Facebook closing hundreds of Oculus VR demo stations and Best Buy

Facebook plans to close 200 of its 500 Oculus virtual reality demo stations at Best Buy locations across the US, Business Insider (BI) reported.

BI said it had learnt from workers at multiple Best Buy locations that it was common for them to go days at a stretch without a single demonstration. BI also claimed to have seen an internal memo sent to affected employees that said the closings were necessitated due to "store performance."

Confirming the closings Oculus spokeswoman Andrea Schubert said they were due to "seasonal changes."

"We're making some seasonal changes and prioritizing demos at hundreds of Best Buy locations in larger markets," she said. "You can still request Rift demos at hundreds of Best Buy stores in the US and Canada."

"We still believe the best way to learn about VR is through a live demo," she continued. "We're going to find opportunities to do regular events and pop ups in retail locations and local communities throughout the year."

NDTV reported quoting Vinay Narayan, executive director, VR, at HTC Vive, ''Virtual reality can enable unique experiences that are not available through any other platform, and come in a number of different flavours, to appeal to a wide spectrum of users."

According to Narayan much of the untapped potential of VR lay in the enterprise space.

HTC co-developed the Vive, the virtual reality headset with Valve, the famous game company that made the Steam distribution platform, and also some of the most popular games such as the Half Life and Portal series.

However, nearly a year since HTC started accepting pre-orders for Vive, there were signs that interest had been falling. The Steam Hardware and Software Survey, January 2017, showed that after early growth in share both Oculus Rift and Vive share almost stagnant.