Disrupting the disruptors: How VR is re-energizing long-established industries

Technology has progressed leaps and bounds in the past decade, giving rise to a whole new host of industries, while crippling and making some traditional industries obsolete. Even as some segments such as mobile phones, home consoles, data storage continue to prosper and grow, there have been signs of a comeback by some traditional industries, made possible by Virtual Reality (VR).

Hubert Larenaudie, President APAC, Unity Technologies discusses how VR is disrupting not only just entertainment, but entire industries at large as once traditionally considered industry standards become obsolete.

Disrupting the
disruptors: How VR is re-energizing long-established industries

By Hubert Larenaudie, President APAC, Unity
Technologies

Virtual Reality is not a new medium, but
it is being utilized in exciting new ways that are disrupting not just
entertainment but entire industries at large as once traditionally considered
industry standards become obsolete.

New VR devices have naturally found a
place with gaming’s notorious early adopters. While the home systems continue
to dominate the gaming industry today, even more so with the rise of mobile
gaming[1], a lifeline has
appeared for the once-booming arcade industry in the form of Virtual Reality
(VR). VR has given rise to a fresh new audience for traditional arcades;
players can immerse themselves in games and environments via technology that
might be normally cost-prohibitive (owning a high-end VR headset does not come
cheap and requires a powerful computer) or not yet available (Oculus, for
example, is not available in China). And numerous companies, like HTC[2], are jumping to meet
this demand while locations popup around Asia[3]. Other only-in-arcade
innovations that enliven VR experiences include things like fans, treadmills,
and tactile feedback, upping the ante and helping arcades to claw their way
back into the fray.

One US VR start up[4] is taking this idea
even further, and has already caught the eye of the world by marrying both
virtual and physical worlds together. The company aims to drive the
distribution of Virtual Entertainment Centres (VECs) where people can immerse
themselves in custom-built arenas, with the differentiator being the use of specially
constructed physical environments which mirrors the physical landscape of the
virtual world that players experience. The likes of doors, buttons and fire in
the virtual landscape are all imitated and have a physical representation the
real world, providing players a complete immersion into the virtual environment,
making reality all the more real.

The more familiar consumers become with
VR, the more readily they will accept and expect it in everyday life, and this
disruption brought about by VR is not only limited to the arcade industry. The
levels of immersion, involved engagement and freedom that VR allows are
re-energizing other industries as well. From education, where educators can
bring students to historical sites around the world in first person without
leaving the classroom, to interior design where home designers and owners can
see the potential décor of their project, VR knows no limits when it comes to
location and environment. VR has also created whole new development and
research fields, as with psychology, where VR is being used to treat cases of
Post-Traumatic Stress disorders and phobias. With an unbridled ability to
“transport” a consumer, businesses, researchers, artists and educators can
think radically differently about how to reach their audiences, innovating
beyond content delivery to business models themselves.

With more research and developments into
VR technology underway and translated to new experiences, industries across the
board are starting to realize the benefits and potential of VR. This has
created a cycle of sorts for VR where new breakthroughs are applied to more services,
which in turns spurns greater interest in developing better experiences and
expanding applications It is via this cycle that traditional industries can
expect to make a comeback and take centre stage, while pushing the once
‘disruptive’ industries to innovate to continue staying ahead.