Talk about the game Tomahawk VR. Another product without positioning?

(Original title: Let’s talk about Wang Feng’s Tomahawk VR, another product without positioning?)

Obviously, the Tomahawk F1 was a complete failure. After the pre-sale started on June 1, the product was officially available for sale on the 11th. As of press time, the sales volume of the Tomahawk on the Tmall platform was less than 100 units, and there were only dozens of user reviews on JD.com. If the Tomahawk cannot make much improvement on the original product in the future, then this product will become another victim in the history of China's "console".

Now, Tomahawk VR is about to be released. After the failure of Tomahawk F1, it is difficult to be optimistic about this VR product.

Why did the Tomahawk F1 console fail?

In fact, the failure of this product is not surprising. In terms of the positioning of this product, people have always been confused about where its users are. High-end console players look down on its mobile phone-like configuration, and mass users find it difficult to accept the price of nearly 1,000 yuan and the subsequent payment model for playing games.  

In essence, the only difference between Tomahawk F1 and other Android game boxes such as FunBox and Magic Egg is perhaps the content. It abandons the mobile game porting and instead ports some PC or console games. From this point of view, Tomahawk F1 is still worthy of recognition.  

But the problem is that the content of Tomahawk F1 is basically based on outdated blockbusters and numerous small games, which lacks sufficient appeal. In addition, the model that also requires charging has once again hit a wall in the Chinese market.  

In summary, if Tomahawk hopes to change its current low sales in the future, it needs to improve the quality of content, preferably with some exclusive games. Strong consoles like PS4 and Xbox One have a lot of sales boosted by exclusive games. Second, it needs to improve the configuration. The 1,499 yuan Elite Edition is not that far behind the 2,000 yuan PS4 in China, but the configuration is huge.  

Two modes of console VR

Now, Linekong has started to pay attention to VR again. At the launch conference of Linekong Tomahawk F1, Linekong officially announced its VR plan. According to the description of this product on the official website: "The upcoming Tomahawk VR can be used with the Tomahawk F1 game console."  

Relevant information shows that this VR is a collaboration with Dapeng. From various external information, it is clear that the collaboration with Dapeng is a fast-forwarding process. Blueport needs the concept of VR, but it is too late to keep up with the pace of Tomahawk F1 by itself, so it adopts a cooperative model.

As for how Tomahawk will go in the future, we can refer to the two paths in the current console VR market, Microsoft and Sony.  

At the just concluded E3 Expo, Sony officially announced the price and release date of its self-developed head-mounted display device PSVR. It will cost $399 and will be released on October 13. According to a small-scale survey conducted by VRZINC, PSVR will effectively boost the sales of PS4.  

Microsoft, which has been promoting the concept of AR, also announced the Scorpio Project at the E3 Expo, which is based on Xbox One's compatibility with VR games. With open cooperation, Microsoft will not develop head-mounted display equipment on its own, but will open the Windows Holographic platform to other VR equipment manufacturers. The news is that Oculus will be fully compatible. Microsoft hopes to build the VR ecosystem of Xbox One, drive the host with VR, and at the same time deploy VR to compete with Sony.  

Microsoft's model is not suitable for Tomahawk

But Microsoft's model doesn't seem to be very suitable for Tomahawk.  

In the current VR headset market, it can be roughly divided into three categories. One is high-end devices represented by HTC Vive and Oculus, the other is mobile VR represented by Samsung Gear VR, and the other is all-in-one mode.  

The three have their own advantages. The advantage of Oculus is that it provides the best experience, the advantage of mobile VR is that it has a huge potential user market, can be popularized quickly, and is easy to use, while all-in-one devices represent a model of the future.  

Among these three, it is obviously impossible for Oculus to be compatible with a host with the configuration of Tomahawk F1, and these are completely two underlying systems, while the all-in-one device does not need to be paired with a host at all, so only mobile VR is left, and Tomahawk VR is actually an external host for mobile VR.  

However, the current sales of Tomahawk are too bleak. Compared with the nearly hundreds of millions of potential users in the mobile phone market, the market for Tomahawk F1 is almost zero. Will mobile VR device manufacturers make some changes for Tomahawk?  

Another problem is that the main feature of mobile VR is convenience, emphasis on fragmentation, and anytime, anywhere, but Tomahawk has obviously removed this feature and limited it to the front of the Tomahawk F1 console, which is also a major obstacle.  

Last but not least, is Tomahawk capable of building an open platform similar to Windows Holographic?  

So what about Sony's model?  

Therefore, Tomahawk VR has no choice but to make it by itself or customize it with other manufacturers.  

Doing it yourself will face a funding problem. In the current capital market, VR has obviously undergone a major change, with capital beginning to shift from hardware to content, interaction, etc. According to the VR industry financing situation in Q1 2016 released by Yicai, among the 22 VR industry financings in Q1 2016, only a few companies such as Baofeng Sunglasses were involved, and the rest were almost all concentrated in the content and interaction areas.  

Even when it comes to hardware financing, hardware stratification has already emerged. Star domestic hardware companies such as Dapeng and 3Glasses have established a strong adsorption effect, and capital will choose these companies even if they want to invest in hardware.  

It can basically be said that except for mobile phone manufacturers, hardware opportunities have almost disappeared.  

Without the support of capital, Tomahawk VR can only exist in imagination, and Sony's path is not suitable either, so Tomahawk VR can only choose customized OEM services and cooperate with hardware manufacturers like Dapeng, which is commonly known as OEM. This is a compromise solution between Microsoft and Sony. Only time can tell us how effective it will be, but there has never been a successful precedent for OEM cooperation.  

Of course, if we refer to the fact that many small and medium-sized VR hardware companies in China claim to have launched VR products at a cost of only tens of millions or even millions, then Tomahawk still has a chance of success.  

Tomahawk F1 is bound to drag down Tomahawk VR  

In fact, the biggest problem of Tomahawk VR is that it is based on Tomahawk F1 platform, so it is bound to be dragged down by the dismal sales of Tomahawk F1. Its performance cannot reach that of PS, Xbox and PC, which will cause high-quality developers to abandon this platform, and a group of geeky high-end users will be lost.  

Poor sales will inevitably lead to the loss of developers who focus on small games. These manufacturers are more willing to try mobile VR, which has broad prospects, because the user base is huge. And the foreseeable form of mobile phone manufacturers giving away VR with the purchase of a mobile phone will inevitably rapidly expand the user base.  

At present, there are only 4 titles about Tomahawk VR on the official website of Axe Technology, including The Border Plan by Lancet and Hidden Dragon Legend: Shadow Trace by Meigefang. This actually shows that CPs do not have much illusion about the reverse effect of this product.  

By combining consoles with VR, Sony and Microsoft have opened up a whole new market. Compared with the high prices of PCs, consoles are more affordable. At the same time, the experience is much better than all-in-one and mobile VR. After all, the technology, configuration and content ecosystem of these two consoles can be guaranteed.  

At the same time, the huge existing inventory and established industrial chain of these two companies will effectively drive the rapid construction of the VR ecosystem.  

This is not suitable for Tomahawk VR. The positioning of Tomahawk VR is as vague as that of Tomahawk F1. This is most likely also a courtship signal released by Blueport at the forefront of the trend.  

Blue Harbor has been following the trend  

Such signals are not uncommon in the development history of Wang Feng and his Blueport. They take small steps and run fast to keep up with the trend. From the PC games of the year, to the web games, and then to the successful transformation to mobile games, Blueport has never stopped chasing the trend. It was not until the mobile games that it was listed on the market with good performance.  

However, according to the latest performance of Bluehole, according to the annual report of the 2015 fiscal year, Bluehole Interactive's revenue was 540 million yuan, down 20.3% from 680 million yuan in the same period of 2014. The gross profit was 217 million yuan, down about 34.5% from 330 million yuan in the same period of 2014. Compared with the mobile game performance of about 600 million yuan in 2014, Bluehole's mobile game revenue in 2015 was 504 million yuan, down 16% year-on-year. Behind this is the situation that the overall Chinese mobile game market has grown by 87.2% year-on-year to 51.46 billion yuan.  

Bluehole's mobile game business is in serious decline, so during this period, Bluehole started to engage in film industry, in line with pan-entertainment, and began to use the lifting of the ban on the console market as an opportunity to get involved in living room entertainment like many companies that have entered the console market.  

This time, when it comes to VR, you should understand what it means.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.