Page 54 - AVN January 2016

FEATURE
The CamSoda booth at the 2016 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo. Photo by Hew Burney
running a modified version of Google’s mobile OS. It has a 5-inch 1080p display
and a 100-degree field of view.”
However, the Sherman Oaks-based company also streams VR on its website, in
4K resolution and 360-degree image, optimized for the Oculus Rift, and is offering
its products through AdultCentro.
“Basically, you don’t have to download anything to your mobile device or
tablet; you pretty much just go onto our website, sign up to our membership, put
your mobile device inside our headset and you start watching our virtual reality
porn through your phone, tablet or desktop; pretty much any device out there,”
explained VR Bangers’ Daniel Abramovich.
The company said it would be releasing one VR scene each week, with at least
18 already available.
Another major exhibitor at AEE was AliceX, an Eastern Europe-based company
that live-streams its VR 24 hours per day on two channels, and hopes to partner
with other studios around the world so subscribers have a wide choice of content,
both performers and settings.
“Currently, we use a loft kind of setting with a series of amateur models,”
explained AliceX’s Lee Bond. “We usually have a comfortable chair and a desk
where the camera is and that they are. What you see is the girl sitting on this
kind of chair, like a Roman-style lounge chair is what we’re using currently. ...
The goal is to have the ability to switch out the environment based on the desire
of the client. So for instance, we could have an immersive beach where the cam
model would be like, ‘Do you want to spend some time with me on the beach?’
and she steps off screen, puts on a bikini, and we switch out the environment
instantly and when she gets back, all of a sudden you’re sitting on a beach with a
beautiful woman. Obviously, the core demographic is going to be a lot of gamers
because they’re going to buying the Oculus Rift for desktop; they’re the ones with
the phones and already interested in the product, so nothing’s stopping us from
having a model who does cosplay in a setting like a castle—our dev guys already
have a ‘castle on the moon’ type of thing ready—or a forest or whatever goes on,
so we’re working on multiple things.”
Bond noted that he gets a lot of ideas for content from the posters on the Reddit
VR boards.
Another live-streaming VR site is CamSoda.com, which also works with any
currently available viewing device and features 360 degree scenes from its six-
camera rig—and is even a bit philosophical about it.
“With [non-live] virtual reality, you feel like that person is right on top of
you, but you can’t interact with them,” CamSoda president Daron Lundeen told
TechRadar.com. “I feel like I’m transported, but I’m not in any sort of control. Live
changes that because you are part of the show.”
On its site, CamSoda uses tokens which users can buy and use as “tips” for
the performers to get them to engage in any one of the sex acts on CamSoda’s
approved list, though if the performer lets them, the user can request specific
non-listed acts through an on-set moderator—but on- or off-list, the performer is
completely in charge of what he or she will or won’t do.
Though CamSoda has found live streaming to be less profitable than pre-
recorded content, it does record its sessions for future sale—and
reportedly pays its performers pretty well for allowing them to do that.
The company is also planning to launch a gay VR channel in the near
future.
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There’s no VR game out there that’s as dense, addictive and immersive as bestsellers
like ‘Grand Theft Auto’ and ‘Call of Duty.’ They’re not even in the same league. And
that’s because games like GTA cost a fortune to develop. Some will argue that
all VR porn is the same—it’s all POV, and because it’s all POV, that it’s destined to
ultimately bore the end user once that wow factor runs threadbare. I get it. However,
that’s what the consumer wants right now. That’s what they tell us on Reddit. That’s
what they tell us in our Feedback Forum. And when they’re sick of POV, we’ll be
ready. And we’ll know the minute they are sick of it because these are very vocal
subscribers. That also underscores a salient point, relative to the reasons adult is
leading. That engagement we have, that we all have, with the end-user, it’s hugely
valuable and unique. We’re all operating walled gardens. Members stick around for
months. So as we evolve and innovate, we’re afforded an ongoing dialog. Not only
do we know what ‘BaDoinkVR Member A’ thought of ‘VR Video 32’ three months
ago, we know what ‘Member A’ thought of ‘VR Video 50’ in April. Nobody outside
of adult has that, and since the virtual reality space is so embryonic, it’s a boon to
everyone involved.”
That early comprehensive access to consumer feedback during the initial
stages of massive growth is a very valuable commodity. It is also leading to a
more secretive approach by the companies investing in the VR market, to secure
a competitive advantage from the technical and user metric knowledge they
are acquiring. “I make it a point to not discuss the equipment we use and the
technologies we leverage with respect to virtual reality,” explained Bradbury, “but
I can tell you and our members will agree that a big part of our advantage is that
we are never satisfied with our results. It has been that way with PimpRoll for over
15 years. The day we shot our first VR scene back in December, we were already
working on our second-generation rig. Before that rig was sent to our producers,
even before we had finished testing it, we were working on our third-generation rig.
We are not only trying to push the boundaries of what available technology can do,
we are working with hardware manufacturers to help guide them toward what will
be winning products in the future. I am proud of every single scene we have shot.
Each and every one of them has been a learning experience, an opportunity to not
only see what we are doing right, but to learn from our mistakes and to understand
what we can do and what requires further research or development.”
That exchange of needed information is very much a two-way form of
communication between studios and consumers, according to Glider.
“A banner that reads ‘VR Porn: The Future is Now’ or ‘VR Is Here: You’ll Never
Look at Smut the Same Way Again’ will not convert like a dating site or penis pill
offer. It’s just so early,” Glider said. “Everybody reading this is on the cutting edge of
technology, but the consumers, you can’t even assume they know what VR stands
for. You can’t assume that they are even aware that virtual reality headsets exist. And
there is also a marketing challenge that is intrinsic to VR, and this applies to any
company pushing any VR-related product or solution to the consumer—whether
adult-oriented or otherwise: it’s impossible to understand how truly unique and
different virtual reality is from 2D entertainment—or even 3D entertainment—without
putting the headgear on. It’s like trying to explain how delicious a calzone is to
someone who’s never tasted mozzarella cheese.”
That learning curve is
already leaving some content
producers out in the cold.
“As far as content producers,
the market is already highly
saturated,” explained
Shuster. “Many companies
jumped into VR production,
but given the limited options
for content production, and
the limited size of the market,
only a handful of production
companies are profitable
in the space.” Getting wider distribution channels to open up is mostly a matter of
getting more headsets on the heads of consumers, according to Shuster.
“I would estimate that the number of headsets is doubling every quarter,” Shuster
said. “That means that the number of potential customers is also doubling every
quarter. The market may be small now, but double it 10 times (2.5 years) and it
will be more than 1,000 times larger. I expect this kind of growth to continue for
“We have done a massive
amount of R&D in this space,
and we’ve produced some of
the biggest breakthroughs in
VR history.”
—Brian Shuster,
CEO, HoloFilm Productions
many years. The second major shift will happen when more mobile and new VR
users come into the market than ‘old’ VR users who currently dominate it. Once
new users outnumber the older, self-selected group of users, we will begin to see
an emergence of niche content in VR porn. This will lead to an explosion in
possibilities for production companies to get in and to become successful.”
From speaking with the leading companies in the space, it is fair to