Porn industry gets a boost from VR, but manufacturers aren’t thrilled
Porn star Missy Martinez had never acted in a virtual reality production when she was cast in a cosplay parody of the video game series “Fallout,” in which she plays a frisky “vault girl” wandering a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
As she performed her scenes with porn star Ryan Driller, the crew instructed her to keep her eyes fixed on the camera to engage directly with viewers, who will experience the movie at home in 3-D and 180 degrees.
The subscription model used by most VR porn services is providing a new revenue stream for production companies at a time when paying for porn was thought to be a thing of the past.
But the porn industry’s plans to capitalize on VR is facing a roadblock from headset makers. Producers say they are being treated unfairly by major manufacturers who block porn apps from their online stores, thereby making it harder for consumers to access adult VR content.
“Pornography has been pretty important in the development and dissemination of various technologies, but I don’t think the manufacturers from a business factor want too much publicity at this point for that aspect because there's still a great deal of anti-porn sentiment in the public.”
Industry experts estimate that more than 50% of all VR content is porn-related and that adult content is a major driver of hardware sales, along with video games and NFL applications. The VR porn market saw an estimated $93 million in revenue for 2017 and could reach $1.4 billion by 2025, according to Gene Munster, who heads the research firm Loup Ventures.
Since major manufacturers, including Oculus and Samsung, don’t allow porn apps in their stores, viewers often have to resort to cumbersome workarounds to access adult movies.
The bullish spirit is pushing even newer forms of VR innovation. Camasutra VR, an L.A.-based start-up, is betting on VR avatars — digital replicas of real-life porn actors who have been scanned in a process similar to the motion-capture technology used in Hollywood blockbusters.
“It’s a fully interactive and immersive experience with a porn star,” said the company’s CEO, Adam, who declined to use his last name because he still has ties to the mainstream entertainment industry. He said he hopes to launch the new service next year.
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