Is Oculus Rift, or more importantly VR, the future?

via www.doolwind.com

After the recent knockout success of Oculus Rift on kickstarter I am wondering whether VR (Virtual Reality) goggles are the future of gaming.

Google certainly think that VR optics have a place in our future, but do game developers, or even players.

I can see both sides of the coin. On the one hand having a 3D monitor strapped to my head, responding to my movements is really cool, and represents the ultimate in immersion. But then when I consider how difficult it would be to use head tracking within an FPS (what happens to the mouse when I move my head?) I start to get skeptical.

Also I can see a catch 22 with game developers. John Carmack expressed some of the issues VR present to game developers. They would have to produce a tweaked version of the game especially for VR headsets to feel right. For example, when you get shot in an FPS, often the camera reacts to this, this would be disorientating for a VR headset like the Oculus Rift.

So game developers will have to be convinced to put in the effort to support VR headsets, which they won't do until a bunch have been sold. Which won't happen without games that support them.

One final point is on hardware, I single out the Oculus Rift as it boasts a 1920 x 1080 display (once shipped), but is that enough, as each eye will only get a 960 x 1080 display. That's a pixel density of 269PPI. At 110° viewing angle I've had a test at home, and the pixels were really too big, but games don't really compensate for larger than 1080 displays because they're so uncommon in the PC/Console market.

My question to you is two fold, firstly do you think that VR headsets are the future of gaming and if so, when do you think it will penetrate the mass market?