Explicit VR platform reveals significant user uptick from the previous year
Heralding what might prove to be a profound shift towards more immersive, tactile adult entertainment, adult virtual reality site SexLikeReal [NSFW] reports seeing an impressive 42% rise in new customers over the previous year.
Quoted by XBiz, an unnamed spokesperson credits SexLikeReal’s popularity spike to its recent drive to develop a greater number of interactive scripts: “For every one of the many thousands of scenes on its platform, covering straight, gay, and trans content, this has led to a notable shift in how our users interact with the site.”
SexLikeReal is one of an increasing number of adult sites riding the current sextech tsunami.
Statista, for example, predicts the global sex toy market will skyrocket from its approximately 52.7 billion US dollar value to a staggering 80 billion in just five years.
If SexLikeReal’s report is anything to go by, a sizable percentage of that eventual 80 billion will consist of virtual reality, haptic, and perhaps other sexually arousing technologies.
Not only that, but the popularity of current sex tech will likely fuel tomorrow’s immersive breakthroughs.
Once you go haptic—
The SexLikeReal spokesperson described the appeal of virtual reality and tactile pleasure devices as, “Once you go haptic, you rarely go back.”
What they didn’t mention are factors that affect interest in interactive sextech devices and virtual reality.
The first is cost, as many high-end haptic toys can run into triple digits, effectively putting them out of the reach of many potential customers. However, they’ve also been accompanied by less expensive and less-well-made competitors.
The same is true for virtual reality, where at the top end are systems costing $1000 plus, like the legendary Value Index, while at the other end are affordable alternatives, such as the $500 Meta Quest 3.
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The other factors are sites like SexLikeReal. As in, why go through all the time, effort, energy, and money fitting yourself with everything you need to see and feel adult movies and games if there aren’t any movies or games to interact with?
Fortunately, early VR and haptic adult entertainment sites committed to producing quality content, which in turn would drive demand for the pricey hardware. pay their technological admission price.
Step one: Open the door
With an ever-escalating number of people surfing that sextech wave, proving there will always be a market for low-cost pleasure devices, companies can anticipate profit in developing increasingly advanced models.
This is where the fun really begins. After all, what good is haptic tech research if no one is interested in developing it commercially?
Now we know not only are people intrigued by haptic sextech, especially when coupled with virtual reality, but consumer demand is helping to push sites such as SexLikeReal from the margins to what could become a central piece of the global sextech industry.
Step two: Step through it
Hardware is one thing, but what about content? Immersive adult platforms like SexLikeReal will need to tread carefully, with a fine line between offering customers a lot of less-than-stellar movies and producing quality content that takes advantage of haptic/virtual reality’s full, erotic potential.
Who knows, we may even see an adult media renaissance with platforms shucking off their low-rez, low-budget, low-pleasurable videos and games for mind-blowingly realistic, thoroughly interactive experiences.
Imagine Valve’s game-changing VR experience, Half-Life: Alyx, but with less clothing and more, shall we say, exciting new options. All this and more could happen if adult sites are ready, willing, and able to match technological progress with good, old-fashioned, outside-of-the-box erotic creativity.
That said, hopefully, the question of quantity versus quality won’t be an issue for the burgeoning immersive sextech industry as it should already be familiar with the single, undeniable truth about new customers: that they can go as fast as they—please excuse a bad joke—come.
Image Sources: Depositphotos
