‘Wow to Watch’

With these updates, and better headsets, NextVR appears to be on a clear path toward moving users from, as Cole puts it, “wow to watch.” Meaning: from curious novelty to regular viewership, a hurdle which 3DTV never surmounted.

One major missing element for getting from ‘wow to watch’—which I’ve probably brought up with Cole during every interview throughout the years—is the ability to watch content with friends. Right now NextVR is a completely solo experience; if you’re watching football, soccer, boxing, racing, or anything else, you’re doing it alone.

While not ready to talk about their approach to social viewing just yet, Cole did say that the company has “very big plans,” and teased that they are planning to start talking about those plans very soon.

NextVR has pointed their cameras toward a wide range of professional sports content, including this Premier Boxing Champions fight between Danny “Swift” Garcia and Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero.

When I asked how important the company believed social viewing functionality to be, Cole said they were unsure, but hopeful. “I’m inspired by [the social draw of] VRChat,” he said.

As for traction, the company had previously only been available on mobile VR headsets, but finally launched on some tethered headsets (PSVR and Windows VR) in late 2017. Cole said the company was especially surprised and encouraged by the reception of the NextVR content among PSVR users. Across platforms, the company has seen some 650,000 downloads, with users averaging 18.2 minutes of live content, he said.

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As for why the company still hasn’t released apps for the two major PC VR headsets (the Rift and the Vive), Cole said there were a “bunch of factors,” and further, “I do hope to see a client from us at least on the Vive Pro, but we aren’t officially announcing anything.”

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Jad

    “a bunch of factors”… what a great reason for ignoriing the two best headsets for consumers.

    • Daniel Gochez

      For watching movies they aren’t. The selling point of this technology is better resolution, Vive and Oculus can’t display it correctly.

      • Jad

        NextVR is available for Gear VR…
        https://www.oculus.com/experiences/gear-vr/858258597574484/
        so please…Rift and Vive are superior.

        • Daniel Gochez

          as experiences they are FAR superior, but not in resolution
          PSVR: 1920×1080 (960×1080 per eye)

          Vive: 2160×1200 (1080×1200 per eye)

          Rift: 2160×1200 (1080×1200 per eye)

          Gear VR: 2560×1440 (1280×1440 per eye)

      • Nicole

        Goℴgle gives you 99 dollars per-hour to complete easy tasks from home .. Do work for only few hours & stay more time together with your own friends … You can also have this specific job!!!on weekend I bought a gorgeous McLaren F3 after just earnin $20400 this-past/five weeks .it is absolutely the best work but you wo’nt forgive yourself if you do not hop over to it.!pg01s:➩➩➩ http://GoogleWinSmallBusinessOpportunity/make/$99/everyhour ♥♥y♥♥b♥♥n♥i♥♥j♥u♥♥♥f♥m♥f♥♥g♥♥a♥♥♥f♥s♥♥♥y♥i♥♥♥w♥p♥♥♥c♥u♥♥y♥♥y♥♥w♥d♥o♥♥p:::::!of142d:wkyukf

    • sfmike

      The usual masses of lawyers must be involved BS I’m sure.

  • Lucidfeuer

    It’s always enervating to read an unnecessary long article that doesn’t tell you shit like…I don’t know, resolution maybe??

    • brandon9271

      They did say “20 pixels per degree” maybe it’s hard to quantify with an X x Y because it’s polar instead on planar maybe?

    • Nate Vander Plas

      I personally enjoyed the article since my company does 360 video. And of course we know the nasty limitations it has had in the past, but look forward to creating high quality volumetric video soon. As far as resolution, I wish the standard was for companies to tell you pixels per degree rather than overall resolution. It’s a much more important metric, and you can easily multiply it by 360 to get the width of the original video (in this case 7,200).

  • I want to try 6DOF videos… I really want to try them…

  • Eddie Barsh

    Great article! I have NextVR on the PSVR, and although the resolution is clearly lower than the Rift and Vibes of the world, I have to say I am thoroughly impressed! I still have an amazing experience enjoying NBA games and Boxing fights right in the middle of the action from very dynamic angles ! NextVR is an absolutely incredible app and what they have created is beautiful !!