Why platforms and community will be key to early VR

When we look back in ten years, I firmly believe that virtual reality (VR) will be among the most transformative technologies of its era. From storytelling and entertainment, to interpersonal communication, to industrial applications, sectors including healthcare, education, design and many more will undergo tremendous change and innovation as the VR computing platform matures for both creation and consumption.

That said, as with any emerging category, choosing which technologies and which teams to bet on (and when) is critical. Surveying the VR landscape, it’s clear that the hardware space is incredibly competitive and requires a significant amount of capital for development and distribution. It’s critical for mass adoption of the space, but not where we as a firm have chosen to focus. On the other end of the spectrum, while we are believers in content, the industry is still too nascent to focus significantly on the content side of the equation. So where is the white space in VR today?

At Upfront, one area of untapped opportunity we have been exploring is around interactive, social platforms and the communities that they foster. We’ve seen the network effects and virality of community dynamics help define and advance other interactive mediums (Maker Studios, Mitu, and Vidme come to mind). We expect the same effects to play out around VR, and no company has yet emerged to own this experience. We believe that building such a community in this nascent category will demand a veteran entrepreneur with key relationships and market understanding. At the same time, any company entering the market at this early stage must be cognizant that it will be a long game, and thus should seek to develop business models capable of sustaining through what will inevitably be a bumpy and unpredictable market evolution.

To that end, I’ve been waiting a long time to introduce a very special entrepreneur and company who we think will be among the pioneers in the development of VR. Todd Hooper is an experienced gaming and technology exec who most recently worked at Unity, where he was the VP of Online Services. In that role he built, acquired and launched a series of cloud services now used by over 4 million developers to create games and interactive experiences reaching more than 600 million users.

A room-scale Vive demo convinced Todd that VR would be a transformative social and storytelling medium and formed the impetus for him to leave Unity and found VREAL. Coming out of stealth today, VREAL is the first native VR streaming platform that allows players to easily stream their favorite games or experiences (currently supporting Unity and Unreal) while enabling audiences to watch and interact within VR or from a regular 2D screen.

I’m excited to share that Upfront is leading VREAL’s $3.3 million Seed round.

Todd has assembled a team of experienced talent from KIXEYE, Sony, CCP Games, Reddit, and Microsoft. Together, they are taking the already awe-inspiring immersive VR experiences launching daily on the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, and dramatically multiplying the addressable audience through live streaming. Along the way, we believe they can foster a deeply engaged community of creators, streamers and consumers and thus will have a prominent voice in the way immersive VR experiences evolve.

For a hint at the power of multi-user VR, check out this great video filmed with green screens of friends watching someone solve a puzzle in Fantastic Contraption (an awesome launch title on the HTC Vive). With VREAL, thousands of individuals around the globe can simultaneously watch and participate in live VR content without the need for green screens or custom cameras and software systems.

The types of experiences possible are only limited by the developers’ and streamers’ creativity. Imagine watching your favorite player competing in an eSports match from the stands of Madison Square Garden, but suddenly being able to change views and go straight to the in-game arena and hover over the match. Or picture a 3D art installation in a museum, but with the option to walk around it as the artist creates the work live in Tilt Brush. Or pretend you’re mission control in the movie The Martian, watching and guiding Matt Damon to survival as resources dwindle on his Martian base. That is the kind of fully immersive social experience VR can enable, one far superior to the current 2D norm.

VREAL is making this all possible through an easy-to-integrate SDK for game developers and a robust backend capable of delivering this immersive experience at scale. In this regard as well, Todd and the team’s background in game engines, game design / development, and streaming / community will be critical. Not only can they build in and upon the most popular game engines, the team has the industry and developer relationships to forge the right content partnerships required to make the VREAL experience come to life.

With the underlying pieces in place, we’re thrilled to work alongside Todd and his team as VR undergoes an intense period of experimentation and growth. The company will work with three key constituencies — top game developers pushing the envelope on new VR experiences, streamers experimenting with broadcasting their play, and spectators watching and interacting — giving them a richer and more varied perspective than most into tackling key challenges in VR interactions:

• Communication through verbal and non-verbal cues
• Feedback and decision making in the virtual environment
• Different types of character embodiments and avatars
• Creation and sharing of virtual goods

It is so early in the platform shift that no one has quite figured out the language of interaction in VR, but VREAL has a unique opportunity to influence how the grammar evolves. We’ll see this play out as the company both pioneers massively social and interactive experiences in VR, and also helps spur developer and community interest for this emerging medium. If you’re excited as well, follow @vrealofficial and consider joining the team (apply here).

Finally, keep an eye out here on Insights as we write in more detail about specific VR and AR challenges and emerging innovations across many of the areas we’re exploring: content creation pipeline, interactive storytelling, UI/UX design, input and feedback, end-to-end industry applications, etc.