Will We All Soon Be Streaming Movies and TV in Virtual Reality?

There were a few major points of media attention at last week’s CES, most notably though remains the mysterious virtual reality push being made by most major tech companies.

There has been a massive spike in interest, with everyone discussing the potential from game development, film making, education, corporate communication and more. There is no question that this move into the future could easily be the biggest advancement since the mobile phone.

But what exactly VR is and how it’s set to affect technological development remains a shrouded mystery. Most tech companies will admit openly that they’re just seeing where this all takes them. Hulu for example, last week mentioned that they’re “just trying to learn” where virtual reality might fit into the bigger picture of entertainment consumption. VentureBeat reported the comments, most notably Hulu’s sentiment that, “When it comes to VR, we don’t know anything.”

This seems to be an extremely common stance at the moment, as tech giants almost seem more afraid of missing out as compared to actually having clear direction when it comes to developing on a potentially massive platform.

As someone who has tried out some rudimentary VR platforms for consuming entertainment, the potential is absolutely huge. Even my initial fear of not being able to consume a favorite television series or movie with friends is quickly combated through developing syncing technology, offering multiple people an immersive experience at the same time. And as someone who suffers from migraines during 3D movies, VR devices have thus far proven to minimize these otherwise painful headaches, at least in small doses.

Hulu isn’t the only video service diving head first into the brave new world of VR, as Netflix posted late last year that they were working with Oculus to build an app for the Facebook-owned device company. Facebook has itself pushed extremely hard to be one of the first major players in the market, but delays have continually pushed the release of Oculus down the road, only now offering a pre-order option on their website.

But regardless, we remain bullish on the potential here. There’s no doubt there’s something exciting about the option of being more a part of the action when it comes to shows like ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Daredevil’ (maybe a bit less with ‘Grace and Frankie’ but who are we to judge). Direct immersion into entertainment will be an interesting shift with a lot of unknowns, but we’re all going to find answers in this new technology soon enough.