social vr and gaming
TRANSCRIPT
Gaming Insiders SummitBrett G. Durrett, CEO
Stewart Bonn, SVP Product
September 24, 2015
• Programming games at age 16 (some even published!)
• Founded & ran game development studio, 15+ titles
• 15 years of experience using avatars for social
Brett, Games and Social…
“IMVU is the LEADING AVATAR-BASED SOCIAL NETWORK that connects people in a way that is fun, creative aspirational, and MEANINGFUL”
- TOP 10 SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS. COMSCORE, FEBRUARY 2014
IMVU is entirely user-created…UGC ecosystem drives massive content creation
Creators
Over 100K Creators that create clothes, animations, rooms and furniture
Marketplace
Users buy 200K 3D products daily
Economy
Items sell for credits, Creators earn royalties in real dollars, some exceeding $10K per month
Content
10K new 3D items submitted daily
[ NEED IMAGE FOR SLIDE ]
VR GAMES WILL BE AWESOME!
[ NEED IMAGE FOR SLIDE ]
SOCIAL WILL MAKE VR HUGE
“We’re making a long-term bet that immersive, virtual and augmented reality will become a part of people’s daily life.”
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO Facebook2014 announcement of Oculus VR acquisition
"We're working on VR because I think it's the next major computing and communication platform after phones...I think we'll also have glasses on our faces that can help us out throughout the day and give us the ability to share our experiences with those we love in completely immersive and new ways that aren't possible today."
July, 2015 predictions about the future, Business Insider
"For virtual reality to really cross into the mainstream, it's gotta be more than just really awesome, killer games. What is the Twitter or Instagram of VR? By that, I don't mean having tweets in VR or having filtered photos in VR — I mean that it's native to that platform, it's born of that platform and would not have existed without that platform."
Nick DiCarlo , Samsung’s VR Vice President
“Seeing other people is incredibly engaging and that's one of the drivers that made us partner with Facebook -- social communication. Not social newsfeeds but actual face-to-face seeing multiple avatars in a play experience, that's going to be a very big part of the future in VR.”
Brendan Iribe, CEO Oculus VR
social |ˈsōSHəl|adjective1 [ attrib. ] relating to or involving activities in which people spend time talking to each other or doing enjoyable things with each other
• liking to be with and talk to people : happy to be with people
• of or relating to people or society in general
SOCIAL REQUIRES PEOPLEIN VR, PEOPLE ARE AVATARS
DELIVER EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS
REALISM - BEWARE THE UNCANNY VALLEY
REALISM NOT NECESSARY FOR EXPRESSION
UNIQUELY EXPRESS YOURSELF
IMVU Customers LOVE Their Avatars!
They have a vested connection to the personas they create....and want to take them everywhere!
The challenge…
Feb-08 Jul-09 Nov-10 Apr-12 Aug-13 Dec-14 May-160
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
iOS Game Submissions “Steam has already released more games in 2014 than in all of 2013” - May, 2014
“Will we see an indie boom or an indie apocalypse as mobile goes triple-A?” - Dean Takahashi, Sept, 2015
How Can You Compete?Stand out Get noticed Monetize
First-mover Advantage
IMVU API Features:• Login to IMVU• Load a user's avatar• Load friend’s avatars• Automatically loads mesh level of detail (LOD)• Post images to our IMVU Feed• Multi-User support
IMVU Everywhere
Immersive 3d on the desktop.
...WebGL 3d on the browser
...native iOSand Android
IMVU IMVU Next IMVU Mobile
• Sponsors include: Unity, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Lean Startup• Virtual Hackathon: Sept 23-Oct 16• Awards Ceremony: October 22, 2015• Finalists featured on IMVU.com• Lots of Prize$ including People’s Choice
We challenge individuals or teams to create and showcase cutting edge games and virtual experiences that redefine the power of social connectivity.
What next?• Visit hackwme.com• Visit developer.imvu.com