Rory Sutherland is an advertising executive who loves to talk about the strange little quirks of advertising and how they often seem to contradict with common sense. In this clip, he talks about how San Pelegrino has(or had) a foil cover for the top of the can. Practically speaking, it's useless, but when it comes to giving those cans a meaning, one that stands out from the crowd, it was incredibly important. A can with a foil cap is somehow classier and more distinguished, it goes from something your kid orders at a fast food joint, to a beverage you could drink at a wedding.
To me, VR for Elite is very similar. In any practical way, I doubt having VR would ever recoup the losses required to implement it. But at the same time, the fact that you COULD do VR, that you can play this game in a way distinct and unique from almost any other game, makes it the San Pelegrino of games. It stands apart.
Since Odyssey released, I can't help but feel that the foil has been removed, so to speak. Sure, there's been all sorts of cool new stuff, but none of what's been added is really unique. You can get aliens and wars and cool cosmetics from any game. You can't get VR from any game. For a long time, Elite was special, in that regard.
Now to be clear, I don't think it needs to be a complete VR experience, with VR hands and stuff, but being able to walk around with everything around you in 3d, to headlook, to get the sense of scale, the awe of the size of things, I think that would be reasonable, and more importantly, would enhance the brand.
And that's why I think on-foot VR should be a thing - even though I won't use it.
