Virtual Reality: Will VR and movement finally dominate gaming?

According to Prof Cathy Craig, that is set to change.

Getting us moving while playing could be key.

Prof Craig’s academic career at Ulster University focuses on perception and the study of movement, and she is a former rugby player herself.

She is now the chief executive of Incisiv, a Belfast-based technology company which develops virtual reality games and training aids.

“We’re very much interested in how we can use the power of gameplay to really get people moving, to really improve their performance as well,” she told BBC News NI.

“So whether you’re a Sunday afternoon athlete or somebody who really wants to hit that top level we’re about trying to improve those general motor skills that you have and that are fundamental to any sports you play.

“We had a flavour of it when we had the Nintendo Wii back in the late 2000s.”

First released in 2006, the Wii console had a remote controller which allowed users to play games through simple physical movements.

It meant that to play tennis on screen, for example, users had to move their arms and bodies as if swinging a tennis racket to hit a ball.

Wii was popular, with more than 100 million sales, but it was of its time.

More recently Sony released the PlayStation VR2 for virtual reality gaming.

But some organisations have abandoned VR projects, raising questions over the long-term future of the technology.