Why Enterprise VR Failed - The Prologue

The Why Enterprise VR Failed series is a no-holds-barred deep dive into why Virtual Reality, once hailed as the messiah of corporate training and collaboration, tripped over its own headset and is now hiding in the broom closet. Host Daniel Eckert—recovering  technology consultant and Enterprise VR veteran—takes you on a snark-filled tour of broken promises, clunky goggles, and the Metaverse Industrial Complex.

These not word-for-word audio casts are very similar to the written essays, but now in an audio format so you can listen to it instead of reading like a caveman.

This is the introduction to seven sarcastic episodes helping you understand Why VR Failed in the enterprise. Press play, and "Engage." 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Background
• 3:28 The Prologue
• 3:33 The Oculus Era
• 5:28 The Enterprise VR Fantasy
• 7:18 The 7 Episode Summary
• 9:15 About the Author

Transcript

Why Enterprise VR Failed: A 7 Part Series - The Prologue

This audio cast is the Prologue to the series on the reasons enterprise VR failed by Daniel Eckert, Copyright 2025 Rocinante Research.

It began over a year ago as a 500-word rant and then ballooned into a 7-part series of snark-laden analysis that explores the many soul-sucking "speed bumps" VR encountered in the corporate world.

After 12-months of writing a book, the author realized he had a too long didn't read vomit fest of preachy nonsense.

So instead of subjecting the world to yet another “How Enterprise VR Will Revolutionize Your Business” manifesto, he chucked that bucket of crap out the back door—right along with his subscription to IBM’s Watson for Healthcare—and rewrote the opus as a seven-episode rant fest.

This series is accompanied by an audio cast—not a word-for-word reading—for those who’d rather have a slightly sarcastic, mildly judgmental AI voice spoon-feed them enterprise-grade thought leadership while sitting in traffic, avoiding eye contact in elevators, or emotionally spiraling during a Zoom call.

Because let’s be real—no one’s slogging through 4,000 words when there are Slack pings multiplying like rabbits, existential dread lurking behind every calendar invite, and 17 browser tabs open to articles you swore you’d read three mental breakdowns ago.

This 7-part series is a tale of arrogance, ego, and over-caffeinated enthusiasm—of people already struggling to see the forest through the trees, blindly marching VR straight back into the “trough of disillusionment”.

To keep things balanced (and not just the author's personal rant-fest), he interviewed more than 100 industry insiders — developers, creatives, investors, consultants, software CEOs, and enterprise users.

Of course, these insights are generously seasoned with the author’s own blood and battle-worn experience—earned over 8 years in the enterprise VR trenches, trying to teach a dog to bark.

After collecting all of this information, in true consultant fashion, I summarized it all, slapped it into a PowerPoint, and passed it off as my own. 

OK, just kidding, there’s no PowerPoint. Just a crowdsourced story packed with insight, sarcasm, and a fair amount of regret, shared in a series of episodes. 

The Prologue

Since 1838, when someone decided it would be cool to make flat images look 3D with stereoscopic photos, humanity has been chasing the dream of “immersion.” 

Along the way, we’ve hyped every technological buzzword imaginable: 3D Reality, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality, Extended Reality, Immersive Experiences,

- and my least favorite —The Metaverse. 

And every few years, someone boldly declares, 

This time, it’s different! 

This time? Do you realize that since 1838 we are now on our 4th round of "revolutionizing the world?"

For a deep dive into the history of this madness, check out History of VR found over at the Virtual Reality Society. Warning: it’s not a short read – but it is fascinating.

OK, maybe we should start a little closer to home.

Good idea. 

Let’s fast-forward to the most recent VR hype cycle, which we'll call “The Oculus Era.” 

Why? Because Palmer Luckey, the guy behind Oculus, is an absolute legend. He was the nerdy underdog who shoved the latest era of VR into the spotlight with his brains, guts, and an impressive ability to hustle. 

Naturally, like all tech heroes before him (Tesla, Oppenheimer, Meucci, Jobs, et cetera.), he got stabbed in the back, tossed out of the room, and had his lunch money stolen. The tech industry is ruthless like that.

If you want all the juicy details about Palmer’s rise and fall, grab a copy of “The History of the Future” by Blake J. Harris. It’s part tech chronicle, part soap opera, but 100% captivating. And just like Jobs, Palmer has emerged from the ashes and is killing it as the founder of Anduril Industries.

While Palmer gave us the spark, Facebook, in 2014, swooped in with a big fat wallet, bought Oculus, and tried to make VR the next big thing.

Consumers got excited (because, HEY! shiny gadgets!), and enterprises predictably jumped on the bandwagon, thinking, HEY! SHINY GADGETS! and if it works for consumers, it’ll work for us too!

Let's cut to the chase: It didn’t.

But if you give someone from marketing a shiny gadget, the next thing you know is Here, hold my synergy - it's time to move the needle and create an innovation funnel that we can leverage to create value!

Sadly, if it wasn’t “synergy,” it was some other freshly baked consulting nonsense—like “immersive enablement ecosystems” or three sixty stakeholder alignment.

From the front lines, it looked a lot less than a strategy and more like enterprises doing a cannonball into the VR pool—no plan, no skills, no business case… just vibes, buzzwords, and a bucket of money they accidentally set on fire.

Which brings us to… The Enterprise VR Fantasy.

Before you clutch your pearls, let’s be clear: We're talking about Enterprise VR—not the consumer metaverse, extended reality, or whatever buzzword stew Meta is serving these days. This is about VR behind the firewall—used for training, collaboration, and simulation inside large companies.

Enterprises pitched VR as a magical cure-all for… well, everything. Just look at this list of promises:

Revolutionize training! Employees will be smarter and learn faster!

Transform meetings! You’ll love collaborating in virtual spaces!

Streamline product design! What could go wrong?

Show customers the future before it’s built! No pressure

Save lives with surgical simulations! Just like a video game!

Reduce travel costs! Who needs to go to Barcelona for a conference when you have VR headsets?

Improve Employee Well-being and Engagement! Whatever that means I just know I want it!

Here’s the thing: VR can technically do all these things. And, yes, there’s experience and data to back that up (including a 2020 study the author of this series co-authored). But just because something can work doesn’t mean it will work. And let’s face it, most of these pitches came from salespeople, consultants, evangelists, R&D, emerging tech, or founders who’d job is to sell you something. 

...Sure, our consumer VR headsets do not collect personal data and are 100% secure! Yup it's true! Now sign this 3-year non-negotiable contract.

Despite billions of dollars invested and countless PowerPoint presentations about the “potential,” VR in the enterprise turned out to be underwhelming.

As mentioned earlier, this is a 7-episode series.

Each episode is a glorious dumpster dive into a bucket of goo that supports the reasons why VR went from The Next Big Thing to a helmet of neglect. Here are a summary of the 7 episodes.

Episode 1: The Benefits of Enterprise VR: Overpromising and underdelivering (a classic combo). Was there ever a strong business case for Enterprise VR, was it all hype, or was there truth wrapped up in all of those shiny demos?

Episode 2: Strapped-in and Let Down: How Enterprise VR Got Duped by Consumer Tech: You mean how consumer headset manufacturers tried to squeeze consumer stilettos onto enterprise feet. Surprise! The enterprise didn’t need high heels – they needed security.

Episode 3: Enterprise VR Software Tools: Development tools? What development tools? Understanding what it took to build an enterprise VR app and why so many companies just outsourced the pain.

Episode 4: The IT Problem, or How the middle finger can be used as a pointing device: Device management, network integration, compliance headaches, licensing nightmares, and the inevitable, No, you cannot put your wireless goggles on my secure network.

Episode 5: Corporate Learning and Development: Where good ideas and dreams go to die.

Episode 6: User Experience: “You want me to wear this clunky thing on my head for HOW long?”

Episode 7: VR/Spatial Consultancies: The rise and fall of the Metaverse Industrial Complex

After the 7th episode, we will wrap this up with a nice shiny bow and share some tips on how to survive these dark days waiting out the enterprise VR apocalypse to subside.

So, kick back, crack open a beverage of choice, and join us for a meandering stroll through the last eight years of Enterprise VR’s misadventures.

About the Author

Daniel Eckert retired from 29-years of consulting in late 2023 after spending 8-years on the front lines of Enterprise VR, preventing big companies from overhyping, under-investing, or half-baking VR solutions. He also co-authored the landmark paper The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Soft Skills Training in the Enterprise which is cited 90% less than your average Kardashian Instagram post. Daniel now spends his semi-retirement as a Principal at Rocinante Research. (Yes, the name is a Don Quixote reference. Yes, it’s ironic.). Check out some of his other articles on Medium and Linkedin.

Feel free to continue by listening to Episode 1: The Benefits of Enterprise VR.