It's 2024 and Spielberg's on-screen fantasy has come true. The last few years have been all about “fantasy technology”, straight from shows and movies like it Peripherals And free man. Imagination has been a major driver of innovation, from the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) to spatial computing.
Let's focus on this issue. Remember the movie Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, where a game maker designs a wearable device to augment reality itself in a game? It's happening now, and it's happening fast. So far, Meta, Sony and Pico have been leaders in this space, with Apple recently entering the scene with the new Vision Pro.
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Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) have been around for some time and have had many false starts. However, today we have come a long way from being fringe technologies to becoming the next big thing and are being leveraged across industries for various industrial and recreational purposes. According to a report by Statista, the global AR and VR market is expected to reach $38.6 billion in 2024, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 10%. In 2024, these technologies will be used to improve surgical outcomes, provide safety training for heavy machinery operators, train Formula 1 drivers, provide immersive gaming experiences, and many other applications.
For the world's gaming enthusiasts, AR and VR offer a deeper level of emotional connection, transforming players from passive observers into active participants in interactive narratives via what VR natives call the feeling of “presence.” Despite the huge technology and challenges of VR, we are seeing curiosity about VR games with the green shoots of consumer adoption that translate into real revenue, for example. Saber wonnewly the walking Dead Video game revenues have surpassed $100 million with virtual reality as the primary platform.
Beyond Pixels: Where gameplay becomes real
The gaming sector in India is booming. The market size is expected to reach $7.5 billion by FY28, and India has rapidly established itself as a global hub for the consumption and creation of world-class games. Demand for engaging gaming experiences has reached an all-time high with a rapidly growing smartphone user base and a young, data-cheap and tech-savvy population.
The lines between pixels and perception are blurring faster than ever. Both virtual reality and augmented reality are crafting unparalleled experiences, transporting players from flat screens to immersive landscapes. Games like Saber won, the walking Dead And Half-Life: Alex Showcasing the immersive potential of virtual reality, while Pokemon Go Niantic's AR demonstrations demonstrated how AR can seamlessly blend virtual and virtual reality, creating captivating experiences and social and cultural phenomena.
Virtual reality and augmented reality are also promoting a new era of social interaction. VRChat has hundreds of thousands of users interacting together in virtual environments. Multiplayer VR games allow players to connect with friends and strangers around the world, forming digital connections in shared virtual worlds, such as in Ready Player One.
However, the possibilities extend beyond pure fun and games. For example, Indian startups like AutoVRse have worked on cutting-edge technologies that have enabled experiences like worker safety training in heavy industries and use cases in enterprises. AutoVRse recently launched its SAAS product “Vrse-Builder,” a suite of technology products that will allow organizations to seamlessly create, manage, and deploy VR use cases at scale, with a focus on safety and operations training for heavy industries.
Ultratech Cement, India's largest cement manufacturer, has already used this product and technology combination to improve the skills of over 18,000 workers at the plant in 8 months. Virtual reality is being leveraged as a key technology to provide reliable alternatives to compensate for manual training that can often cause physical injuries, costly errors and physical damage on oil rigs, nuclear reactors and heavy industries and replace the need for expensive simulators. Additionally, they have built a state-of-the-art in-house gaming lab “skunkworks,” which innovates to create real-time multiplayer VR experiences and adjusts concurrency and latency to optimize the enterprise product.
As an early stage venture capital investor, we see more and more innovative use cases emerging across the gaming and interactive media landscape with companies leveraging leading technologies in spatial computing, mixed reality and virtual reality to build from India for the world.
Salone Sehgal is the founding general partner at Lumikai. (Courtesy: Lumikai)
A rocky road but a huge opportunity for India
The VR/AR revolution, while glowing with potential, is navigating an emerging terrain full of challenges. Hardware limitations remain limiting, with previous headsets often being bulky and expensive, preventing widespread adoption. Although newer lighter headphones are addressing this issue at a rapid pace. Access to high-speed, consistent internet, affordability, and technical knowledge may hinder mass adoption. Overcoming these obstacles lies not only in technological progress, but in effective implementation of technology and commitment to inclusive design.
Realizing the huge potential of AVGC, the Indian government established a task force for the promotion of Animation, Visual Effects, Games and Comics (AVGC). This crucial step paves the way for supportive policies such as tax credits for VR/AR development, talent development initiatives, and the creation of dedicated infrastructure to support VR/AR. Imagine dedicated VR arcades emerging in metros and tier-II cities, democratizing access to immersive experiences.
India's exploding interactive media landscape
The interactive media landscape in India is undergoing a transformation. This shift goes beyond just demographics – India's thriving gaming market, with 568 million gamers, has the second-largest number of online gamers in the world, and already records more revenue than the Indian box office. Gaming has evolved into a cultural phenomenon and has captured the current zeitgeist of a young demographic of digital natives.
Gaming is a broad and deep industry, with its reach and influence spanning many industries. Globally, gaming technologies often serve as a vanguard of innovation and creative exploration essential to pushing the boundaries of technology into real-world use cases. For example, Hong Kong International Airport leveraged Unity's game engine to develop a digital twin of its main terminal to plan construction, streamline operations, and simulate passenger movement.
Virtual reality technology, originally developed for gaming, was used extensively during the production of James Cameron's film Avatar: Water Road To help filmmakers envision and design complex film environments and characters. The Unreal Engine, originally created by Epic Games, is already being used by property developers in Australia and the US to accelerate master urban planning via the “V2i Realtime” toolkit.
These possibilities make it more important than ever for India to realize the far-reaching implications of gaming as an industry that can be instrumental to technological superiority. As India embraces digital transformation, with its vibrant and dynamic entrepreneurial community, strong startup ecosystem, strong technology talent, thriving gaming culture and early thinkers, it has the potential to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of immersive AR and VR. Technology, not only for itself, but for the whole world.
This approach not only promises to strengthen India's position as a global technology leader, but also provides a path to strengthen education, healthcare and various other sectors, making a profound positive impact on the lives of its population of over a billion people. The fusion of India's diverse talent pool and AR/VR technology can serve as a catalyst for unprecedented growth, inclusivity and prosperity.
Salone Sehgal is the Founding General Partner at Lumikai, India's first gaming and interactive media venture capital fund. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
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