When Oculus launches its first consumer product in 2016, virtual reality porn will come along with it. At least, that seems to be the inevitable consequence of Oculus founder Palmer Luckey’s decision not to block the adult entertainment industry from utilizing the headset for its raunchy purposes. When asked about how he would deal with such applications of the headset at a panel at Monday’s Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Conference, Palmer responded, “The rift is an open platform. We don’t control what software can run on it. And that’s a big deal.”
Palmer’s head-on response to the inquiry was one of the more straightforward of his fellow panelists, who tried to skirt the issue by providing more haphazard and ambiguous answers. But Palmer’s approach is not only a break from others in his industry, but also from parent company Facebook’s own policies. The social media giant, which acquired Oculus in 2014 for a whopping $2 billion, maintains stringent controls on what it considers lewdness and inappropriate sexual content, barring nudity, breast-feeding, and even taking down post-mastectomy tattoo photos from the site. But Oculus is clearly marching to a different beat.
If Oculus’ more, say, progressive approach to the virtual porn question is too risque for your tastes, there are a number of other options that will also hit the market. Samsung’s Gear VR will sell for around $200, and will be available in your friendly neighborhood Best Buy by the end of the summer. There’s also Google Cardboard, which would allow you to build your own virtual reality headset, or buy an extremely inexpensive version at just $20.
Of course, porn isn’t the only thing that will become available with the burgeoning virtual reality industry. The company Sixense is in talks with some 16,000 developers to help roll out VR apps, and according to CEO Amir Rubin, less than one fifth of these apps are traditional games. The vast majority, he said, focused on health, education, and other social issues.
