Nintendo Returns to VR With $40 Headset That's Got Potential

Nintendo Returns to VR With $40 Headset That's Got Potential
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Nintendo has returned to the VR technology with an affordable headset that has potential for bigger things, according to Bloomberg.

The Labo VR Kit, which went on sale at $40, is a build-it-yourself set of cardboard goggles and controllers for Nintendo’s Switch console. The VR system has been carefully designed to work within the limits of the Switch’s processing power, and to minimize the chances of making players dizzy or sick. Its simplistic "mini-games" seem aimed primarily at casual gamers, particularly parents with youngish kids, who might want to try VR without dropping the many hundreds of dollars that more advanced systems like Facebook’s Oculus Rift can cost.

If the VR kit sells, it could help enhance Nintendo’s games lineup without the company having to produce a bunch of new hits. Recent announcement that popular games Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be compatible with the cardboard headset generated more buzz than the headset’s original unveiling and pushed shares to a two-month high.

A $40 version of the Labo kit comes with the basic goggles and a gun-like controller used to blast aliens. The full $80 version adds more controllers that resemble a camera, an elephant trunk, a bird and a pedal and are used in other mini-games to take photos of fish, fly like a bird, or paint in 3D. Another mode tests players’ creativity by letting them devise their own basic games.

So far, the software lacks the depth of Nintendo’s flagship titles and feels similar to the quirky mini-games released for other Labo products, which have mostly failed to attract a wide audience. The headset also makes painfully obvious the graphical limits of the Switch, which sports just half the pixel density of today’s top smartphones and a third the pixels of high-end VR headsets.

But Nintendo knows the Switch isn’t the ideal VR hardware. That’s why each mini-game in the Labo VR Kit is designed to be played at most for 5 to 10 minutes. The company has also opted against including a headset strap, meaning players are forced to hold the goggles up to their eyes. That also helps discourage using the system in anything other than short bursts, and encourages friends to pass it around.