i3 - January/February 2016 - 17

Ausloeser/Glow Images

Google Chief Game Designer Noah Falstein
has been making games long enough to have lived through every iteration of the
promise of virtual reality (VR). But with Sony, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Nvidia,
HTC, Samsung, Intel and other big companies investing billions of dollars in VR,
that promise is finally being realized.
"With Samsung Gear VR and the upcoming Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Sony's
PlayStation VR, we have VR displays, input, and motion sensing hardware that's
high enough quality to really jumpstart the medium," Falstein says. "That's a big
change from a couple of years ago when this was all getting started. The combination of super low latency and high frame rate in VR display devices together
with exact position tracking input, puts you there in the world. It changes everything. That means that we are past the starting line."
BY JOHN GAUDIOSI
C TA . t e c h / i 3

Falstein admits that at first
this is going to be a small
industry, but he believes VR will
experience rapid growth and
adoption powered by excellent
hardware and software that
explores and defines the way
that people interact with the
medium. "It's real and it's going
to be a major business from here
forward," he says.
HTC, which delayed the
consumer launch of its SteamVRpowered HTC Vive until early
2016, is still going to be first
to market in the PC market.
(Samsung Gear VR is already
available in the mobile space.)
HTC has partnered with leading
independent developer Valve to
encourage game developers, and
also connected with Hollywood
studios like HBO and Lionsgate
to embrace interactive VR. Jeff
Gattis, executive director of global
marketing for connected products at HTC, believes the game
and entertainment industries are
still experimenting with VR.
"It's going to be interesting
to see how things evolve in the
VR environment," Gattis says.
"We share Valve's philosophy in
allowing developers and storytellers to create what they want
by offering them a blank canvas
that they can paint."
According to Tim Merel, managing director of Digi-Capital, by
2020 the virtual reality industry
will generate $30 billion. Piper
Jaffray forecasts sales of 12.2
million VR head-mounted displays (HMDs) in 2016. Oculus
Rift is expected to account for
3.6 million of those headset
sales, HTC Vive is forecast to sell
2.1 million units, Sony PlayStation VR 1.4 million headsets,
and Samsung Gear VR five million portable headsets.
John Koller, vice president of
marketing at Sony Computer
Entertainment America, believes
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

17


http://www.samsung.com/GearVR‎ https://www.oculus.com/en-us/ https://www.playstation.com/en-au/explore/ps4/features/playstation-vr/ http://www.htcvive.com/us/ https://www.playstation.com/en-au/explore/ps4/features/playstation-vr/ http://CTA.tech/i3

i3 - January/February 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - January/February 2016

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i3 - January/February 2016 - Cover1
i3 - January/February 2016 - Cover2
i3 - January/February 2016 - Contents
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