Tech giants join together to create Global Virtual Reality Association

Some of the biggest names in the VR industry have banded together to form a nonprofit organisation, the Global Virtual Reality Association, to determine and propagate a series of industry best practices for virtual reality.

The names involved read like a who’s who in the virtual reality industry: Facebook’s Oculus, Google, HTC, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Samsung and Acer are all involved.

The Global Virtual Reality Association (GVRA) will be focusing initially on creating a set of guidelines and making sure that all software and hardware will hit these standards, which could prove essential for the growth of the virtual reality industry, which despite some recent downwards reprojections, analysts SuperData research (https://virtualrealityreporter.com/superdata-expands-research-scope-of-40-billion-virtual-reality-market/) predict could hit $40b in revenues by 2020.

They’ll also be acting as a point of contact for the VR industry as a whole, so those from outside of the virtual industry like policymakers, or outside industries looking to work with the field can look to GVRA for answers.

A notable absence from the GVRA is Valve Software however. Valve run the Steam marketplace which supports both OSVR and Steam VR and they had a large part in creating the HTC Vive. Valve don’t create hardware which could be part of the reason they’re not participating, but when it comes to software, at least gaming software, Valve are instrumental.