Oculus and their advantage as a VR brand
To understand Oculus’ advantage in the VR space we have to compare it to Steam as one of their biggest competitors.
Steam as a video platform
When Steam allowed VR creators to submit 360° video apps, they seemed to make a real effort to extend their entertainment offerings beyond just games. Even though flat videos have been available for years, they never really took off. With 360° being a new medium and an integral part of VR, Steam had the chance to position itself in the minds of early VR adopters as a video platform.
However, as of January 8, Steam does not support new video apps unless directly related to games or software and on February 19th store pages of all non-qualifying videos will be removed from the video hub.
I don’t know how many 360° creators are affected and I am sure there are exceptions. My own short film SONAR will be removed and is not available for purchase after February 19th.
Despite their financial resources and great promotions like Neill Blomkamp’s amazing VFX short films they faced the impossible task to compete with Twitch, Youtube or Netflix / Amazon in their respective segments of the industry.
The reason for this is Steam as a brand. I don’t know anyone who thinks of Steam as their go to video streaming platform and they likely missed their chance with immersive video. They are also not exclusive to VR games but offer all kinds of games which is watering down Steam as a VR brand.
Oculus — from Facebook
Now Oculus on the other hand is THE virtual reality brand. They exclusively offer VR content of all flavors. When Facebook bought Oculus, it saw the value not only of the technology but of a new brand that a new medium needs in order to be successful. When acquiring a public facing product, Facebook doesn’t impose its name in their marketing. AFAIK, the addition of “a Facebook company” is rarely seen in any consumer marketing material. Facebook’s controversial plans to combine Whatsapp, Instagram and Messenger user data doesn’t mean they immediately merge into one product.
Oculus is on an aggressive path towards mainstream VR. The famous marketing book Positioning by Al Pries says: “…successful positioning requires consistency. You must keep at it year after year.” That’s what Oculus has been doing with their line up of products and evolution of their software.
But from a content strategy which inherently defines entertainment brands like Steam or Oculus consistency means something entirely different: The biggest mistake Oculus could do in the coming years is defining itself as another gaming platform. The content mix is already heavily skewed towards gaming so there is a real chance this could happen.
Fortunately it is not too late and the experiences team at Oculus is trying their best with recent additions like “Traveling while black” from the 2019 Sundance film festival.
I can only hope that Oculus will continue to be the go to brand for immersive storytelling and not get washed away by a wave of gameplay driven experiences that are currently in development.
In the end, VR will be so much more than gaming, immersive entertainment or a social network. Powerful platforms like Oculus have to keep all this in balance while aggressively pushing technology and experimentation for their own sake.
PS: Since SONAR won’t be available on Steam after February 19, I’m sending out free keys. So if you haven’t watched it, please subscribe to my upcoming VR project MIRAGE here to get a key.
More projects:
www.scopevirtual.com — Animation studio for immersive media and virtual content.
