It’s been a long time coming, but it finally happened. Daydream VR is no more, with Google just announcing its decision to take the forgotten virtual reality platform off life support. Its final decision on the matter has been made a while back because its official confirmation comes in the form of an Android 11 changelog. So, Daydream VR’s fate was likely sealed no later than spring.
In other words, there are no guarantees VR will work natively on newer Android devices, starting with this year’s upgrade. This applies to every custom implementation of the OS based on Android 11 like Samsung’s upcoming One UI 3.0 or OxygenOS 11 which recently started rolling out to OnePlus devices. The end of Daydream VR comes just over a month ahead of its fourth release anniversary; not that many would have remembered it. According to Google itself, the lack of consumer adoption was the main reason behind the decision to pull the plug on the project.
Then again, the overall lack of smartphone-optimized VR content probably had something to do with that, as well, leading to a Catch-22 situation – users don’t care about the platform because it has no apps, app developers don’t care about the platform because it has no users, rinse and repeat until an OS changelog says the party is over, knowing full well that for Daydream VR, it never truly began in the first place.
A note from Invader: Dear visitor, you’re going through an archived part of our VR News category. Now, although 2020 was great for gaming, it wasn’t a particularly fun one. So, for the newest gaming news, as well as tech news we would recommend a jump to their respective categories.