Q&A: Alea Gaming's co-founder Alexandre Tomic
Co-founder of Alea Gaming and creator of the first virtual reality online casino Alexandre Tomic on how VR can revolutionise the industry
If you look at the history of new platforms from the internet, to mobile, to Facebook, each one has been adopted faster than the last. VR will be adopted by the mainstream even quicker and not just because we finally have the technology, processing power and internet speed in place. We have been waiting for VR for the last 30 years. People are starving for it and know all about it from movies. It is not something people havenât heard about and need to be informed of. It should grow much faster than previous platforms.
Oculus Rift is on track for a release early this year and the consumer edition of the Samsung Gear VR went on sale at the end of last year. I think by Christmas 2016 they could be complete game changers. Although the price of Oculus looks likely to rise a little on initial estimates of $350, it will still be affordable. We will very quickly see a number of products, both VR and augmented reality, coming to market and that opens up a lot of options for operators.
The future of online casino is VR and if you want users to play your games longer, you will have to offer a full experience. For us it was important to start early because it is not just a question of tech, but a question of introducing a whole new dimension. You have to build expertise early as today very few people know how to put games into a VR environment.
We have already put a 3D slot into a 3D environment with our SlotsMillion VR casino. But the real challenge will be building a true VR slot, where the player is actually in the slot. Of course there are still a lot of technical challenges which need to be solved. For instance, if you are sitting at a VR poker table, but you are not at a table in real life, how do you deal with the fact that in real life, your hand cannot pass through a table? Motion sickness is also a problem. With VR, your eyes perceive movement even when you are not moving. These are the big challenges we need to find solutions to.
Those operators which can offer real money players a VR experience will have a very strong competitive advantage against those who cannot. It will be similar to having a mobile website versus not having one a few years ago. VR can change the gambling industry every bit as much as mobile has. On the side of engagement and retention we cannot underestimate its power as a platform. As long as it is well executed by a strong development team, the possibilities are very exciting. VR is very quickly going to become an everyday part of our lives.