Virtual reality was a big deal at this year’s E3 video game expo in Los Angeles. Oculus was there showing off the latest build cheap runescape gold of its Rift headset, Sony revealed a new multiplayer shooter demo for the Project Morpheus, and Microsoft announced a partnership with Valve, seeking to make Windows 10 the software platform for the HTC Vive as well as all other PC-based VR devices. It also brought the “mixed reality” device Hololens along for the ride. There was much excitement.

But what do the mainstream games publishers really think about this new era of immersive technology? The spectre hanging over the whole industry right now is that, behind all the hype, very few VR or AR headsets have actually been sold to the public.

The only commercially available mainstream products right now are Android phone extensions like the Samsung Gear VR and Zeiss VR One; Google ditched its Glasses project this year. The first big player to get a launch is likely to be the brilliant HTC Vive this winter, but it’s going to require an ultra high-end PC, limiting its user base at least at first to enthusiasts.

And then, of course, there’s the whole problem of, well, what are people going to want from a VR application? At the well-attened South West VR conference this year, many of the talks and discussions were based around this question. Is it going to be about epic narrative games in vast virtual environments or will people want short, contained experiences with very little movement? Or some combination of both? Or neither?

Opinion is hugely divided and the interesting discussions are going on away from the glare of the E3 press briefing. www.rsfarmer.com Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts chose to speak about VR, not at E3 at all, but at the more offbeat and artsy SXSW festival, where he talked about the company’s interest in VR as a new paradigm in entertainment, but provided no details.