Porn is already deciding VR’s future

Tech-industry experts have long pointed to porn as one of the key factors in deciding how consumers adopt new technology. And while its influence is occasionally overstated, it seems likely that many people consider adult content when purchasing consumer electronics. That’s likely going to continue for virtual reality.

Porn sites peddling virtual reality adult movies and software are already generating a lot of interest in head-mounted displays, according to data-company SimilarWeb. While Oculus, HTC, and Sony are all preparing to finally release their VR headsets — which are widely considered the three primary entries into the high-end VR market — porn sites are already hyping their support for one of these products. The Oculus Rift and Oculus’s website received 2.7 percent of its referral traffic from VR porn sites between January and November 2015. For the phone-holding Homido VR headset, it received 51.4 percent of its traffic from virtualrealporn.com.

VR porn already has an audience

Above: Traffic from porn sites to virtual-reality websites.

Image Credit: SimilarWeb

And those kinds of referral numbers make sense due to a huge uptick in interest in VR porn. Sites that specialize in simulated porn had massive growth in 2015. These include the aforementioned virtualrealporn.com as well as BadoinkVR and SexLikeReal. If you look at just the top 10 highest-trafficked sites, you see a 202 percent increase in traffic from January through November. That peaked in October with 3.24 million people visiting sites that month.

VR porn movies and software go hand-in-hand with the teletildonics industry, which creates connected, devices for sexual pleasure. Companies like Pornhub are trying to combine VR and teledildonics with efforts like the Twerking Butt VR system. SimilarWeb confirms that the debut of that device was a success with 910,000 people visiting the Twerking Butt website.

Above: VR porn is already generating interest.

Image Credit: SimilarWeb

This benefits Oculus and HTC over Sony

At some point this year, consumers will have the choice between Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR. They’ll likely all cost quite a lot — we already know that Rift is selling for $599, for example. But right now we don’t have an idea of what the final experience is like in terms of software libraries and user friendliness.

But we do know one thing: Consumers will have a much easier time putting porn on a Rift than on PlayStation VR.

The trouble here is that Sony’s head-mounted display will connect to the closed PlayStation 4 console. That can only run Sony-approved software, and the company would likely prohibit any VR porn apps.

Oculus, however, has already confirmed that Rift is open. As far back as the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show in June 2013, Oculus VR chief executive officer Brendan Iribe was telling us that they’re not going to close the Rift off to software that some people might find offensive.

We haven’t had the same commitment to maintaining an open platform from HTC regarding the Vive. But considering it is also running on a PC, it should run any software that is compatible with the SteamVR development kit.

That makes PSVR the odd headset out. And now that we know that people already have a thirst for VR porn, it seems like this limitation could have a negative impact on the adoption of Sony’s platform in the long term.