Modern virtual reality, meaning Oculus, Vive and Nvidia, has only been around since 2016. VR offers a fundamental new way to communicate, learn and train. It’s the most exciting medium since the advent of TV. But there’s no content. Over 150 million hours of video uploaded to Youtube each year. An endless library of games for Xbox and PS platforms. And VR? A trickle. That will change, but what do we do today? Put down our headsets, take a seat and wait? No.
However sparse the content is on the consumer side of VR, it’s a flood compared to what’s available for training in industry and government. I’m thinking of everything from how to repair an air conditioner to helping people succeed after prison.
If industries and government want to take advantage of all VR offers, they need to develop the content themselves. At least for a while. And that means money. I’ve developed a lot of content for customers. I want to say to them, ‘Stop! Before we go any further let’s go get a few others with the same needs to ante up and instead of getting five training modules, we’ll give you fifty using that combined pot of resources’. It is wildly more efficient and there’s no downside.
So why isn’t it happening? There has to be someone in the middle that knows the customers, knows their common needs and has the capacity to organize the development of VR content. There are two big upsides. No one develops content that it turns out no one else wants. And it helps get the volume of content to a critical mass where VR content developers can take over and know they have a market for their products.