VR is not dead - rather it's likely to grow slowly, but it was basically dead on arrival for me. I bought a G2 thinking that it would be the way that I'd go sim racing. But no, I've never used it for that except during a few brief trials. Yes, it can enhance immersion, but the visual quality (to me) just isn't good enough, and it's a bother. I keep looking at the G2 and thinking I should use it, but I just never do.
I also bought Half Life Alex (my only VR game). It's a very atmospheric and well-done game. But since I got it many months ago, I've barely progressed through 1/3 of it, and I feel very little motivation to finish it. Why? Wearing the headset is physically bothersome, Windows MR is atrociously bad, and the game play is compromised due to the severe movement limitations, etc. It's even kind of dull in a way: move around clumsily to explore a bit, then stand mostly still while a few creatures shamble or leap towards you, and repeat. It's not nearly as dynamic as a traditional first-person game, a genre that should be VR's forte. (But, again, the visuals really are very engrossing and atmospheric.)
Now Facebook has or is gaining a majority share of the VR market, aiming for dominance. Well, F' that amoral monster! And of course Facebook will be inserting ads - who ever thought not!? Microsoft doesn't really know what it's VR endeavors are for (ahem: ads and personal data, eventually - what else!?), and they haven't even been able to make a product that works reliably. Valve perhaps has the over-all best product for PC gaming, but at a steep price and with the inconveniences of light-houses. HTC and a few other companies are still trying to compete, but likely with less and less penetration these days.
The future looks to be split in two and then fragmented further: Cheaper un-tethered headsets, e.g. with integrated cell-phone type processors, that are substantially locked to one service (e.g. Facebook), and a much smaller market for higher-end PC-oriented devices. MS would like to control the latter but can't on principle given that their ecosystem is a general-purpose OS. Valve would presumably like to dominate as well, but they aren't currently trying given the high price of their hardware, and maybe they never will. It will be interesting to see what Sony will do, but there should be little doubt that it will be entirely locked to the Playstation and Sony's on-line store. And all those new types of exotic lenses and cool mock-ups of sunglass-style headsets are fantasies for now.
Those users shooting for the high end will slowly see improvements, but with increasing rather than decreasing prices and increasing demands on computing hardware. Those exotic lenses, better panels, high-bandwidth wireless interfaces, 4k+ per eye, etc., features sure won't be cheaper! (Hehe, wait until Apple finally comes out with their product!)
For everyone else, VR will be a race to the bottom plus an increasingly-abusive lock-in.
P.S.: I had to laugh at that Sniper Elite gameplay. It's not enough for the airplane to noisily fly overhead, it has to prominently say "SOUND MASKED" to the player, because that's exactly what happens in the real world. Also, no running allowed! No soldiers do that in a war!
