The Future of VR and Mobile Games | Scott Flynn

1. The Future of VR and Mobile
Games
Scott Flynn
Director of Development, XR
Unity Technologies

2. Agenda
• Background
• XR Spectrum
• Move to Mobility
• All In One
• Rise of Augmented/Mixed Reality
• Opportunity
• Challenges
• Why VR Won’t Disappear

3. Background
• R&D @ Unity since 2011
• Leading Unity’s R&D team in XR (VR/AR/MR) for past 3.5 years

4. XR Spectrum
VR MR AR
Immersion
Precise Controls (TUIs)
Spatialized Audio
Environment Awareness
Object Recognition
Inside-out Tracking / SLAM
?

5. Move to Mobility
• Users want mobility – not tethered experiences
• Inside-out tracking – no space setup
• Self contained mobile hardware
• Lower Cost
• Faster Evolution
• Portability

6. All In One
• Prediction: 12-18 months until all-in-ones are the top VR content
market
• Dedicated HW
• Purchased for a singular purpose
• Expectations
• Longer Experiences
• Better Input
• High quality experience
• End of End immersive experience

7. Rise of Augmented/Mixed Reality
From convincing your brain you are somewhere else...
To convincing it that something else is where you are
• Greater day-to-day value to average consumer
• Potential to replace everyday consumer devices we use today
• Lower barrier to entry for developers and consumers
• Initially requires hardware (phones) millions of consumers already
have

8. AR will make VR a success!
AR will be a vehicle for the success of VR adoption by gently pulling
consumers into immersive experiences
• As AR adoption grows so too will acceptance of VR
• AR Technologies can ‘augment’ immersive experiences too
Example: Spatial Understanding
• Adapt the immersive experience to the physical space occupied
• Procedurally generated worlds / environments

9. Opportunity
• Be on the forefront of a fundamental shift in how humans interact
with computers
• Consider more than just US market
• Most use cases have not been thought of
• Non-gaming is a huge opportunity
• Healthcare, communication, retail, tourism, toys, fashion, cosmetics,
architecture, training, brand marketing, real estate, interior design, sports, art

10. Challenges
• Fragmented devices market -- diversify!
• Large overall market but small per device and immersive segment
• As a developer if you target a single SKU you likely cannot succeed
economically
• Game engines like Unity can help maximize reach
• Solve hardware / feature fragmentation through abstraction
• Allow developers to directly jump into content creation

11. Why VR Won’t Disappear
• ‘Traditional’ VR will continue to have its place and evolve
• For many experiences a fully immersive world has no equal
• VR technology will continue to improve, accelerated by AR adoption
Lowering cost of technology + increased standardization
=
Long-term economic success

12. Questions ?