Concluding today’s keynote at the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) 2016, which already featured more information on the Gear 360 release and its integration with Milk VR, Unity listed off five points it thinks will happen in the development of the augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) contrary to popular belief.
John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity, took to the stage to give his insight into what he believes will become of the industry. The first point was that the growth of the industry will start slow then speed up, calling 2016 a “ductape and twine year”, continuing to say “even though there will be some interesting content, it will take time”.
Riccitiello talked about the current market predictions, saying “Personally on my take these forecasts are wrong for the long term. They all took the model of smartphone adoption and compared it to AR and VR growth,” He went on to mention that there will be a “gap of disappointment” which refers to the time it take from now for the market predictions to reach what is expected of them, but Riccitiello described this time as “meaningless” as the industry will boom and thrive in time.
The second point was that VR and AR will go beyond games, and the third was that there will be a need for a new language for VR and AR, much like cinema. “Think for a moment about the language of film. Motion blur. We understand it but it doesn’t happen in real life, we’re all tuned to know we’re meant to be afraid.
“But none of that is relevant in the world of AR and VR because the consumer can look in any direction they want. It’s such a huge difference in AR and VR because the director can’t assume. How do you tell a story when you don’t know where the viewer will be looking?”
The fourth point has been touched on a few times before, but Riccitiello reiterates: “I believe that we will be hanging out in the metaverse, in the oasis.”
The final prediction carries on from the fourth: “I believe we will be creating VR content from within VR, not the standard keyboard and mouse.” He goes on to show a video of “a working product in Unity” that “will be rolling out over the next year” which showcases his point in that people will be able to build and hang out in VR and AR.
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