The public acceptance of Virtual and Augmented Reality is an inevitability in my opinion. Too much money has been invested, and too much interest has been stimulated for this technology to remain on the side-lines forever.

I have seen glimpses of the future in such technologies as Valve’s HTC Vive, the Oculus Rift, Sony’s Project Morpheus, and Microsoft’s Hololens headsets. It is impossible in my eyes to pick a clear winner out of these products; and I am indeed heartened by this fact – I hope they can all pull in the same direction towards a new gaming horizon…

But as for the timing and placement of these products, I think it is just too early to be aiming for them to be used in the home of the average gamer. Not everyone is going to be prepared or willing to put down the amount of money required to try out one of these systems, this early on in their development.

Where I’d differ with many companies or individuals on the timing of this “VR Revolution” and its original audience would be this – I believe that the true future of VR will be as an ‘away from home’ experience, similar to the Video Arcades of old. As well as this, I think we should be aiming for the youngest generation of gamer available.

One idea which held particular appeal for me was the "Star Wars Battle Pod" - which uses a dome like screen to increase player immersion in the game. To me, such an experience would be tailor-made to recreate using a Virtual Reality interface. It is all the additional features like specialised controllers, seating and surround sound that would truly complete the experience.

While I find it difficult to see VR/AR technology taking off in mainstream users' houses in the near future, I do however believe we will see this equipment being employed more and more in the creation of games for this audience. I think having the chance to interact and be a part of your game in a completely different way to that offered by so-called "conventional" display and control methods will become increasingly compelling in years to come, and definitely pave the way for the a tomorrow when VR is commonplace...