The annual VR Awards are coming up on their fourth year, but this event will take place in different style than usual. Usually an in-person event, this year of VR Awards will be taking place inside of virtual reality, with other non-essential viewers able to watch on PCs, tablets, and smartphones. The awards were previously held in London, and now they will be held in your very own living room.
AIXR, the organizers behind this prestigious event, notes what caused this change. They admit that the Coronavirus plays a part in this, as it should. But they also say that this change was in the works for some time and that the transition to virtual reality was inevitable. Their hands may have been forced this year to push out the maybe-not-ready VR conference, but it was necessary.
The plan is to have a pre-programmed and pre-recroded event inside of virtual reality that allows users to feel like they are in the actual event itself. Following the same trends as the last three years, there will also be exclusive VR content announced and released at the award ceremony.
This isn’t the first event that has been moved to a digital platform. The COVID-19 quarantines are changing the way people are celebrating and doing business in 2020, and this is only adding to it. Lucky for us, virtual reality is becoming more mainstream than ever and it is connecting users in ways that were possible even just a few years ago.
Coming October
The VR Awards are still months away, not anticipated until the end of October. But with the committee planning so far ahead, it gives them and supporting developers time to create and experience inside of virtual reality that is worth remembering.
As for the nominees this year, we believe that most of them aren’t even out to the public yet. Half-Life: Alyx, Medal of Honor, and many other great titles are still in production. For other awards, its really a toss up until the final days. We saw John Carmack win the lifetime VR acheivemtn award, but it likely wouldn’t have happened if he didn’t announce he would be doing VR not full time. We will have to wait and see.
Either way, the initiative is impressive to get this VR Awards in going quick. For more VR news and community updates, make sure to check back at VRGear.com.
