Tony: I\u2019m very happy to be here today with Jeff Baz from VR Villa, a Reddit celebrity who is doing amazing things. Hello, Jeff. Great to see you here!<\/p>\n
Jeff Baz: I\u2019m always excited about sharing the stuff that we\u2019re doing on a community level about VR gaming throughout the US. As a VR gamer, I\u2019m pretty excited about sharing my hobby with anybody and everybody willing to go play some games with us.<\/p>\n
Tony: Great. Let me start with the usual question. Who are you? Introduce yourself to everyone reading this interview.<\/p>\n
Jeff: I\u2019m Jeff Basladynski. I\u2019m the owner of Baz LLC. It\u2019s a small woodcraft company specialized in exotic wooden chopsticks customized with your name, things like that. I\u2019ve been a gamer for all of my life. I\u2019ve been really enthralled with VR, specifically since 2016 when the Vive and Rift first came out. I got excited. I went out to these conventions for my business and then brought a couple of headsets. Then, it has spawned to the point where we have 100-plus headsets and go out and make a little fun VR LAN party almost every other weekend throughout the US from Hawaii to DC.<\/p>\n
![\"Jeff](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/jeff-baz-face.jpg\")
Jeff having some VR fun with friends (Image by Jeff Basladynski)<\/p>\n
Tony: Nice. What is VR Villa? Because that\u2019s the name of your, let\u2019s say, \u201chobby\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeff: Yes, it\u2019s more of like a community group per se, or almost like a computer club, but for VR specifically. Since I\u2019ve been doing this for eight years, just organizing with the events that I\u2019m already tethered with, a lot of the shows know who I am, what I do, and what I do for other shows. It just snowballed to that effect. I travel quite a bit and just really collaborate with about 68 studios now from Resolution, Schell, Mighty Coconut, everybody, just to really bring as much VR gaming potential out to these events and just have fun with good games, good content, because I think that there\u2019s a lot of stuff in the VR world that people don\u2019t realize.<\/p>\n
People don\u2019t really know what\u2019s out there. Realistically, most conversations I\u2019ve had with the public are: they just need a five-second help of saying what\u2019s out there, and then you go saying, \u201cHey, this is the game that I play. You should probably play it. Then let me teach you how to play the game.\u201d A lot of our time and effort is really just teaching one-on-one to the general public about what VR is, putting a headset on them, and hopefully allowing them to go play for a long time. It\u2019s quite fun.<\/p>\n
Tony: Sounds like a lot of fun. I want to get back a bit to your story. When I started following you on Reddit, in the beginning, I thought you were a VR entrepreneur. Then, I discovered, actually, your main job is making chopsticks, which is very fascinating. Can you tell me a bit more about how you went from making amazing chopsticks to making amazing VR demos? You\u2019ve been doing that for a lot of years now.<\/p>\n
Jeff: Yes, so I\u2019ve been doing chopsticks for about two years longer than I\u2019ve been doing VR gaming for events. It just slowly happened over time that when I went to the events to my retail sale for my booths and such, I would bring one headset once the exhibit closes. I\u2019ll bring it to the game room and then play VR games with random people, one or two headsets. My friends and I, we got really into it.<\/p>\n
We started this group. It was actually called VR Zone specifically earlier, then we just built a whole mantra. We call it a village because it\u2019s a village of just hundreds of VR gamers throughout the US, just to bring the equipment and really staff it and provide it. After all, what we\u2019re trying to do is like any hobby, like board games or video games or Warhammer. That\u2019s a huge hobby.<\/p>\n
You have a lot of these different groups coming out and doing the same thing. We\u2019re doing the same style of effort, but with VR specifically. I\u2019ve mastered the whole technique of logistics of how to get all this equipment out there, get the team out there, get staff, work with all the developers, hardware partners, to really try to build that conversation of what can we do and how can we represent the VR industry in this really unique, holistic way just so I can go play games, [laughs] and then share that with everybody else.<\/p>\n
Tony: That\u2019s great. You mentioned the logistics. Actually, as a very practical guy, I always read your posts and say, \u201cHow the hell does he organize all of this?\u201d It seems like a huge effort. You need lots of people, lots of headsets. How do you handle this? How can people, maybe wanting to do the same thing, do the same kind of activations?<\/p>\n
Jeff: The big thing really is because we\u2019re already tethered to these events as an exhibitor, I piggyback on my main company of just providing the equipment out to these events. We just pack the van with equipment as much as we can probably bring, or whatever the budget could support, and how well we can do. Then I go to events and say, \u201cHey, I\u2019m just looking for cost coverage.\u201d This is the stuff that I have. These are the things that we have. This is the teams that we can really enable or really work with the different gaming communities, from VAIL to Blaston by Resolution, things like that, and really trying to bring everybody to the table of just saying, \u201cWhat\u2019s the most cost-effective way of getting the equipment to the events?\u201d<\/p>\n
When we flew to Hawaii, I brought 200 pounds of equipment, checked bags, no problem. It ended up being about 20, 22 headsets\u2026 we served about 500 people that weekend. Then, something like LVL UP EXPO, we would set up a whole pallet or two, put it on there with projectors, AV equipment, and just ship out 45, 50, 60 headsets, and really fill 5,000 square feet.<\/p>\n
![\"jeff](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/jeff-baz-chopsticks.jpg\")
Selling the chopsticks outside the VR gaming area (Image by Jeff Basladynski)<\/p>\n
The conversations with conferences, gaming directors, the real thing is they turn me into the director of VR content for their shows, and then the conversation becomes, \u201cWhat can we do? How can we really maximize gaming potential for games that I enjoy, that I like all these games?\u201d I don\u2019t put crap games. I don\u2019t put games that I don\u2019t find enjoyable. If some of my community members are more enthusiastic about a certain game, I\u2019m like, \u201cYou know what? If you want to come and help, let\u2019s make it happen, because you\u2019re excited about that game. I\u2019m not, maybe, but let\u2019s see if that helps out.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s really just trying to support the volunteers and staff that we have so that everyone\u2019s excited. When you\u2019re in a happy place and doing happy things and getting other people excited and becoming happy, it\u2019s really infectious when you can really match that feeling of, \u201cOh, my God, this is a lot of fun.\u201d Yes, it is. Now, come join us and be part of the VR Villa and go play some more games, find some friends, and see where we\u2019re going to be next.<\/p>\n
Some of these people who have found us at these events as players, just attendees at these events, end up becoming really good staff or volunteers for shows in their region, or maybe we bring the opportunity and be like, \u201cYou know what? Let\u2019s fly you out to the show because we actually desperately need help for this game that you love and I love. Let\u2019s have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tony: Amazing. Can you give us some statistics about what you\u2019ve done? You\u2019ve been to lots of events. You demoed VR games to thousands of people. Give us some stats.<\/p>\n
Jeff: In the early days, we weren\u2019t really as good at keeping track records of the statistics because we were just like, we bring one or two headsets, we\u2019re fine, and see how well we do, whatever. Only in the last maybe four years, we\u2019ve actually been really adamant about learning about the players, how well we serve them, and what games they\u2019re playing and how long. We\u2019ve really gotten really good at metric building and understanding.<\/p>\n
Average times. I think last year, we did 25,000 people, almost 30,000 sessions. That\u2019s been about roughly what we\u2019ve been doing for the last three years. I know we passed 80,000 players in the last four years alone, at least recorded content, and then just really building that basis of how many people we can service. The big metric that I like to show is the average play time, which has been increasing significantly year over year.<\/p>\n
I think in 2022, we had maybe 20, 22 minutes of play time average, mostly because we just didn\u2019t have enough headsets. We actually artificially cut off play sessions after 30 minutes. People will come and play for five minutes or maybe up to 30 minutes. People will play long. If you let them play, they\u2019ll play. Now we\u2019ve been accumulating a big amount of equipment: at the end of last year, we had 200 headsets.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, there weren\u2019t a lot of shows that really could give us the resources to be able to fill that level of operation, which we did at DreamHack. I think we had 100 headsets in 2024 from DreamHack Atlanta. We serviced 2,000-2,500 people at that one show at 10,000 square feet. We did that three times that year. Then, last year, we liquidated all of our Quest 2s. Now, all we have is 3s and 3S\u2019s, which is still about 70, 75 headsets.<\/p>\n
Now, it\u2019s just, more or less, how well we can bring that equipment that we already have out to these events. The average has been about 30 headsets and about 3,000 square feet. To me, because I\u2019m a community endeavor and I\u2019m part of these events, we get a lot of these abilities that companies and corporations can\u2019t. I don\u2019t pay for being at these shows. They give us these abilities where we get host hotels. Sometimes we get food. We get money, then it helps with bringing professional staff that I\u2019ve trained up over the last seven years of saying, \u201cHey, you\u2019re really good. You\u2019re worth this effort. Let\u2019s get you paid because you\u2019re doing 40 hours in three days,\u201d and really trying to give back to the community and doing a good job. We\u2019re doing a great job of being out there and getting all of these demos. I don\u2019t like to say \u201cdemos.\u201d I say \u201cexperiences\u201d because I think last year, it was 32 minutes per play session.<\/p>\n
One out of every five play sessions was a rebooking. That meant someone came in, played 30 minutes, loved it, said, \u201cWhat else can we play?\u201d and they booked another session right away and played another 30 minutes. Some people, especially when we have enough headsets, where we\u2019re doing sit-down content like Demeo or Cook-Out, some of those players, those average gameplays can be an hour, 90 minutes.<\/p>\n
I have recorded sessions where people play for four and a half hours for Demeo and play a full campaign. The joke has been, \u201cGo play a short game of Demeo.\u201d Everyone knows, at least in the community, that\u2019s not a short game, but it\u2019s a fun game. It\u2019s really fun to be at this event where a lot of these players may not have these headsets, and they get this opportunity to go play. We keep this constantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI bought a headset because we played this game and we learned this game. Now, we want to learn more about other very similar games or like games that I enjoy, that I played on flat screen or computer or mobile or anything.\u201d It\u2019s really building these one-on-one conversations on a scale that we\u2019re doing it and enjoying it. Hopefully, what we\u2019re doing is provide a benefit for the developers because it\u2019s a struggle out there, the whole gaming industry. Not just VR, the entire gaming industry.<\/p>\n
Tony: Wow. Big compliments because I think I made a lot of people try VR, but you are far beyond most of us with these numbers that are in the order of dozens of thousands. That\u2019s super cool. By the way, you mentioned Demeo, but can you tell me some games that you made people try? And do you have a favorite or one that is special for you?<\/p>\n
Jeff: The most played game today, and it has been the number one game for the last five years, has been Cook-Out, the four-player Cook-Out game from Resolution Games. I would say probably one in four sessions is nothing but Cook-Out. We build up this joke because all these shows are really dependent on the staff with knowledge about the games we support. Sometimes I may have a bunch of volunteers who may not know a lot of the games, so we curate that back a bit by saying, \u201cWe\u2019re just doing simple games,\u201d or not having internet on site, so we might not be able to support multiplayer games.<\/p>\n
Everybody knows when we do these games that Resolution was one of our first partners. We\u2019ve had Cook-Out at a lot of these events. It\u2019s on all of my accounts, so everybody knows that. When we don\u2019t have Cook-Out listed as one of the supported games for that specific show, everyone\u2019s like, \u201cWe know you have Cook-Out. We want to play Cook-Out.\u201d It\u2019s like, \u201cOkay, let\u2019s figure it out. Let\u2019s go play Cook-Out,\u201d because it\u2019s such a great game.<\/p>\n
I think last year, we had 5,000 of the 23,000-25,000 play sessions being just Cook-Out. Right below that is Fruit Ninja, Space Pirate Trainer, Blaston, and then Walkabout Mini Golf. Those are our top five games that we\u2019ve been statistically seeing as the most organically picked game. Really, those are pretty fun games. Fruit Ninja, Space Pirate, really short experiences. They\u2019re great. Pick up and go for almost every new user.<\/p>\n
We still average about 28%, 30% are their first time to VR with us year-over-year. Eight years doing this, and that number hasn\u2019t dipped. That\u2019s just some interesting statistics about that where we\u2019re not servicing, really, VR veteran players. We\u2019re still servicing the average general public who don\u2019t know anything about VR, or they just lack the opportunity to go and even try, because a lot of the stuff you have out there is pay-to-play VR, like Sandbox or Zero Latency.<\/p>\n
![\"vr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/jeff-baz-stats.jpg\")
Some stats from one of the last events VR Villa participated in. These guys and gals are introducing a lot of people to VR! (Image by Jeff Basladynski)<\/p>\n
In terms of community-centric VR, free-to-play operations like what we do, there still aren\u2019t that many others out there that do this other than the VR LAN guys out of Amsterdam. They\u2019re the only people I know in the world that do something similar to what we do. It is a lot of work. It\u2019s a lot of labor of love, and then really a lot of labor specifically to get people into headsets, teach them the system, the game, and then make sure that we give them the best chance to have fun.<\/p>\n
I think that\u2019s where the biggest drawback about how we operate is, because we\u2019re not like a bowling alley. We\u2019re not handing headsets to people. We\u2019re teaching every single one how to use the operating system. We\u2019re teaching them how to launch a game. We\u2019re teaching them the game mechanics of that game and making sure, \u201cHey, I\u2019m stuck in this place,\u201d \u201cWell, I play this game. This is the one trick you need to know how to get past this level or how to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, when you give that one-minute, two-minute, or three-minute little dialogue and make sure everyone\u2019s good, they\u2019ll play for hours. It\u2019s amazing. We\u2019ve even had a lot of people that were just like\u2026 they\u2019ll play for 15 minutes and, like, \u201cAm I done?\u201d \u201cNo, we brought 100 headsets. You can go over there and play for the whole weekend if you want.\u201d People have. It\u2019s quite fun.<\/p>\n
Tony: [laughs] It\u2019s super fun. You saw thousands of people playing VR. There are people from all demographics\u2026 some veterans, some newcomers. I would really like to listen: What have you learned? What are the lessons learned by seeing so many people playing VR?<\/p>\n
Jeff: Because of the way we operate as a community, we changed the conversation to the public. Not, \u201cShould I try?\u201d It\u2019s, \u201cWhat should I try?\u201d That\u2019s a huge cognitive disconnect when anybody else\u2026 like if Meta came and did what we did, everybody would know that they\u2019re trying to sell something. For us, we\u2019re just trying to have fun. That conversation straight up to the general public is, \u201cI\u2019m interested. I\u2019m VR-curious. What is out there?\u201d<\/p>\n
In a lot of conversations we had, we noticed that people are not seeing ads about VR. The people who bought a headset are people who already have a headset. They already play the games they have, and then we hit that wall. Now, you\u2019re getting to a point where everybody that we\u2019re really servicing now doesn\u2019t have a VR gamer friend, so they don\u2019t have the access to try at home or wherever. They are not getting targeted advertisements about VR because they\u2019re not interested, at least in an AdSense type of way.<\/p>\n
Then, they\u2019re just not accustomed to seeing it at a lot of retail operations or stuff because Meta pulled back a lot of these things, although they\u2019re going back to Best Buy, I guess, apparently. It\u2019s just a lot of conversations with what\u2019s out there. Event at VR events, they don\u2019t know 90% of the games that we have. You\u2019ve got players who are saying, \u201cIs there a Counter-Strike game?\u201d It\u2019s like, \u201cYes, there\u2019s Contractors or VAIL.\u201d \u201cIs there a Battlefield game?\u201d It\u2019s like, \u201cYes, there\u2019s Forefront.\u201d \u201cIs there some other team shooter?\u201d \u201cYes, there\u2019s Hyper Dash, there\u2019s Breachers.\u201d \u201cWhat about a good role-playing game?\u201d You\u2019ve got Half-Life: Alyx if you\u2019ve got a good PC. A lot of these are just really general conversations. People just want simple help. They just want to have simple questions answered genuinely without being targeted by a sales rep.<\/p>\n
When they talk to us, it\u2019s like, \u201cWhat\u2019s good?\u201d \u201cThis is the stuff that I play. This is the stuff that I use.\u201d We even get asked about the accessories that we use, when we update all of our headsets. That\u2019s the second question right there: \u201cI didn\u2019t know I could play this long.\u201d That\u2019s what we get a lot of compliments from players about: \u201cI thought this was going to be uncomfortable.\u201d It\u2019s like, \u201cIt can be if you just don\u2019t buy the accessories to make it uncomfortable.\u201d These are the ones that I\u2019ve bought, that I\u2019ve learned, that I play with.<\/p>\n
If I play four hours straight of Forefront, this is something comfortable. This is the extra battery pack that I use that I can play without having to sit down. If I want to sit down, these are the games I play to sit down. It\u2019s really just meeting people where they are, giving them the right information, and then doing it not in a sales-tactic way of like, \u201cI\u2019m here to make money. I\u2019m trying to sell something to you.\u201d It\u2019s like, \u201cNo, we\u2019re trying to teach you something that you are genuinely interested in.\u201d<\/p>\n
I think that\u2019s what the industry is at an impasse. They can\u2019t find those players, and we find them at all these events. I\u2019m really privileged in the way that we operate that we have no issues getting players to come play because we\u2019re free to play. They\u2019re really genuine about learning what the technology and what games are out there. Hopefully, they enjoy it so much that we inspire them to go buy their headset, and we\u2019ll play games and make them come back for the following show and be really good, or maybe become staff.<\/p>\n
![\"vr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hosted-the-largest-f2p-vr-lan-this-year-at-momocon-v0-o2xfm5lycp3h1_jpg_921.jpg\")
Many people play seated VR at a VR Villa installation (Image by Jeff Basladynski)<\/p>\n
Tony: I really hope so. Since you mentioned the Best Buy demos that are now probably coming back\u2026 What\u2019s your opinion on why they didn\u2019t succeed the first time? They didn\u2019t sell so many headsets\u2026<\/p>\n
Jeff: In my opinion, especially talking with Meta in the past and a couple of other retailers, I still don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be a huge success the way that they\u2019re going to operate. I\u2019ve seen the layout plans from Best Buy: they\u2019re doing a 30 x 30 area, 50 stores, 6 this year. Hopefully, they\u2019ll roll out the rest, maybe at the end of the year, or starting next year.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not getting enough play space availability to have those operations. Even when they did Quest 2 demos at Best Buy, Target, and a couple of other retailers, they didn\u2019t have dedicated staff for that to really teach them this. Meta did a pretty good job with the glasses, getting those demos and doing demos, things like that. I have three Best Buy staff as part of my staff. Over the years, I hear what they\u2019ve done at that store. It\u2019s like some of these things are just like, they might do three or nine demos in a day.<\/p>\n
And they\u2019re not good demos. They\u2019re just like, \u201cHere, you got to hold the headset.\u201d It should actually use the head strap. You\u2019re just playing some of the demo stuff that Meta built for demos. You\u2019re not playing a game. You\u2019re in an aisle. I don\u2019t think that it\u2019s going to be as impactful in terms of getting the customers to understand what the technology can do, especially because they\u2019re limiting those opportunities. Then, they\u2019re really just going to be hammering the sales of the glasses, which is an amazing piece of technology. I think it does solve some problems or have interesting prospects for those clients, but they\u2019re not going to hit the VR gamers. They\u2019re not going to hit the VR consumers or VR-curious consumers because they\u2019re not set up layout-wise. The reason why I go out to these events is that these events are where people are at. \u201cLocation, location, location\u201d: that\u2019s marketing 101. A lot of these shows that we go to are gaming-centric. Japanese shows, anime festivals.<\/p>\n
DreamHack, one of the largest Esports companies in the world, where they fill 60,000 players playing all types and manner of games. They have 50,000 square feet just from Magic: The Gathering. You\u2019ve got these really like-minded individuals, and a lot of these VR companies are not there. I\u2019m at a lot of these shows. I\u2019m still not seeing these VR companies going to their consumers to really try to promote their products, other than maybe PAX. Even PAX East and West, there weren\u2019t a lot of VR companies there. I think a lot of the industry is changing away from that.<\/p>\n
Tony: That\u2019s interesting to hear. I would like to ask you: after these many demos, what are the things that your users are liking the most? Also, is there a type of people that like your demos the most? I don\u2019t know, the kids, the elderly, the men, the women\u2026 do you have some stats like this?<\/p>\n
Jeff: Yes, so we do capture demographic information about the public. We do play our games as part of our waiver process. About 30% is between 10 and 17 or 18. The next 26% is your young professionals, so 19 to 26, and then the rest is everybody else. While the industry is trying to promote this idea that it\u2019s just all kids now, it\u2019s really not. It\u2019s just that the individuals who are our age, 26 to 35, they\u2019re not getting service. They\u2019re adventurous. They\u2019re very curious.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s actually one of our largest demographics right now because a lot of these shows are really bringing these family-centric individuals. When we have these events, some of them where we get grandparents to go sit down and play Puzzling Places, while they wait for their adult kids to go play Cook-Out, while their grandkids or the children of the parents are going to play more active games like Blaston. I want to say maybe about 60%, 70% of our games are multiplayer games, and most of them are going to be collaborative. Collaborative games are very popular with the way that we operate.<\/p>\n
![\"vr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/jeff-baz-vr-villa-events.jpg\")
A lot of people playing VR thanks to Baz (Image by Jeff Basladynski)<\/p>\n
Tony: What is it that, let\u2019s say, people like the least? Maybe you had some problems or some type of people that say: \u201cI hate VR.\u201d [laughs]<\/p>\n
Jeff: We don\u2019t really get a lot of those people because, again, most of the people that we get are already curious about VR because they paid money to be at this event. We\u2019re there as free-to-play. We get a lot of people walking by. They stop and say, \u201cWhat is this about?\u201d We just say, \u201cWell, you can find out. We can throw you on a headset, and you can figure it out yourself, and we can help you support that and see what games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Usually, when we have this giant projector screen, 10 feet, with all the games listed. It\u2019s answering the question: \u201cHey, what can I play?\u201d We have a screen of 36 games that they can pick from, and we\u2019re just saying, \u201cWhat games do you like to play?\u201d We\u2019ll pare this down to one or two, and we\u2019ll put you on. We usually just have a recommended, like the first maybe three games that we have on our list of what we expect new players to like, like Fruit Ninja or Space Pirate Trainer or Until You Fall.<\/p>\n
Those are really one of the top games where we throw anybody in because they\u2019re super fun, they\u2019re easy to get, super easy to train. Easy for me to train staff to train others. It\u2019s really just, what\u2019s the lowest bar that I can get to go and make people have a good time? The games that are really hard to push are going to be the really long narrative RPG games. When we\u2019re in a game room, it\u2019s a very loud environment. Some of the RPG games are really hard to hear. Even when we use the KIWI head strap or the audio strap, which is really vital for the games like that, it\u2019s just people like to have the more motion-active games. Especially when other people are running around and doing crazy stuff like with Spatial Ops, then they\u2019ll see that and be like, \u201cOh, they look like they\u2019re having fun.\u201d Some of the more narrative-driven games are really hard.<\/p>\n
Simulator games are really hard to do, unless you get sim fans at these events, like when we go to Sim Gaming Expo in Chicago. It\u2019s really about matching the right content for the show, what I think the show would be successful at. The way I see it dictate my success is how well the systems that I brought, the amount of extra effort that I make sure these game rooms are really\u2026 I wouldn\u2019t say profitable; I would say successful by being utilized.<\/p>\n
To me, if I bring 50, 60 headsets to a show, I want all the headsets to be played and people having a good time. I don\u2019t want 10 headsets out of the 50, 60 only being used and the rest of them just sitting. Then, that\u2019s when we have a conversation of, \u201cOkay, we\u2019ve brought all this effort to do this to support the gaming community.\u201d What happened, and what games were just not being organically picked, and we\u2019re trying to pivot for the following year.<\/p>\n
Maybe it\u2019s just signage. Maybe it was foot traffic in our area. Maybe we just had bad optics to where we were positioned, or the show could have just been not a well-attended show. We have done that one or twice in the past, where we set up a large operation, and then people just didn\u2019t come to the show. That\u2019s sometimes the risk where we do all this effort, and we\u2019re like, \u201cOh, where are all the gamers?\u201d [laughter]<\/p>\n
Tony: You did all these demos\u2026 and it seems that almost everyone likes playing your games, then why do you think VR is not succeeding now? Everyone is asking this question. Is it the price? Is it the form factor? What\u2019s your take about this?<\/p>\n
Jeff: I still think it\u2019s just genuine marketing. Every single piece of equipment for the last four years for VR has been amazing. The Quest 2 is still an amazing piece of technology. When we had that little crossover between when the Quest 3 came out, we lagged about a year before we got our first Quest 3s. People thought when the Quest 3 came out, they thought the 2 was the 3. They\u2019re like, \u201cWow, this is amazing.\u201d It\u2019s like, \u201cNo, it\u2019s the same VR that we\u2019ve had for the last four years. You\u2019re just playing a different game.\u201d<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s just expectations and then having that access to get people to play the games. I love the Quest 3S. It\u2019s a fantastic piece of hardware. The 3, I think it\u2019s a great piece of hardware as well. People still think that the 3S is a terrible piece of VR, but it\u2019s not. It\u2019s really not. Not if you played OG VR back in the day with the Vive wands. Those were heavy controllers with a heavy head strap.<\/p>\n
Really, it\u2019s just getting through the consumer misconception of what the technology is, and how well it can be by making it really comfortable for everybody with the halo straps or the facial interfaces that are comfortable. Those are the two vital things that we changed right away. Grip straps that you have the Index-like straps on the controllers. I just think that a lot of people have a bad first-time impression based on not getting the guidance that they need when they first play.<\/p>\n
I think that\u2019s what the industry is really struggling with: getting that first-player experience and getting away from it. I think the people that we\u2019ve had conversations with who\u2019ve only played Google Cardboard, and they\u2019ve never tried VR again, and we ask them why, it\u2019s like, \u201cBecause I thought everything, for the last eight years, has been nothing but Google Cardboard.\u201d It\u2019s like, \u201cWell, that\u2019s a free thing that you use your cell phone.\u201d Honestly, it was a terrible experience 10 years ago. This is a little bit different.<\/p>\n
I think access to try is the biggest component. We did this survey about a year ago, a year and a half ago, with about three major shows. It\u2019s like a 3,600-person survey. We actually asked people certain questions and let them play, and then had the survey again after they played immediately at that show to correlate on what they thought, what they think the VR is, and then we asked them if they were willing to buy a headset before and after. Then, we saw that we did something amazing. On 57% of people, we changed their perspective positively, and they were willing to go buy a headset right after a 20-minute game session. Then, what was interesting to me when we did the data: people who were still, \u201cNo, I don\u2019t want to buy a headset,\u201d they go play. Everybody has a great time. They were still, \u201cNo, I don\u2019t want to buy a headset,\u201d but then I asked the question right after. Would you have bought a headset from me when you just played Cook-Out with your three friends? They said, \u201cYes.\u201d 17% said, \u201cYes, I would have bought a headset right there and there, $500 with a cool package, with a game that I played, I enjoyed with my friends.\u201d That social dynamic of that social pressure: I just played a really fun game with my friends for 45 minutes. I\u2019m really susceptible to buying it now because it\u2019s here, and we\u2019re going to go buy it. We\u2019re going to go back to the hotel. It\u2019s Friday night. We\u2019re going to play a VR game in our hotel room. We\u2019re having a great time. We\u2019re going to come back the next day.<\/p>\n
I think that\u2019s the conversation that the industry just isn\u2019t really having of turning those consumers who are already curious into actual buyers, and then trying to say, \u201cIf you like that game, here\u2019s a list of all the other games that you\u2019re going to enjoy.\u201d I really think it\u2019s just game discovery, access to try, and then getting through all the marketing spiel, all the crap that the industry is just like, \u201cOh, it\u2019s better with this piece of chip, or that piece of chip. Look at the graphics.\u201d It\u2019s not about graphics. It\u2019s about how well the game plays and how well the game plays with your friends. I think that\u2019s the biggest motif that we keep experiencing for the last eight years. We continue to experience that even this year. What makes good games good? It\u2019s not graphics. It\u2019s having fun with friends and making sure you\u2019re not getting clustered or getting artificial barriers. Sometimes the industry puts more barriers than it removes.<\/p>\n
![\"spiderman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/jeff-baz-vr-cosplay.jpg\")
Even Spiderman is playing at the VR Villa! (Image by Jeff Basladynski)<\/p>\n
Tony: Well, I think you should probably sell the headsets after the demos. You\u2019d probably become rich\u2026<\/p>\n
Jeff: We tried. We\u2019ve actually asked Meta for the last five years about doing retail operations to sell these headsets. I work intimately with BOBOVR and KIWI Design, so we have their head straps. They would absolutely love to have the opportunity for us to sell their accessories, but I can\u2019t sell accessories when 72% of our players don\u2019t own a headset. Then, still one in three, it\u2019s their first time in VR. We get asked every weekend, why don\u2019t we sell headsets? It\u2019s like, \u201cWell, that\u2019s a very good question.\u201d [laughs] I sell chopsticks. That\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n
Tony: If, after this interview, some people got curious about your work and would either want to collaborate with you or they want to try your installations: how they can find you, help you, visit you, everything?<\/p>\n