Apple Vision Pro — Game devs and rivals offer their reactions

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After years of rumors, Apple finally unveiled its Apple Vision Pro mixed reality headset today at its Worldwide Developer Conference. And game devs gave their reactions.

There are lots of developers on-site at Apple’s headquarters, but we’ve gathered reactions from developers and other tech companies — including rivals — to see what they think.

Numerous developers said the headset was overpriced at $3,499, and they were not impressed with the two-hour battery life. It’s also coming later than expected with a launch in early 2024. Others noted that the device is only compatible with Apple hardware and doesn’t give a nod to the open metaverse. For a while, things you can do “for $3,500” was trending on Twitter. You can expect that the meme makers are hard at work on making fun of Apple for launching a consumer device with a price meant for dev kits.

“They’ll sell every one they can make, but it’s not a mainstream gaming device. $3,500 is simply too much to hit the mainstream,” said Jon Kimmich, a veteran game maker.

Apple said there would be more than 100 Apple Arcade games available at the launch, but all it showed was NBA 2K23 from Take-Two Interactive — for a few seconds.

Investors weren’t too impressed, as Apple’s stock price closed down 0.76% today at $179.58 a share. Apple is still worth $2.82 trillion in the stock market.

Cher Wang, chairwoman at rival headset maker HTC Vive, said she welcomed Apple and the attention it can bring to the XR (extended reality) industry. That was a familiar refrain.

“As a leader in the XR industry, we are thrilled to extend a warm welcome to Apple as they venture into the