Will Porn help push VR into the mainstream?

In a recent interview with gamingbusinessreview.com, Oculus Rift founder Palmer Luckey suggests that business analysts predictions towards the hastened success of VR, such as the Digi-Capital claim that in as little as 5 years VR will be a $30 billion enterprise, may be overstated. Now while I am no analyst (and most certainly no Palmer Luckey) I am really quite hopeful (as I am sure all of you reading this blog are as well) that such optimistic forecasting will be, for the most part, spot on; but given the fact that Palmer has an inside track into such insights, I am more inclined to trust his judgement over that of somebody who has no real connections to the industry. However, it does get me to thinking, is it possible that our friends at Oculus have overlooked the growing VR pornography market and what effect it might have in helping to propel the technology into the mainstream? Could “industry wide” movements such as Holofilm productions #GivePornAHand campaign move the public in a big enough way that it can help these analysts predictions coming true?

Well, if the interest garnered by the VR Holographic Porn IndieGogo campaign is in any way a relevant signal, the answer isn’t a good one. Sadly, these guys have so far made just a little over 7k in a few weeks of running and at 3% of their $250,000 funding goal and only 17 days left to go, it would take nothing short of a miracle to propel them the rest of the way. This is a flexibly funded campaign though, meaning that whatever money is donated they keep whether or not they cross the finish line, but regardless of how much they make the lack of support so far is disconcerting. I mean, they got over half a dozen big players (including XBiz, RLC and Fleshlight) and countless well known adult stars pushing this thing, and only 17 backers in 23 days? Come on people! Show some love! Give porn a hand!
I think, the problem with porn as a vehicle for technological evolution, is that people want it for free. We expect it for free.

Sure we would all like to support the industry that gives us so much pleasure and see it succeed in a bold new frontier, but we have all been getting it for free for so long, it is just out of habit that we take it for granted that it will remain that way indefinitely. In a world where you have a choice between shelling out a small piece of your monthly income, or paying nothing at all, most people will choose the latter; and when the cost of entry becomes hundreds of dollars or more (as is the case with good Virtual Reality devices like the Rift or the Vive)? Most people are going to say “forget it” – at least until VR gets a little bigger.

Now that isn’t to say that VR Porn won’t be a big thing in the next few years. I think it will be huge, just a little while longer down the road then some would hope.

At the moment, the general public still isn’t sure about whether or not they like VR, let alone watching VR Porn; and as far as the Holofilms IGG campaign goes, it isn’t hard to see why people aren’t putting their money down. At first glance it appears to be some revolutionary new form of adult entertainment, but then you realize the entire campaign seems more about some form of porn DRM. I think it is going to be a tough bet to get people to pay for something they already have free access to online, at least until VR has matured enough that people begin to realize just what they are missing.

I just hope this doesn’t stop would-be VR developers from exploring the potential of the niche. We are already in a bit of a dry spell as far as new VR porn games are concerned and we still have yet to see anything other than [as much as we love them] a few dozen small(ish) demos (mostly from the reddit crowd) being released.

But who knows? Once CV1 hits the shelves all of that could change dramatically. What do you guys think?