Venture Concept No. 1

An opportunity I have identified is the lack of virtual reality applications. Virtual reality headsets are the future and are in ever higher demand. Yet, it seems there are a good many number of possible applications not being addressed such as historical visitations, VR full-length films and exploration games. The one I wished to focus all my attention on was the idea of an exploratory game, as it is the most basic and popular of the three options.

The market is being propelled through the introduction of more powerful computers and smartphones, hence devices like the Samsung Gear VR. Many of the users are millennials, who always look towards the next frontier of technology. Geographically speaking, almost all users are situated in the developed world as they have a higher per capita amount of disposable income needed for these devices. Customers have no loyalty as of yet, since the market is so fresh and applications are constantly being pumped out by the week. Satisfaction comes from substitution with another application that does some other function that passes the time and has a cool landscape. The opportunity itself is large enough for a sizable portion of the VR community that enjoys the illusion of being in a different locale, which I would guess that it is around 70%. This window of opportunity will be open for six months to a year as VR devices have yet to go mainstream and are just now picking up steam.

This entire endeavor will be an innovation onto itself as human experience to such an immersive depth has never been attempted before. An interesting aspect of this is the ability to create panoramas of digitally rendered landscapes, thus being quite easy to create as Unreal Engine 4 (The engine that most VR games are made on) can be used to make a unique landscape of considerable size in five hours’ time. My application will consist of a player walking from a start point in a randomly chosen locale and walking through it using the touchpad. They can interact with certain parts of the environment to better understand it and draw them in closer to the overall story behind it. The app will be available on the Oculus Store and will go for a price of $2.99 as that is the average price for most applications.

Customers will buy my innovation as there is a severe shortage of applications in the Oculus Store.  Switching from nothing to something is a choice most people would gladly take at the cost of three dollars. My innovation would help fill a niche in the otherwise empty void that is the Oculus Store and competitors are non-existent as established apps fill one major role that is it. Most companies barely even have a single application on the store and most are just picture apps. Their weaknesses is a lack of ability to devote resources into a large project as to constantly update their flagship product. Packaging is vital since no-one would buy an application from a page lacking pictures, reviews and a basic description of it. Price points are quite low compared to other products on the same store of less complexity and substance that may go to a price of $10.00. Distribution will be done through an aft-mentioned third party, the Oculus Store. Customer Support will be relegated to reviews and comments and answered through a FAQ and patches. Customer experience will be our number one priority as we do wish to keep these customers to increase our brand. Our business would have a small team of programmers on hand to continue development. I would estimate we would need five programmers throughout the world to function in this role and keep the firm small to reduce overhead costs.

My most important resource will be my timing and position in an unclaimed market. My unfair advantage will be held through my extensive knowledge of Unreal Engine 4 and how to create good lore as well thus, not even giving my competitors a chance to compete. Competitors can’t actually think that far ahead as most will try to copy a success yet, not be able to make it their own since all they want is a quick buck as opposed to enriching the VR experience.

The next step for us would be to create another VR experience potentially creating a more in-depth role playing game from the one that we created using the current innovation that we employed and capital gained from the last project. This new product will help make it a more dynamic experience than just aimlessly walking in a landscape with some landmarks and make it more like an actual videogame.

My next step in five years with this product would be to aim for the domination of the VR sector in terms of games to expand this amazing technology and maybe advance it into a new headset. I would like to be in a position to invest and be a direct force in creating new VR technologies and this first venture will give me the reputation and money to make these further projects possible.