Virtual reality is primarily designed to create an immersive world.That world mainly consists of exotic locations or video game environments as of right now. Oculus wants to take it to a whole new level by offering immersive virtual theater a reality. An ambitious plan, although one that can make virtual reality more appealing to consumers.
Virtual Theater in VR?
Most people will acknowledge virtual reality has a major content problem. Other than a load of games and some short VR experiences, there isn’t all that much to do. Oculus acknowledges this problem and plans to offer immersive virtual theater content to its users as early as next year.
Under the hood, this venture will let users meet up with different avatars. However, these are not programmed avatars, but rather live actors. Casts of actors will lead viewers through a performance which will never be experienced in the same manner more than once. It sounds like something that can effectively work, even though it will not be the cheapest undertaking either.
Oculus Execute Productor of Experiences Yelena Rachitsky comments:
“We are inventing a new VR format that attempts to widen the audience for some of today’s most exciting VR experiences — installations with live actors.We’re really interested in, how do you create that experience of live actors without needing to be in a site-specific location. It’s a way to scale.”
Immersive theater is not a new trend by any means. It has been a booming industry for several years now. Bringing this concept to VR can open up a lot of new opportunities, both for consumers and live actors alike. Escape rooms are another example of immersive theater, and a concept which is also gaining some traction in virtual reality. A very interesting concept to keep an eye on moving forward.
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