Hollywood Studios Wade Into Virtual Reality

Ever since Facebook paid $2 billion for virtual-reality startup Oculus last year, technophiles have debated the relative merits of the VR gear that will be available in 2016 from the Facebook unit (the Rift headset), Samsung (Gear VR, which works with a smartphone), and Google (Cardboard). Yet success for the new medium may hinge on something far more conventional: the content that will be watched on the devices.

As the video game industry learned long ago, buzz around a Mario Bros. or Halo title can speed a tech product’s adoption. Video games will spur early sales of the Rift, Oculus says, but mass adoption of the technology may depend on Hollywood. “Over the next year, you’ll see something come along that defines storytelling in virtual reality,” says Robert Stromberg, co-founder and chief creative officer of Virtual Reality Co. “I have enough years under my belt in visual effects and filmmaking that I see a new medium being born.”