Article Review1

Steven Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One’ fails to lift virtual reality

Tim Bradshaw, The Financial Times, Los Angeles. April 2018

This article immediately grabbed my attention. It is less than 24 hours old, so you can't really get much more current than that. It also has to do with Steven Spielberg's latest film Ready Player One (RPO), in which VR features extremely heavily. This article begs the question - Where Facebook and Google have so far failed in getting users interested in VR, could Steven Spielberg do it?

The film has so far grossed almost $400 million at the box-office worldwide and has garnered fairly positive reviews. "Heroes wearing VR goggles have appeared on bus shelters and billboards around the world.", Bradshaw notes, but he was surprised to learn that execs at some VR companies were quietly nervous before the movies release. Yes, the film would obviously elevate the public's interest and understanding of VR, but some were worried about just how VR would end up being depicted. 

The novel on which the film is based is also not taken lightly within the VR community, for years every new employee at Oculus was handed a copy of the book as part of their induction. 

The world in which the movie takes place is one where people use VR almost exclusively as escapism, "These days, reality is a bummer." states the film's protagonist. 

What Bradshaw claims is the most startling revelation among RPOs release is that despite its success, public awareness and interest in VR technology has barely shifted. Bradshaw notes that since the film's release there has only been a very slight increase of searches for "VR" or "virtual reality" according to Google Trends. 

I personally think this could be for a number of reasons - mainly that people already know what VR is or at least have heard of it and still think of it being pretty inaccessible for most, whether that's by cost or something else I think people still assume that it's something that is only used by the 'pros', or doesn't have enough content or practical application to interest them or warrant the price tag. I wouldn't have necessarily expected VR sales to spike following the release of this film, but when I did watch it, based on my experiences in this class, I could see how some of the environments and experiences shown off in the film, aren't actually that far away. Considering the increase in technology in computer power in the last 20 years, we could arguably achieve that same 'percentage' of growth now within probably 5 years. 

Bradshaw makes note of one thing the VR industry has done to combat slow sales, which is the idea of "location-based" VR, akin to an internet cafe, or arcade, or even a theatre. Disneyland has even begun setting up VR scenarios for visitors -  known as The Void - at $33 for a 20-30 minute experience. I suppose to make it as state-of-the-art as possible, Bradshaw states that he wasn't in a pair of slick goggles, like seen in the RPO movie, but a huge headset with a PC strapped to his back (remember those pictures from the 60s and 70s of memory chips that would fill up a whole room?). Disney likely has access to the latest and greatest, as well a pretty much unlimited budget, so The Void experience is probably little above the scope that we deal with here in Virtual Worlds, but it is exciting seeing VR being applied in so many different ways and industries. 

The conclusion I drew from the article was, no, Steven Spielberg could not tap in to the mine Facebook and Google tired themselves on. Although, I am fairly certain that was not his intention - there were no Oculus or Vive name drops throughout the film - it could have been a great launching point. After all, the film is only 5 seconds old, it will be interesting to see where it takes its place historically, and within the timeline of VR in general.