Proving like many technologies before it, porn will drive the adoption of virtual reality. A VR porn festival held in the Tokyo district of Akihabara has been closed prematurely by police due to overcrowding.

According to Hatenablog (in part translated by VR Talk) the VR porn festival highlighted a range of virtual reality technologies relating to the porn and adult toy industry, including demonstrations of actual virtual reality content, along with “accessories” (for lack of a better term) such as a robotic pleasure device and other things that translate badly from Japanese but can be summed up as providing adult pleasure.

Problems started to emerge even before the festival opened its doors, with an excessive number of people turning up causing overcrowding, not only waiting to enter inside the venue but outside the venue as well.

“So I went there in high spirits an hour before [the opening time], but the city was already overflowing with people,” a Japanese reporter at the scene stated. “There were so many [people] that it was almost impossible to keep the situation under control. While waiting for my friends, I couldn’t help but think that if they couldn’t control the mass of people, a riot or something similar could happen. The 20 lucky guys closest to the building were let in by the staff. I’m sure there was a line inside the building that rivaled the one outside.”

Hatenablog noted that organizers and police had no choice but to close the festival due to the inability to adequately control the crowd.

Staff are reported to have apologized and said that the next time the festival is held they would book a large venue.

Porn VR is here

Porn has been the driver of many industries in the past, and virtual reality will be no exception.

VR adult content is forecast to be a $1 billion business in the United States, the third-biggest virtual-reality sector, after video games ($1.4 billion) and NFL-related content ($1.23 billion) by 2025 according to estimates from Piper Jaffray.

Those figures do not account for global demand, and if one thing can be said given this story: the demand in Japan may well end up being stronger again.

For pictures of the various devices check out Hatenablog (Google Translate link) there’s nothing overly not safe for work there (no nudity) although a number of images can best be described as dubious, or just bizarre.

Image credit: Hatenablog