Oculus founder opens the door to VR porn: “We’re an open platform”

It seems that the games industry isn’t the only eligible suitor of virtual reality tech. Variety has reported that VR headset creator Oculus has no intention of blocking pornographic content on its platform.

When recently speaking at Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Conference, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey was asked whether the company had any plans to put a stop to virtual hanky panky, to which he responded that “The Rift is an open platform. We don’t control what software can run on it, and that’s a big deal.”

It doesn’t sound like much, but this response will be taken as an open door to embrace VR by important figures in porn. Well, not in porn, but in porngraphic filmmaking.

Not that porn execs need much encouraging in VRs direction. Alec Helmy, founder of sex industry magazine Xbiz, is convinced that virtual reality porn is going to render 2D titillation obselete. According to him “traditional porn is like the cassette tape, virtual reality is the CD“. (Presumably, traditional jazzmags are the vinyl.)

It would be unwise for VR to ignore the porn industry’s commercial power and influence with regard to technological innovation. Lest we forget the famous tech legend that says it was the industry’s adoption of the VHS tape that killed of the Betamax video format back in the pre-digital years.

If we were to speculate that this idea excites some of the individuals reading this article, which of course we would never suggest because we’re a family publication, then we would advise caution before purchasing a VR headset. Both Oculus and the HTC Vive are open platfoms for which anyone can develop software, and are therefore by far the most likely to host sexual content. Competitors like Samsung’s Gear VR and Sony’s Project Morpheus, whose environments are both locked down in the same manner as Apple’s, are unlikely to have you sighing with pleasure – outside of their enjoyably immersive videogame offerings, of course!

Justin Mahboubian-Jones Contributor

About

When not earning a living as England's only Jafar look-a-like, Justin spends his time surigcally attached to a gaming PC and keeping you up to date with everything in the land of button bashing. Other specialist interests include mobile computing, VR, biofeedback, wearable tech and the perfect bowl of cereal.