VR porn is coming to Las Vegas hotels

At first blush, gaming is one of the most obvious applications of VR technology, with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets leading the charge. But as reported by VentureBeat, another, lesser-known system known as AuraVisor is making headway in the very different, but no less obvious, field of virtual reality porn.

AuraVisor raised more than $300,000 through crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo that promised “games, movies, [and] video streaming,” but it's the latter of the three where it looks to be making impact. The company recently signed a deal with VR Bangers, a porn studio that specializes in “immersive 360 virtual reality experiences,” to bring its product to a select number of hotels in Las Vegas for $20 a pop.

“You will then choose a girl or guy of your choice and see your hotel room replicated in the VR headset, making the experience much more realistic,” the company said in a statement. “Next you will hear a knock on the door—in the virtual reality world—and the girl or guy will come into your room in order to enjoy an erotic or sex experience with the viewer.”

That, to me, is the most fascinating aspect of this technology: Not the virtual sex itself, but that the experience takes place in a digital recreation of the hotel room, almost like a blend of VR and AR, that brings extraordinary experiences into the real world. And while it is admittedly a stretch to connect VR porn to gaming, it could have a very real impact over the long term. Stories of the adult film industry pushing VHS to dominance over Betamax may be apocryphal, but if schemes like this help spread the adoption of VR hardware, the software—including games—is bound to follow.