Meta 3D Studios’ Ad-supported VR Experiences Allow Customers to Try Before They Buy
Interactive industry veteran Meta 3D Studios, founded in 2005, has expanded their Virtual Reality offerings by integrating Immersv’s advertising network in their VR apps.
“Immersv is excited to have Meta 3D Studios create custom builds of their apps for our customers for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). They were able to integrate our ad network seamlessly with our easy to implement SDK. At our booth, the developers’ reactions have been very positive,” says Rob Carroll, Head of Publishing at Immersv.
CES is the world’s gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. Held in Las Vegas every year, it has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for more than 40 years—the global stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace.
Game and application developers welcome advertising within their products as it allows them to create free app experiences, while still generating revenue for the titles from the ad placement. When Immersv’s discovery platform appears within an app or game, users are transported into a “virtual theater,” where the advertisements are played on a movie screen or are delivered in a complete 360-degree experience.
“It’s a new way to deliver ads that is extremely immersive, because VR just takes you away to another place. Our customers are blown away by the experience,” says Billy Joe Cain, Business Development Director for Meta 3D Studios. “Implementing it was easy and it’s been great working with Immersv. Having our applications, such as VR Bearclaw’s Forge, shown at CES is a huge opportunity for us. Not only are we happy to be supporting our partners at Immersv, we’re excited to be part of the growing Virtual Reality market,” says Cain.
The VR market is exploding. Consumers will spend $5.1 billion on virtual reality gaming hardware, accessories and software in 2016. That’s up from the $660 million spent in 2015, according to a new report from SuperData Research. Meanwhile, the global market is expected to grow to $8.9 billion in 2017 and $12.3 billion in 2018.
In 2015, Meta 3D Studios released eight VR applications for Google™ Cardboard, and is preparing to release a compilation of many of them into a single title, called VR Metaverse, on Oculus Rift, a newer and more powerful VR system that is owned and backed by Facebook®.
“Releasing apps for Google Cardboard is really exciting because they use smartphones for their high processing power, which keeps their cost down for the consumer,” says Cain. “Moving into Oculus development is great because it’s for the higher end consumer. We want to be where the consumer wants us to be.”