VR figurehead Chat Faliszek and Maker Studios veteran Chris M. Williams will join the board of VR broadcasting startup.
The virtual reality broadcast platform Vreal has raised $11.7 million in series A funding, as CEO Todd Hooper takes another step toward positioning the company to be ready for the VR market’s “tipping point.”
The new round, which was led by Axioma Ventures and featured contributions from both old and new investors, takes the Seattle-based startup’s lifetime funding to $15 million. The size of that amount reflects a confidence in the idea that Vreal is trying to realise: establishing an equivalent platform to Twitch for virtual reality, one crafted specifically for the technology.
CEO and founder Todd Hooper laid out the vision when he spoke to GamesIndustry.biz last year, and this $11.7 million represents a big step towards launching a finished product. In a new interview, Hooper said that Vreal is now in a closed alpha with a select group of “VR early adopters.”
“We’ve been getting great feedback from them on what they love about Vreal and areas we need to work on,” he said. “VR is still such a nascent field, there’s always more to learn in terms of user interface, social interaction, and performance across a wide range of hardware.”
An open alpha is expected to begin at some point this summer, and Vreal is very much focused on refining and optimising the experience around Oculus Rift and Steam VR on HTC Vive. PlayStation VR is absent from that group, of course, which is notable due to its solid commercial performance and an encouraging level of commitment to software from Sony. According to Hooper, however, the focus on Windows is down to the particulars of VR broadcasting at this point in time.
“Sony has built a great consumer VR offering with PlayStation VR, and we think it’s a compelling option for consuming content,” he said. “At this early stage, we need to focus equally on the creation and consumption of content… Almost all streamers are creating their content on the Windows platform, so that’s our initial focus for Vreal right now.”
Vreal is already working directly with content creators and networks as it further shapes the platform and its production tools. The current roster of partners includes Rooster Teeth, Machinima and Hyper RPG, and building up that list is Hooper’s preferred strategy for raising awareness about Vreal and its capabilities.
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Source: Games Industry