The World’s Largest Market Has Seen VR and It’s in Love
With minimal publicity, the event went viral. According to Ben Rudick, co-founder of Transist Labs which hosted the event, “We were overwhelmed by the response. Originally we planned for a maximum of 100 attendees. Those spots were filled in just hours. So we lifted the RSVPs caps and quickly hit 500. We had to cut it off; any more and we’d get shut down for fire code violations.”
Hundreds of teams across China are working on VR hardware. While some of it is copying existing products, there’s innovation as well. Chinese teams are hacking together VR headsets, omni-directional treadmills, tracking and input devices, reactive chairs, VR mobile holders, and everything else under the sun. Notable companies include Noitom Technology (which raised $571,908 on Kickstarter last year for their motion tracking device), KAT (omni-directional treadmill and racing chair), and Dexmo and Ximmerse (both working on VR interaction hardware).
While content is lagging behind the hardware, there’s progress here as well. Tianshe Media (天舍), one of the organizers of the SHVR event, is developing a VR multiplayer adventure game for the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Morpheus using the UE4 engine. BaoFeng Mojing, mentioned above, is partnering with indie VR developers to distribute their games; at last count, they’re offering 26 Chinese-made, original VR games. With the entire gaming market in China estimated at $17.9 billion, there’s likely much more to come. Beyond games, at least three Chinese animation companies are working in VR, with plans to invest millions in the space.
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