While many large technology companies are still working out if virtual reality (VR) fits into their future, engine makers such as Unity Technologies have jumped straight on board. The company’s Unity Engine recently hit its 5.1 update, which included full support for the Oculus Rift head-mounted display (HMD), while future upgrades will continue to improve VR integration. Now Unity Technologies CEO John Riccitiello has spoken out about some of the ‘sour grapes’ VR interviews that have taken place over the past few weeks.

“In the last 48 hours I’ve seen a lot of sour grapes interviews coming out of E3,” Riccitiello told GamesIndustry.biz. “Notable industry luminaries have come out and said VR is no fun, or VR’s not going to be interesting. I tend to think it’s sad when all people can think is whether it would be fun to play Call of Duty in VR. I mean, for God’s sake, too many people are still answering the wrong question.” Among those that have spoken out against VR in the past month is Warren Spector, the famed developer behind titles such as the original Deus Ex.

“Each successive generation of technology has yielded different kinds of experience, and the games have fundamentally changed,” he continued. “VR and AR are going to deliver fundamentally different experiences. They also try to make the analogy to 3D TV – it’s a bad analogy. 3D TV wasn’t really that different. VR is really different, and AR is really different from VR. We don’t know what’s going to come out of this. We have recognised a break in the road relative to what’s now possible, and we don’t know where that’s going to lead yet.”

Indeed, 3D TV’s are largely seen as a failure, certainly not proving as popular as many companies had hoped. Will Riccitiello’s statements about why VR will succeed where this technology failed ring true? The next few years will tell all.

VRFocus will continue to follow the latest VR updates closely.