It is that time of the year when people begin to look back in retrospectives about what has been achieved over the past year. Were targets met? Were problems encountered and if so were they solved? What issues need to be addressed, and once that is done what is due to come next. That is certainly also true of virtual reality (VR),
Yesterday saw the finale of one of the final events of 2016, Unity’s Vision VR/AR Summit Asia, held in Beijing China and during the event and one of the talks presented during the December 14th schedule was “The Challenges and Opportunities of VR Developer”, hosted by the China Regional President of Vive at HTC, Alvin Wang Graylin. During the presentation Graylin made his own predictions for not just 2017 but also 2018 which he then shared on Twitter afterwards. Also commenting that “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
It’s an interesting insight into how those at the top of HTC Vive are looking at the path to the future.
2017
– VR PGC grows to 10k+ titles.
– New Dev tools/cameras enable UGC VR explosion.
– VR Ready PCs outsell standard PCs by Q4 of 2017.
– Mobile VR sales exceed 50 million units.
– VR becomes the new consumer status symbol.
– Education becomes major VR growth driver.
– VR ads begin to supplement Dev income.
– VR Developer shortage drives pay jump.
– ‘Vertical industries’ adopt VR in big way.
– Someone will spend 30 days inside VR non-stop.
2018
– Full-length VR block-buster movie driving mass awareness/desire.
– Real-estate developers begin to sell VR-ready Micro-apartments.
– VR Development becomes most popular class in colleges globally.
– First integrated selectable AR and VR product hits the market.
– AI enables life-like VR companions for the elderly and lonely.
– Employers begin offering work from home programs via VR.
– Celebrity life-streaming becomes new social phenomenon.
– All key retailers begin offering VR shopping models.
– VR Social solutions get traction and exceedingly sticky.
– High-quality VR MMORPG releases and becomes instant hit.
Many of these are well within the realms of possibility with forms of advertising systems already being put in place by companies like Vertebrae, Zynga and Flo VR. Whilst others, such as spending a whole month within VR might be a ways off yet for the technology. Other issues are based around the structure of the VR technology which Graylin noted in an additional slide. Essentially remarking that VR needs more of most things, that it needs to be bigger, quicker, smarter and cheaper to reach its full potential. You can see these as part of slides below.
How accurate will these predictions be? We’ll have to see over the course of 2017 where the industry goes, and VRFocus will be there every step of the way.