social vr and gaming

Gaming Insiders SummitBrett G. Durrett, CEO

Stewart Bonn, SVP Product

September 24, 2015

• Programming games at age 16 (some even published!)

• Founded & ran game development studio, 15+ titles

• 15 years of experience using avatars for social

Brett, Games and Social…

“IMVU is the LEADING AVATAR-BASED SOCIAL NETWORK that connects people in a way that is fun, creative aspirational, and MEANINGFUL”

- TOP 10 SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS. COMSCORE, FEBRUARY 2014

IMVU is entirely user-created…UGC ecosystem drives massive content creation

Creators

Over 100K Creators that create clothes, animations, rooms and furniture

Marketplace

Users buy 200K 3D products daily

Economy

Items sell for credits, Creators earn royalties in real dollars, some exceeding $10K per month

Content

10K new 3D items submitted daily

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VR GAMES WILL BE AWESOME!

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SOCIAL WILL MAKE VR HUGE

“We’re making a long-term bet that immersive, virtual and augmented reality will become a part of people’s daily life.”

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO Facebook2014 announcement of Oculus VR acquisition

"We're working on VR because I think it's the next major computing and communication platform after phones...I think we'll also have glasses on our faces that can help us out throughout the day and give us the ability to share our experiences with those we love in completely immersive and new ways that aren't possible today."

July, 2015 predictions about the future, Business Insider

"For virtual reality to really cross into the mainstream, it's gotta be more than just really awesome, killer games. What is the Twitter or Instagram of VR? By that, I don't mean having tweets in VR or having filtered photos in VR — I mean that it's native to that platform, it's born of that platform and would not have existed without that platform."

Nick DiCarlo , Samsung’s VR Vice President

“Seeing other people is incredibly engaging and that's one of the drivers that made us partner with Facebook -- social communication. Not social newsfeeds but actual face-to-face seeing multiple avatars in a play experience, that's going to be a very big part of the future in VR.”

Brendan Iribe, CEO Oculus VR

social |ˈsōSHəl|adjective1 [ attrib. ] relating to or involving activities in which people spend time talking to each other or doing enjoyable things with each other

• liking to be with and talk to people : happy to be with people

• of or relating to people or society in general

SOCIAL REQUIRES PEOPLEIN VR, PEOPLE ARE AVATARS

DELIVER EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS

REALISM - BEWARE THE UNCANNY VALLEY

REALISM NOT NECESSARY FOR EXPRESSION

UNIQUELY EXPRESS YOURSELF

IMVU Customers LOVE Their Avatars!

They have a vested connection to the personas they create....and want to take them everywhere!

The challenge…

Feb-08 Jul-09 Nov-10 Apr-12 Aug-13 Dec-14 May-160

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iOS Game Submissions “Steam has already released more games in 2014 than in all of 2013” - May, 2014

“Will we see an indie boom or an indie apocalypse as mobile goes triple-A?” - Dean Takahashi, Sept, 2015

How Can You Compete?Stand out Get noticed Monetize

First-mover Advantage

IMVU API Features:• Login to IMVU• Load a user's avatar• Load friend’s avatars• Automatically loads mesh level of detail (LOD)• Post images to our IMVU Feed• Multi-User support

IMVU Everywhere

Immersive 3d on the desktop.

...WebGL 3d on the browser

...native iOSand Android

IMVU IMVU Next IMVU Mobile

• Sponsors include: Unity, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Lean Startup• Virtual Hackathon: Sept 23-Oct 16• Awards Ceremony: October 22, 2015• Finalists featured on IMVU.com• Lots of Prize$ including People’s Choice

We challenge individuals or teams to create and showcase cutting edge games and virtual experiences that redefine the power of social connectivity.

What next?• Visit hackwme.com• Visit developer.imvu.com