According to a survey conducted by Greenlight Insights, the vast majority of people want virtual reality (VR) experiences to become more social and able to be shared with friends and family.
Videogames have often been erroneously considered to be isolating experiences, but consoles have long been equipped with more than one controller port for social play, and with the advent of services such as Steam and Xbox Live, it’s easy to play with friends who might live a long distance away and quickly switch over to Facebook or Twitter to organise a shared gaming session or celebrate a victory with a screenshot. This joined-up social experience is what many people are seeking from VR.
The survey from Greenlight Insights showed that 67% of people would be interested in social VR, with the number rising to 78% among those who have already tried VR. Also included in the survey report were figures saying that 75.5% of people would use social VR apps once a week, with 28.1% saying they would use them every day.
There are a number of social VR solutions being worked on, from the high-profile Facebook offering of Facebook Spaces, Pluto VR and Altspace VR. Facebook Spaces has been covered by VRFocus before, and the software allows Oculus Rift users to hang out in a shared VR space, but the technology is currently still in early days and needs some improving and refining before it can hope to become as popular as Twitter or Facebook itself.
The VR industry is still waiting to see what the social VR ‘killer app’ will be, but VRFocus will be there to report on it when it appears.