard, prompted a lot of excitement among supporters, who believed that Daydream, with wide support from phone manufacturers, was VR’s best shot at mainstream success.
