Jordan O'BrienVirtual reality may be embraced by companies such as IMAX, but it could threaten movie theatres and home cinemas as we know them – as the recently-announced Oculus Rooms feature allows up to eight people to hang out and watch a film, play games and socialise in their own virtual setting.
So what exactly is Oculus Rooms? Well, essentially it’s a virtual reality version of the formerly-popular social game Second Life. In that game users could hang out in a massively multiplayer online environment with millions of people across the world. The game became so popular that major brands such as Cisco, Dell, IBM, MTV, Reuters and Toyota all had a presence inside the game.
With Oculus Rooms users will be able to create their own avatar and socialise with friends in the virtual environment. Unlike Second Life, Oculus Rooms won’t solely about socialising – it’ll also be able interacting and enjoying VR-enabled Apps. Users will be able to start a party and head into a virtual room to hangout, watch TV, listen to music and play mini-games.
While Oculus Rooms is unlikely to completely destroy the movie theatre or home cinema as we know it right away, it will enable users to enjoy content with their friends no matter where they are in the world – and without ever leaving the comfort of one’s home. It’s not the first social environment available for the Oculus Rift VR headset however. Apps such as Oculus Cinema already enable users to watch films with their friends and communicate during the film, but the third-party App won’t receive the same amount as publicity as the Oculus Rooms feature.
Oculus Rooms is set to launch for the Oculus Rift headset in 2017, but Samsung Gear VR users will get access even sooner. Samsung says the Rooms feature should launch in a few weeks.