When Sony Computer Entertainment President Andrew House talked about PlayStation VR earlier this month, he said their focus is on games first, while movies and music will “probably come in a second phase of VR development for use.”
While we may not see virtual reality movies on PlayStation VR when it launches in the first half of 2016, Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida told Fortune that non-gaming virtual reality experiences will be a big part of the PSVR ecosystem:
It’s going to be very important. I’m a huge fan of the 360-degree videos and experiences that those entertainment companies and new startups are producing. They clearly understand the impact and the power of this new medium. People feel like they are in these experiences at the places that the video was shot instead of watching it remotely from within their console at home. The power of these mediums can be communicated in non-gaming form. And actually in many cases it’s better to have these experiences, rather than just games, so that the mass audience will start to notice that, ‘Wow, this is something that I should be checking out. This is way more than the new form of gaming.’
Adding that “these non-gaming applications will play a huge role to help promote all new VR systems,” Shuhei says virtual reality could be the new form of learning, and he hopes it will improve some people’s health as well.
Yoshida also believes the best VR games “will come out of nowhere,” like what we see on mobile or other new platforms. “Hopefully, all of the game industry will develop on this new tech,” he added, “but the most successful titles will be something that we never thought of in a new IP or a new game that’s focused on great experiences using VR tech.”
How important will non-gaming virtual reality apps be for you?
[Source: Fortune]
