It’s Time for Developers to Focus on Virtual Reality
by Anders Riise Koch
With news breaking that HTC sold 10,000 of their Vive VR headsets during the first ten minutes of going on sale it’s becoming increasingly clears that software and game developers will need to take VR seriously.
Despite all the talk about $800 headsets, the fact is that VR is a lot more accessible than most people realize. Anyone with a relatively recent smartphone can access VR content by buying a Google Cardboard viewer. These can be purchased on eBay for as little as $0.01. There are already a wealth of apps, games and YouTube videos that work with Google Cardboard, creating immersive experiences without breaking the bank. Google announced in January 2016 that 350,000 hours of VR video had been viewed on YouTube.
The ease of acquiring a basic VR headset means the potential audience for VR experiences is wider than one would initially assume. In Sweden, McDonald’s will be printing 3,500 special Happy Meal boxes that can be folded into a VR headset. This is unlikely to be the last time a company seeks to promote free VR experiences.
For game developers, the Unreal Engine has been one of the leading platforms for game development for many years. Increasingly, many developers are moving onto Unity3D. Both engines feature VR capabilities but vary widely in cost.
Gartner has predicted that 1.6 million VR headsets will be shipped in 2016 with an even larger growth predicted for 2017. This is a fast growing market that any developer would benefit from being a part of.
Want to learn more about VR?
Sign up for VR With The Best — an online conference designed by developers for developers.
VR With The Best will be held on March 19th, 2016 from 10AM EDT to 6PM EDT. Featuring 10+ hours of exciting talks from some of the world’s leading VR CTO’s, Q&A discussions and 1-to-1 mentoring sessions — all from the comfort of your own home.
Speakers include:
- Amir Ebrahimi, Principal Software Engineer @Unity3D & GDC Speaker
- Dioselin Gonzalez, Senior VR Engineer @Unity3D
- Martin Förtsch, Black Belt Software Developer at Intel
- Saswat Panda, CTO @LiveLikeVR
- Sébastien Kuntz, CEO @MiddleVR
- Marco Colombo, Software Engineer @Curve Digital
- Jason Jerald, P.hD. // Author of The VR Book
- Federico Gonzalez, Co-Founder & CTO @VRTIFY
- Nils Andersson, CTO @EON Reality
- Alex Wendland, Harvard College student & CTO @Luminopia
Photo Credit: Rafael Valentim
