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How Virtual Reality Captures the Entertainment Industry

People are always looking for new experiences

By Alex HayesPublished 4 years ago 4 min read
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We have been inventing different activities to add some pleasure to our stressful life. This is the essence of entertainment—it takes us away from our routine and brings joy.

Technological advancements have accelerated the pace of changes in the entertainment industry. The options are numerous now: interactive games, 3D cinemas, live music, video content streaming, etc. Modern people ‘consume’ entertainment like food. They eat, forget, and then continue with a new dish. And it looks like the virtual reality technology is a special new dish that will hit the menus in the near future.

VR games

Gaming is the major sector for VR adoption. With the release of the first headset prototypes by Oculus and HTC in 2016, the age of VR began. It resulted in a growing demand for VR games. Many large developers joined the VR movement to provide players with unique experiences of realistic simulation.

Each year development companies amaze customers and introduce cutting-edge immersive games. For the past few years, they have improved the gameplay by enriching it with new virtual objects. This allows users to interact with 3D game characters and elements. What’s more, VR gaming has also entered the mobile space with VR-powered apps and headsets making the immersive environment available for players anytime and anywhere. The players will find VR games of different types: from shooters to racing games to casino games.

Today, operators provide hundreds of games, and here you can find a list of the best VR games in 2019. In a bid to enjoy the games to the fullest, it’s worth trying out the latest VR headset—Quest. In May, Oculus presented the first all-in-one device that requires no wires or connection to other devices enabling users to move in all directions in three-dimensional space.

VR music

The VR technology implemented in music videos and live concerts takes the viewing experience to the new level. This became possible after 360-degree video posting platforms had emerged. Artists began to create engaging music videos with outstanding visuals. In 2017, The Gorillaz made a hit and got the record number of views of its VR music video Saturnz Barz. Beyond this, the artists use VR in their live performances to connect and share space with fans. With the help of VR headsets, users become on-the-scene participants of the event through immersive 360-degree videos.

Here’s one more example. Wave is one of the applications that provide interactive music experience from the comfort of your home. Any festival or concert that you might have missed is available via this app. While enjoying the music in a new way, you can invite your friends to share the experience of immersion. The app also gives musicians the power to customize the event venues and environment focusing on the level of the audience engagement.

VR museums

VR has grown to be a commonly used technology in modern museums. It allows users to be fully immersed either in the depths of the ocean or inside the human body. Museums all over the world make use of VR—it can be interactive exhibitions or 360-degree video tours.

Some museums leverage VR for a specific project. For example, the Kremer Museum is an entirely virtual museum featuring the art collection of the 17th century. Users can take a closer look at paintings and their smallest details.

The Virtual Museum of Canada is the oldest three-dimensional national museum that includes educational resources, virtual exhibitions, free online games, and the largest collection of 2,500 Canadian museums. And the Smithsonian museum’s VR tours allow manipulating the objects and even experiencing the crowded showroom.

VR location-based entertainment

The most promising VR application is location-based entertainment, LBE. This compelling entertainment is a mix of cinema, arcade games, and theme parks. The VR experience is available at land-based venues equipped with custom-designed spaces or locally where people can move around freely. Some LBEs are game-based and others focus on storytelling where participants interact with characters.

The Void is the major company that creates large-scale immersive environments. Their first big-budget project was a Ghostbusters-themed VR location. It enjoyed huge success as it was the first custom-designed LBE. It’s a 10 minute experience designed for three participants that plunge into the Ghostbusters universe. The Void’s other LBE project brings users inside the Star Wars world. Secrets of the Empire is a 30 minute entertainment experience, which offers a more comprehensive and compelling experience.

Wrapping up

While writers of the previous century like Stanley Weinbaum in his Pygmalion’s Spectacles were only dreaming about the virtual worlds, the modern average user has access to these unique new worlds. Described back in 1935, VR becomes a new reality for people and brings unusual experiences. Moreover, this technology evolves very fast penetrating all spheres of our lives and changing the way we perceive the content. Yet entertainment is the biggest advocate for VR. The technology has great potential with eSports, the fastest-growing game-based sector. At the moment, VR has only scratched the surface of eSports powering several tournaments. But, there’s more to come, for sure.

So, do you feel that you are tired of routine? Are you looking for new experiences and emotions? Explore the virtual worlds, which are now as accessible as TV shows.

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