(2020-05-16) Virtual Reality Won Just Not The Kind You Think

Virtual Reality Won. Just Not the Kind You Think. if you take a broader reading of the term “virtual reality,” there’s a sense in which it has already gone mainstream. For people stuck at home in the pandemic, big chunks of our lives have moved into online spaces, even if we don’t own any fancy VR gadgetry. And some of those changes are likely to stick.

For years, massive multiplayer games have been evolving beyond entertainment and into gathering places

The idea came as the prospect of a virtual Democratic convention is looking more likely

When you think of how Netflix was chipping away at movie theaters even before Covid-19, it’s not a stretch to foresee virtual events like Scott’s Fortnite concert permanently supplanting some portion of the live events industry, including but not limited to concerts. ESPN’s Arda Ocal, a former WWE announcer, predicts Fortnite weddings, Fortnite business meetings, an in-game WWE event, and Survivor: Fortnite.

Couples are already holding virtual weddings in the Nintendo game Animal Crossing: New Horizons. They’re observing Ramadan there, too

Tencent also owns a 40% stake in North Carolina-based Epic Games, which makes Fortnite. Epic this week showed off a demo of its next-generation game engine, Unreal Engine 5, which could pave the way for future in-game events to look far more realistic, bordering on cinematic.

A four-year-old startup called Spatial has built software for the corporate market that can put co-workers together in a virtual office using VR-like technology. Now it’s making a bid to become the “Zoom of virtual collaboration” by offering a free version of its platform that’s available in browsers and on mobile devices