Oculus founder Palmer Luckey thinks 30 frames per second is 'a failure'

Developers offer plenty of reasons for 30 frames per second in blockbuster games, but Palmer Luckey isn't having a bar of it. According to the Oculus Rift founder not only is it inexcusable in virtual reality, but even consoles and onscreen PC games shouldn't be let off the hook.

While 60 frames per second is sufficient, Luckey thinks much higher frame rates will become the norm for VR gaming. "Virtual reality is going to need much higher frame rates than consoles," he said. "Although even for consoles or traditional PC games I don't think 30 frames per second is smart. It's not a good artistic decision, it's a failure.”

“I think that you see diminishing returns between 90 and 120 hz, so In the foreseeable VR is going to end up somewhere in that range.”

Oculus's Brendan Iribe made similar comments on resolution last year, with the suggestion that higher visual fidelity will offset motion sickness.“There are a lot of challenges, like resolution, it's a big one on the current dev kit. You can't imagine what it's going to look like when it's 4K, and it's not far away. It's not now, but it's coming,” he said .

We spoke to Naughty Dog co-founder Nate Mitchell last week at E3. He's recently joined Oculus and has some interesting things to say about the company's renewed focus on VR content.

Check out the Palmer Luckey interview below:

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.