I don't see why narrative is such a focus in gaming these days. It really seems only Nintendo and indies are putting gameplay first, and that makes me sad.
I get so fed up playing games where all the cool story bits are in cutscenes, and not stuff you actually play, and for the most part much of what you actually play is just going between cutscenes. Nintendo do push themselves, it's just in gameplay and not in the superficial means that often belong in other mediums.
VR really doesn't seem like the future to me (although Metroid VR does seem cool). I've tried Oculus and it just didn't sit well with me. It's limited in its gaming applications. Non-gaming applications, hoo boy there's a lot there, but for video games it's somewhat limited and we can tell by the software that has been showcased/postulated for it.
VR is such an isolationist thing in gaming and Nintendo is the antipode of that. They want to bring people together with games, not isolate them.