Beta access launches today, exclusive access code at end of the article.
Last month, the gaming community erupted amid the controversy surrounding the paid mods deal between Valve and Bethesda. The deal would have let modders sell their mods in the Steam store – but it came with a caveat, a large portion of that money was going to line the pockets of Valve and the original publisher, in this case the studio behind Skyrim, Bethesda. The modding community was upset with the deal for a number of reasons but mainly because the splits seemed to be way out of proportion. The strong response from the community led to Valve pulling to payment feature but it may not be the last we have heard of them, as in principle paying developers for their work isn’t the worst idea we’ve ever heard.
This controversy also speaks to the need, especially at this early stage of VR development, for an app store that isn’t tied to a particular platform. When the Vive, Oculus Rift, and Morpheus all come out over the next year they will each be tied to their own ecosystems (SteamVR, Oculus Home, and the Playstation Store respectively). Whether it is restricting access to certain apps or not allowing developers to publish because they don’t meet content restriction guidelines the consumers and developers can often get the short end of the stick in these kind of ‘walled gardens’. So what’s the solution? Well it may be as simple as one letter, ‘V.’
V is a self contained, virtual reality enabled “open alternative” to platforms like SteamVR and Oculus Home. Open app platforms like The Rift Arcade and WeARVR have sprung up recently but neither of those options offer quite the feature set that V does.
VR interface walkthrough from V on Vimeo.
