Kismet is Like Being Inside a Disney Movie

I can, but I have to be a little vague... Not because it's a secret, but because this is a whole new world for us as a studio and, honestly, for everyone making things in VR. As readers of /r/oculus or /r/vive know, we're in very speculative, mysterious times. And that's OK! It's quite exciting.

So, for starters, the first thing we've seen are overwhelmingly positive reviews and conversations online, from the user reviews on the Steam side of thing to the conversations we see naturally happening here on Reddit, on Youtube, on Twitter, on Twitch, on VR-dedicated websites, from other VR creators, etc. The positives we're hearing are VERY positive, and biggest negative we've been hearing is "I wish there were more," which is basically the best bad thing a person can say, because you only want more of a thing you like. And as I said earlier, we made a decision to start small, and charge a fair price, and people really do understand. It's been quite lovely. I think this thread I'm commenting in right here is something any creator would love to have happen, where people share positive remarks about your game and tell you they want more. So that's honestly been really, really great. Expectations there=exceeded.

Now, when it comes to cash money... again, it's complicated. I'm not going to divulge sensitive company info (I'm not the boss of Psyop by a longshot, just a member of the team), but I will answer my best. Kismet was made by our studio as an expression of our values and our abilities, as well as being an exploration of a big sector of emerging tech -- which is something we do because we're obsessed with just that kind of thing. We did not make Kismet as a way to get our hands into some new pot o' gold at the end of a VR rainbow. As far as I can tell, there's no gold there---not just yet. If you've seen articles around from places like Upload and Ars, you know that the theoretical install base for the headsets is just a teeny tiny fraction of what a console might be, and the rate at which they're producing and shipping more, and the type of people buying them, that's information is hard to come by. It's not an area in which anyone can make reasonable projections, especially considering the enormous unknowns which come with developing for a platform that might be significantly different between when you go to bed and when you wake up in the morning. But we knew that going in. I'd guess that this is why big companies who make big games that cost big money seem to be waiting for it to mature. We're not one of those companies, and while Kismet wasn't cheap it sure wasn't Call of Duty. So, I'll finish up by circling back just a little: this is an investment, not just in terms of final end-user sales, but in our company, our team, our abilities, our user and client-facing profile, etc etc etc. And in that regard, everyone seems very happy with the results so far and what it signals about our prospects for the future. I hope that helps.

/r/oculus Thread Parent Link - youtube.com