The Actual Reason Japan's Virtual Reality Porn Festival Had To Be Cancelled

Virtual reality is a big deal in the media... especially virtual reality porn. So much so that Japan had a festival dedicated to VR porn. The festival was so popular and caused such a ruckus that they had to shut it down and cancel it.

According to Upload VR, Japan held the convention in the Akihabara district of Tokyo, it originally took place in the middle of June during E3, which is probably why many people in the West didn't initially hear about it. It was called the Adult VR Fest 01 (a strikingly befitting name). The convention played host to a number of different gadgets, accessories and peripherals designed for use in the VR space -- specifically for porn -- and managed to garner a huge crowd outside of the convention building because they were really interested in seeing the latest advancements in VR porn.

In fact, Upload VR reports that the crowd gathering was so immense that police had to be called in to break them up. It was further mentioned that the streets outside the convention had become crowded and unruly as loads of people were trying to get in and test out the upcoming VR porn paraphernalia.

Many of the demonstrations were running on development kits of the Oculus Rift, giving gamers and VR enthusiasts alike some opportunities to play-test various porn-themed apps using some rather strange contraptions.

In one instance a guy was using what looked like an ab wheel to do something related to pleasuring a 3D avatar, but it was difficult to understand the relation between using an ab wheel and interacting within the virtual world.

Another demonstration featured the ability to rub and touch a 3D anime avatar using your hands, but there were no peripherals involved so it was basically just a lot of feeling around in free space. I can see apps like that being kind of dangerous given that you have zero point of reference and no real-to-life positional tracking so you can brace yourself. I wonder how many accidents might end up being reported of people falling over or hurting themselves using VR HMDs? I mean, reaching for something in virtual space is not the same as reaching for something in real life, and plenty of people have already been involved in some VR demonstrations with the HTC Vive where they attempt to walk, climb, lean or step into places that aren't actually there in real life.

For an IGN demo the people participating in the VR exercise were given a rather sizable room in which to interact with a horror-themed VR demo, but not everyone has a production room for VR exploits.

Some of the other demos on display at the Adult VR Fest 01 included various peripherals where insertions could be made, or to help with certain physical activities. One of the demos included the armless, legless and headless plastic doll that could be used to interact with an on-screen character.

Given that the convention attracted enough attention to be cancelled, I do wonder if that would translate into potential market viability for a lot of these porn-related peripherals and programs?

One thing is for sure, they're going to have to fine-tune these apps for headsets like the GearVR and HTC Vive, because Facebook has already made it known that they're going to be blocking VR porn on the Oculus Rift.