“We’re still very much in the early stages of VR, so it’s critical that industry leaders work together to create and share ideas on how we can safely build this industry,” said Facebook’s Jordan McCollum.
Several major players in the VR hardware game have come together under one name for the betterment of VR development as a whole. Acer, Google, HTC, Oculus, Samsung, and Sony have all joined forces to form the Global Virtual Reality Association, a non-profit group that seeks to "unlock and maximize VR’s potential."
While the focus of the GVRA isn't specifically on benefiting the video game industry, this level of collaboration between the major VR hardware companies could mean good things for developers curious about or currently working on creating VR games.
As one game developer recently pointed out, creating games for VR is incredibly risky thanks to the small and fragmented VR market. In the long run, groups like the GVRA have the potential to kickstart VR adoption and eventually take some of that weight off developers’ shoulders.
“We’re still very much in the early stages of VR, so it’s critical that industry leaders work together to create and share ideas on how we can safely build this industry,” explained Jordan McCollum, General Counsel for Oculus at Facebook.
Competing companies working together on some level to further VR as a platform has recently become more commonplace. Earlier this week, several major VR companies joined together to participate in a similar initiative that seeks to make creating games for multiple VR platforms easier on developers with a more standardized API.
The GVRA seeks to express that same sentiment on a much larger scale and across multiple industries. Members of the group will share research and development practices among each other and will also serve as a resource for people, policymakers, and industry representatives curious about VR.
"The Global Virtual Reality Association will develop and share best practices for industry and foster dialogue between public and private stakeholders around the world," said a post announcing the formation of the group. "The goal of the [GVRA] is to promote responsible development and adoption of VR globally. The association’s members will develop and share best practices, conduct research, and bring the international VR community together as the technology progresses."
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