Spend enough time on the Internet, and you're bound to see some weird stuff, sometimes bordering on inappropriate, other times it's the sort of thing that makes you feel dirty until you clear out your history and take a shower. The flavor of the week this time around is probably sandwiched somewhere in between.
After years of devices that could be called virtual reality experimentation at best, the Oculus Rift is one of the most promising devices that could finally give its audience a God's honest VR experience. As such, a slew of developers have popped up, hoping make their own mint and a name on the peripheral's assumed success.
For those of you either too puritan or not old enough to either remember or for the subject matter, there's an interesting relationship between technology and...let's call it "adult material." For the latter of you, here's a basic summation courtesy of a movie featuring Tony Stark in blackface. Essentially, when a tech gets backed by porn, it skyrockets. Actually, since I'm sure there's a pun there, let's just say the tech's victory is assured. As a promising device, the Rift is far from immune from this, something we've seen before.
There's a new game in development of a similar nature, called VR Tenga. Only instead of being simply a visual treat to carnal delights, the developers of the game are taking things a step further, but depending on your knowledge of Japanese, you already know where this is going. Verbal descriptions fall short, the best way to understand the game is to watch the videos below, provided you're not in public.
Even the most unimaginative of people can see the potential ramifications for a game like this. Hint, it involves a lot of other "peripherals devices" that normally come innocuously wrapped for privacy and discretion, purchased from websites or that shady corner store you'd never want to be caught dead in by your friends, and a lot of tissues. It would no doubt be a huge moneymaker for certain manufacturers, albeit a bit creepy, but that's probably because the videos show a man having virtual sex in front of a large crowd. Hell, the late night TV commercials almost writes itself.
Obviously, the ESRB will stay far away from a sticky game like VR Tenga, so no matter the money it could make retailers, don't expect to find it at GameStop or Target.
With big name endorsers like John Carmack, Gabe Newell, and Sony president Shuhei Yoshida, not to mention the Rift managing to rake in close to $2.5 million on Kickstarter, the peripheral certainly has a future. But when the same platform also features a game that can give you happy endings, it's difficult to care about 720 vs 1080p. As such, it's not hard to see why Rift founder and inventor Palmer Luckey has nothing to fear from Sony and Microsft's respective next-gen consoles.
"Xbox, clean that up."
