It’s time, ladies and gentlemen! VR technology is finally here! With the release of the PlayStation VR in just a few short days, all three major headsets, as well as numerous cheaper ones (like the Samsung Gear) are already out on the market. That’s exciting news for those of us who have been waiting for all headsets to hit store shelves and be reviewed by the pros before making an informed decision on which one to buy, but it also means that we’ll finally be able to get a good estimate of the install base of VR users. If, by this time next year, more than a million people worldwide own a Vive or a Rift, then perhaps that means the time is ripe for VR casino games to finally be placed in development. Obviously, these games will be a lot more expensive to develop than your average slot, requiring fully 3D backgrounds rendered in high definition in order to, well, recreate the feeling of virtual reality. There’s little point of VR if the simulation doesn’t look anything like reality, right? With that said, most casinos probably wouldn’t be able to afford to create successful builds of all types of games. That means it’s up to us to decide which games are worth being given the VR treatment and which are better left in the 2D world!
Blackjack is a great first candidate, mostly because it’s one of the most popular online casino games (that isn’t slots) ever. Hundreds of people play online blackjack on the top rated blackjack sites every day, including me – there’s nothing quite like the feeling of sitting down and playing a game that’s equal parts chance and mathematical skill as opposed to just pure luck like most other casino games. Sure, even though in an online environment you can’t really count cards, which drastically reduces the odds of winnings when compared to physical locations, blackjack is still one of the games that provides the best chance of winning consistently, as long as you know how to play and aren’t just hitting whenever you feel like it. With that said, though, unfortunately, I don’t think that it would be a right fit for VR. Think about it – VR is all about spectacle. It’s about recreating environments in virtual reality that you can’t have in real reality. Most of us don’t have access to things like physical slots and roulette tables in our daily lives, but with VR we can use them whenever we want. On the other hand, what do you really need to play blackjack? A table and a deck of cards. Anyone has that. Recreating it in VR would be a waste.
However, you know what I think wouldn’t be a waste? Making a blackjack game for Google Glass, or another Augmented Reality (AR) glasses set. While virtual reality focuses on recreating the entire surroundings from scratch, augmented reality only seeks to alter it in some interactive way, such as, for example, by allowing you to play blackjack right on the surface of your very own desk! And sure, the Glass itself is pretty much dead at this point, but who knows, it’s entirely possible that other competitors (like Microsoft’s HoloLens) might step up and deliver that augmented reality blackjack experience we all deserve!