If you’re keeping up with discussions on VR through social media, you’ve probably seen PC VR enthusiasts insisting that what VR really needs is more high-quality, PC-exclusive content. Recently, the creator behind Boneworks and Bonelab took to X to share some insight into why studios are hesitant to develop VR games that require top-tier PC specifications.
Brandon J Laatsch posed a thought-provoking question on X, asking what specifications people envision when they talk about PC VR. He pointed out that the Quest 3, with its comparable CPU, RAM, and GPU, even exceeds the drive speeds of the minimum PC VR specs from 2016. This raises the question: what should developers aim for by the year 2025?
In a series of posts, Laatsch elaborated that for developers to even consider targeting devices like Quest 3 and Quest 3S, while leaving out the Quest 2, the game would need a maximum budget of around $10 million. To break even with such a budget, they’d need to sell 416,000 copies at $40 each—an ambitious goal given the track record of VR games reaching these numbers.
Despite the evolving landscape, with the open store expansion and Horizon Worlds gaining momentum, most VR developers still find their primary audience within the Quest ecosystem. Ignoring this platform entirely would mean slashing budgets significantly, which would, in turn, reduce the game’s overall ambition and quality—a balancing act Laatsch refers to as “a challenging puzzle to maximize.”
Taking a look at current statistics, less than 2% of Steam users engage with a VR headset in any given month, or slightly under 3% when Chinese users are factored in. This figure has remained relatively stagnant for some time now. For VR games with high production values to be centered around PC VR without financial backing from major players like Valve, this percentage would need to increase considerably. There were high hopes that a new Valve headset might boost these numbers, but the rumored $1,200 price tag has left many feeling skeptical.
