Seattle-based VREAL Inc. (which stands for “Virtual Reality Entertainment And Livestreaming”) seeks to become the first-of-its-kind virtual reality streaming service the likes of which this world has never seen. The service would be similar to game streaming platform Twitch (Twitch Interactive, Inc.), which boasted over 2 million peak concurrent viewers in 2015 and over 35 thousand peak concurrent broadcasters in the same year (according to Twitch’s self-released statistics).

According to VREAL’s website, the service would be streaming fully-immersive VR environments. This means that viewers would not just receive flat “point of view” streams stuck where the broadcaster’s “camera” sits in the virtual environment; but would be able to wander around the virtual space.

Right now virtual reality’s baby steps are hitting their stride with the first generation of consumer-grade VR rigs in the release of the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Samsung Gear–and later this year the PlayStation VR. Platforms such as Valve Corporation’s Steam have even started hosting VR games and content ready to be viewed and experienced on this newly released equipment.

The developers, publishers, content creators and audiences are already here and the market is just getting itself off the ground. Which means that VREAL as the first of its kind will pioneer the first immersive VR livestreaming platform.

“The rise of gaming as viewable entertainment has reshaped the game marketplace, and virtual reality will forever change the way we play and watch. VREAL is the first company to create a platform that gives game developers, streamers and players a way to natively stream VR gaming experiences across the full spectrum of desktop and mobile VR and traditional 2D screens,” Todd Hooper, founder and CEO, VREAL sad in a press release.

With the extensive and ever-growing popularity of 2D streaming via Twitch, YouTube and other streaming outlets, it is no doubt that VR streaming will also get its own groove as the industry begins to catch on. VREAL wants to be there when that happens.

“We’re giving streamers all the tools they need to create immersive experiences in VR. Moreover, gamers who spend hours watching, will now have freedom to see the game from any angle they want, anywhere inside the game world, right next to the streamer. That’s VREAL.”

According to Will Mason of UploadVR, the experience within VREAL is even more amazing than a simple 2D Twitch stream, and it represents an evolution in vicarious entertainment. Although, it is quite limited in the number of people who can watch and interact (at current) as the platform appears to have a maximum of 10 participants.

VReal works by integrating an SDK into the game’s engine. Once integrated, a streamer will be able to broadcast their game by sending it up to a cloud server, which sends the scene to be rendered in realtime on the viewer’s PC or outputted to 360-degree 3D video for mobile VR, or even a traditional 2D stream for everyone else; the result being a platform that maximizes both the reach of a VR stream and its functionality.

Twitch streams can attract hundreds (potentially thousands) of viewers at a time and streamers often make a name for themselves interacting semi-directly with them in chat and voice. While it is unlikely that even stream services such as VREAL will go as far as thousands of participants, one of the potential promises of VR streaming is being able to bring participants “into” the environment in a way that chat and voice on Twitch cannot do.

An industry still hatching from the virtual egg

The virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR, such as Microsoft HoloLens) industry predictions are all over the place, but all are extremely positive so far. Market researcher Trendforce said in December 2015 that the VR market would reach $70 billion by 2020. And industry analyst firm CCS Insight predicts that the number of VR and AR devices would reach 24 million by 2018.

The first consumer-edition VR rigs are just reaching the market this year, as mentioned above, which means that the audience currently in VR is mostly first adopters.

Startups such as VREAL looking to make a name for themselves and stake out territory have every reason to get on board with this initial audience. As content creators work to make new virtual reality experiences for these devices and developers work to VR-enable already existing games and other content, it’s still unknown what all the use-cases for VR will be.

Virtual reality provides an amazing fit for immersive streaming, for vicarious experience and telepresence and video game streaming (2D via Twitch and YouTube) has already proven itself a powerful cultural tool and entertainment industry. VREAL will pioneer VR streaming even as VR itself begins to mature.

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