LOS ANGELES—Utherverse plans to launch a PC-based 2.0 version of RedLightCenter.com at the upcoming Adult Entertainment Expo, where the x-rated virtual world will have a booth in Muse Hall (#909). Now there comes an especially tantalizing announcement by Utherverse Digital, reported yesterday by VentureBeat.
"It has been around for more than a decade," VR's Dean Takahashi wrote of RedLightCenter.com, "but with version 2.0, the world will be viewable with virtual reality goggles such as the Oculus Rift. That means the animated world will be a lot more immersive and feel like you’re really there."
Utherverse CEO Brian Shuster told Takahashi in an interview, "The X-rated world may very well be the first massively multiplayer online world to debut on the Oculus platform."
In another interview with Silicon Valley Business Journal, Shuster added, "Everybody that owns an Oculus or any other VR head-mounted display is going to end up seeing this demo. I look at virtual reality and I think, 'What are the killer apps here that could independently launch virtual reality to the masses?' Number one by a million miles is adult."
Shuster backed up his belief in the potential for RLC with notable monetary support, telling VentureBeat that his company has invested about $40 million into making RedLightCenter 2.0.
"With that kind of investment," added Takahashi, "there’s a good chance that RedLightCenter.com will have animated characters who look as good as soldiers in a high-end Call of Duty game."
And Shuster is nothing if not an ardent defender of porn's traditional role as a cutting edge for tech, arguing, “Porn built the technology for the Internet. It delivered the critical mass of users. The same thing will happen with virtual reality. Porn and sex and social interaction is universal. It appeals to almost everybody. This is yet another example of porn and sex leading technology forward.”
In terms of what sort of experience one might expect to have using the latest Facebook-owned Oculus Rift prototype, this hands-on report by CNET's Scott Stein should make for a tantalizing read, especially if one factors in a Red Light Center environment. The article makes clear that significant limitations remain, but if the excitement Stein experienced in his demos is any indication of the potency of Oculus Rift's immersive capabilities, it will be amazing to see what it will be capable of achieving in a highly developed and highly charged environment like Red Light Center.
