The way I see it, 2018 for VR-AR is a year where the Reality brutally hits the Expectations.
It’s almost 2,5 years since the debut of the most advance VR devices and AR engines. Tons of media coverage. Over 30 global events, exclusively featuring both of them. And then Theme Parks, Arcades, Café, start spawning all over the world.
Yet the users count didn’t even live up anywhere near the expected numbers.
Some might said, you’re too impatient. TV took almost 30 years to go mainstream. Mobile phones over a decade. Sure, that is something that we, as indie developers/distributors might believe and continue to hope for. But giant corporations obviously have different perspectives, thus we’ve seen the rise and fall of quite some numbers of industry’s pioneers so far. It’s still fine though, because every industry goes through this ‘survival of the fittest’ age sooner or later.
You can read all the VR-AR sector analysis, both optimistic and/or pessimistic in any tech medias these days. But for me, what I found most encouraging about 2018 is how VR and AR have arrived within mainstream box office movie and TV series to give us a brief ‘expectations’ of what the technology could potentially be.
Despite the mixed reviews that Ready Player One gets as a movie, to this day it might be the best realistic (and achievable) depiction of future Virtual Reality experience. No, we’re definitely not there yet, and pretty sure VR isn’t gonna be just one dimensionally used as a gaming system as the movie suggest. But Yes, there is a possibility that someday VR will be casually used in our daily basis. It’s a promise we can all believe in.
On Augmented Reality front, there’s Memories of The Alhambra, a new Korean TV drama (now airing in Netflix) set in our era, where AR technology has become so advanced, it became one of the most valuable tech in the world that people are willing to do extreme measures to own it. I have to be honest, I’m really not into K-Drama, so just like the storyline flaws that I saw in Ready Player One has made it less enjoyable, the slow dramatical plot in Memories of The Alhambra is a bit of a turn off for me.
Nevertheless, it’s a start that hopefully appeal to each of its own audiences. So for those who never knew or heard about VR-AR, I’d suggest you begin with these two.
Motion pictures have long been used as one of the most effective ways to introduce new concepts. And since it’s already a mature industry, it even has the ability to convince (or de-convince) its audience about a particular issue. Something that VR-AR industry are still too young to do, right now.
While I don’t suggest that every VR-AR industry players have to make a movie or TV shows, I strongly believe that collaboration with other mature industry players is a must. We’ve seen huge Intellectual Properties have paved their ways to VR (Star Wars with The Void, Dragon Ball with VR Zone, etc) in 2017. It also made its appearance in Late Night Talkshows. So it’s logical that this year the VR-AR tech itself took the step across another medium.
There are many ways to talk about VR and AR. But it came as no surprise that just literally “talking” about it won’t do you any good when it comes to describe the experience and/or the tech itself. Even more, when the products is still in its very early stage. Lots of limitations.
Customers hate limitations, they want something more than they could’ve possibly imagine. That’s where those other mediums came in. They show the world of possibilities that the device itself can’t. That’s probably what VR-AR industry need right now, while the developers and inventors struggling to find ways to bring those imagination closer to reality.
So again, 2018 has been a tough year for many VR-AR industry players. For those who decided to depart, thank you for trying, becoming an inspiration, and being a lesson for all of us who decided to stay.
For those who decided to stay within the VR-AR industry, we still got a long way ahead of us. 2019 won’t be easier and I won’t be surprised to see some giant pioneers close their doors or pivoting into a more ‘potentially supportive’ industry, but let’s move forward together. Now that we knew that our industry is not a standalone, it’s time for us to rethink our strategy across other medium and combine forces with other established industry.
2019, here we come!
