There are a lot of people claiming that the VR dream is dead. Here at AppSpy we're not sure that's true - the VR dream is just changing into something far more accessible to normal people. Y'know, the sort of people who don't have thousands of pounds to drop on a heavy and cumbersome pair of goggles.

That's why Nintendo announcing it's going to be building a VR LABO kit is really important. It's a glimpse at the potential future of mobile VR, as well as a nod to the past. You might have thought that the Occulus Rift was going to change the world, but it turns out the Google Cardboard had already done it.

That gives us a big clue as to what the future of mobile VR is going to be like. LABO is inherently a creative enterprise, and that's something we'd love to see more of in mobile. Sometimes it can feel like everything is spoon fed to you, but having the ability to build something for yourself is going to change that.

And this is something that we can see from smaller companies - gone are the hefty requirements and expensive doodahs. Cardboard is pretty cheap, especially when compared to big lumps of glass and plastic and technology.

LABO-hem

Of course, this is all guesswork at the moment, but if VR LABO works well, you can expect to see another bunch of cheap and cheerful headsets making their way to mobile - but you'll also see games releasing with print your own goggles that add to the experience.

Where before VR felt like it was the preserve of only a very few, very rich companies, who in essence were controlling the success or otherwise of the tech, the LABO announcement sort of looks like a democratisation - here's something that almost anyone with an interest in gaming is going to be able to afford.

Here's hoping that the future of mobile VR is more like the one being suggested by Nintendo. A future that's not just accessible to all, but one that's built around creativity and expression rather than big black helmets.