Survey: Hardware Prices And Limited Content Are The Biggest Barriers To VR Adoption
Almost 50% of VR Professionals Reporting Profits
A recent survey of over 500 virtual reality (VR) professionals conducted by VRX Event and VR Intelligence has found that almost half respondents reported industry growth over 2016 had been positive.
46% of respondents said that their growth had been ‘strong’ or ‘very strong’. Less than a third reported growth as ‘weaker than hoped’, reports GamesIndustry.biz. With VR being such a new industry, it was not certain how far the industry would develop, so many see it’s current rate of growth as a good sign.
The survey also indicated that there was a clean split in the industry regarding where content creators place their focus. One third reported that they were focused on mobile VR, another third were focused on PC and console tethered VR while the final third reported that they split their efforts between the two.
With regards to the challenges that the VR industry faces, there was some disagreement. More than half of content creators indicated that the high price of VR headsets was still a problem, while over half of VR tech such as hardware manufacturers, pointed to lack of quality content. While this may seem like two sides of the industry blaming the other, it should be noted that hardware manufacturers placed headset price as the second most significant obstacle, while content creators named lack of content as their second-most significant problem.
Other problems noted by respondents were lack of consumer awareness, headset size and design, motion sickness and headset usability. Content creators and VR tech workers both seemed to agree that motion sickness was the least significant barrier to overcome.
The VR sector is still growing at a rapid rate. Other reports, such as one from the Venture Reality Fund, have shown VR industry growth of 40% worldwide. Some analysts are predicting that the VR content market could be worth up to $41 billion USD by 2024.
VRFocus will keep you updated with reports on the growth of the VR market.
VRX Europe Returns to London
Over 600 of the biggest names in the virtual reality (VR) industry will descend upon London for the VRX Europe Conference and Expo.
The event is returning to London after its successful debut in 2016. There are over 60 speakers set to be featured over the event, with representatives from Sony, Oculus, HTC Vive, Unity, Microsoft, Samsung, Mozilla, Framestore, CCP Games, Audi, Sketchfab, Endemol Shine, MediaMonks, NetEase Games, Intel, Youzu Interactive and Google all planning to take the stage at some point.
The organisers describe the purpose of the event as attempting to prepare businesses for the commercial growth that is expected for VR through the rest of 2017 and beyond. There will be keynote speeches and roundtable discussions on subjects such as how to make VR social and the imapct of VR on film and broadcast media.
Further information on the event, including tickets and pricing, can be found on the official VRX Europe website. Discounted rates will be available until Friday 24th March. VRX Europe will take place on 11th and 12th of May in London, UK.
For further updates from VRX Europe and other VR events, keep watching VRFocus.
Jason Rubin: ‘The Next 12 to 24 Months Are Where the Real Creativity is Going to Happen’ for VR Content
Every once in a while you get to see not one but two legends occupy a single stage. It happened for music lovers when Billy Joel went on tour with Elton John. It happened for sports fans when LeBron James joined Dwayne Wade in Miami (he came back so I can talk about it again without retching). And it happened for nerds at this year’s VRX conference in San Francisco when Ted Price and Jason Rubin interviewed one another during a fireside chat.
Oculus’ head of content, Jason Rubin
Price and Rubin are two giants of the video game industry that founded Insomniac (Ratchet and Clank, Sunset Overdrive) and Naughty Dog (Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter) respectively. Price remains as Insomiac’s head but Rubin is currently serving as the head of content for Oculus after selling Naughty Dog to Sony in 2001. Rubin’s job now is to produce as many outstanding VR games and experiences for the Rift virtual reality headset as possible, and Insomniac has already established itself as one of the early scene’s major players with three VR titles released for Rift to date.
Price and Rift took the stage at VRX to participate in what was expected to be an informal conversation, but became an in-depth look at the highs and lows of VR game development. For his part, Rubin took the opportunity to speak to the future of Oculus content. Despite the deluge of launch titles for Rift and Touch, many of which have been very well received already, Rubin still stated that the best days for VR content lie ahead.
“I don’t think we’ve quite struck gold yet when it comes to the content that consumers want to buy for VR,” Rubin explained. “The next 12 to 24 months are where the real creativity is going to happen in VR. These are the experiences that will truly strike the consumer and that’s where greater [hardware] adoption starts to happen.”
Rubin elaborated that at Oculus they subscribe to a “hockey stick” outlook for the VR industry, meaning that they fully expect the industry to scale very slowly at first, if at all, before rocketing to extreme mass market success in the future. However, this timeline may be less optimistic than some might think.
“We don’t believe its this year [that mass adoption will take place], and we don’t believe its next year but we do think it’s coming,” he said.
Rubin was most recently responsible for orchestrating the 50+ title launch library for the Rift’s new controller platform: Oculus Touch. Those games were mostly received by the community but apparently despite this early success Rubin still has his, and his team’s, eyes focused on bigger and better things for the future.
Tagged with: 12, 24, content, jason rubin, months, oculus, prediction, rift, VRX
Studio Liddell Representing UK at VRX Virtual Reality conference in San Francisco
Today Manchester, UK-based CG animation and interactive company Studio Liddell has announced it’s been chosen by the Department for International Trade (DIT) as one of a select group to represent the country at the VRX Virtual Reality conference in San Francisco.
VRX which takes place this week is one of the largest virtual reality (VR) conferences in the world.
Studio Liddell is renowned for its children’s TV and advertising animation, and its been expanding into VR and augmented reality (AR). One of the company’s most recent projects was MS: Inside Out for Merck Pharmaceuticals and Digitas Health. This allows users to learn about typical Multiple Sclerosis symptoms via a VR experience which places them inside the brain of someone with the condition on the Samsung Gear platform.
Peter Caddock, Head of New Technologies at Studio Liddell said: “We’re honoured to be invited on this trade mission to help represent the UK’s Virtual Reality industry at VRX. Our objective is to promote our company as a creator of VR experiences and form new partnerships with American & global contacts. We feel taking part in the DIT mission will greatly help us with our goals.”
The VR conference and takes place in San Francisco, California on the 7th & 8th December. The DIT mission will compliment the conference with visits to major US VR companies and a reception at the British Consulate.
For all the latest VR news from around the world, keep reading VRFocus.
In Time For Rogue One, ILMxLAB’s John Gaeta To Speak At VRX 2016 On VR & Star Wars
We are just under a month away from this year’s VRX event and the conference and expo continues to add names to the list of speakers and representatives attending the event to be held in San Francisco, California over December 7th and 8th.
Four new speakers have been revealed for VRX 2016, including David Campbell of IMAX Corporation, Chris Horton of Universal Music Group and Carlos Saavedra of PepsiCo. The pick of the bunch however is John Gaeta. Gaeta is ILMxLAB’s Executive Creative Director and well known for his work on the Matrix trilogy of films. Gaeta will be presenting a session entitled “Star Wars, VR & The Frontiers of Storytelling” which will dip into how ILM are using virtual reality (VR) in order to develop new ways to tell the Star Wars story. This is, obviously, of particular interest with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story set to hit cinemas at around the same time. He’ll be joined by ILM’s Vicki Dobbs Beck in a discussion about “convergence between gaming, narrative storytelling and new experiences.”
ILMxLAB have previously this year released Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine on the HTC Vive, the feedback from which could well be discussed.
ILMxLAB joins a list of companies that includes representatives from virtual reality (VR) headset manufacturers Oculus, Google and for the HTC Vive as well as figures from key companies in both hardware and software side such as Intel (which recently acquired VOKE), Unity Technologies, Epic Games, Framestore, both NVIDIA and AMD as well as German automotive giants Audi and BMW.
For more on VRX 2016 and other VR related events stay tuned to future updates from VRFocus.