虛擬現實市場真正的主導者不是Oculus 而是這家公司
With new virtual reality devices in the works from Facebook-owned Oculus VR, Sony, Valve, Samsung, and HTC, John Riccitiello believes his company—San Francisco’s Unity Technologies, which makes a gaming development platform of the same name—will lead the way for virtual-reality gaming and experiences.
隨着Facebook旗下的Oculus VR、索尼、Valve、三星和HTC等公司紛紛開發虛擬現實設備，舊金山聯合科技公司（Unity Technologies）CEO約翰o裏奇迪略深信，這家致力於打造同名遊戲開發平臺的公司將成爲虛擬現實遊戲和體驗領域的領頭羊。“At least 90, if not 95 percent, of all content built so far for VR has been built on Unity, which gives you a sense of our market position,” the CEO says. “The promise of VR is in these super powerful headsets that change your experience. If you try a demo from Valve or Oculus or even the Microsoft HoloLens, they’re not just good, they’re staggering. We’re going to see a giant industry grow up and at the center of that industry is going to be the Unity development tool set.”
這位首席執行官聲稱：“迄今爲止，在所有植入虛擬現實設備的內容中，至少有90％，乃至95％都是基於‘聯合平臺’開發的，我們公司的市場地位由此可見一斑。這些超強的頭戴式虛擬現實設備，一定能徹底改變你的體驗。如果你玩過Valve、Oculus或微軟全息眼鏡HoloLens的試玩版遊戲，你就會知道，它們不只是好，而是好極了。我們會看到一個巨大的產業蓬勃興起，該產業的核心正是‘聯合開發工具套裝’。”
Riccitiello says virtual and augmented reality—VR and AR for short—are going to change entertainment over the course of the next four or five years. But the technology that underpins them is still immature, and no company has actually shipped a commercial product yet. (Sony plans to launch its Morpheus VR system in early 2016.)
裏奇迪略表示，在未來4到5年，虛擬或增強現實設備（簡稱VR和AR）將徹底改變娛樂行業。但支撐它們的技術還不成熟，目前也沒有哪家公司真正推出過商業化產品。（索尼公司計劃在2016年初推出Morpheus虛擬現實系統）
Riccitiello has worked in the video Game industry since 1997, where as chief operating officer of Electronic Arts EA 0.59% he helped grow it into the biggest game publisher in the world. He joined Unity in October 2014.
自1997年以來，裏奇迪略一直從事電子遊戲業。擔任藝電公司首席運營官期間，他幫助該公司成爲全球最大的電子遊戲企業。2014年10月，他加盟了聯合公司。In an interview with Fortune, Riccitiello says VR stands out from the many innovations in gaming that he’s observed in the last two decades.
接受《財富》雜誌專訪時，裏奇迪略表示，過去二十年來，虛擬現實已從他觀察的遊戲業衆多創新技術中脫穎而出。“Touch screens gaming grew the industry from an audience of about 200 million people to over 2 billion people because it dramatically reduced complexity and it made games accessible to everyone,” Riccitiello says. “What VR does is transport people into the environments that the game creators have built. Right now we’re only seeing the very beginnings of the innovations that are possible with such powerful tools and amazing experiences.”
他說：“觸屏遊戲已經推動全球的遊戲玩家從大約2億人增長到20億以上，因爲它大大降低了複雜度，讓每個人都能玩。虛擬現實的任務是將玩家送入遊戲開發者打造的環境中。這些強大的工具正在催生令人驚歎的體驗，但目前我們所看到的，僅僅是這種創新的萌芽而已。”“High-end VR will probably not be accessible by the masses initially, while devices like Samsung Gear VR will be,” Riccitiello says. “What you’re going to see is some awesome singular experiences, whether that’s a great experience in mobile or on other platforms.”
他說：“一開始大衆可能還無法接觸到高端虛擬現實設備，而三星的Gear VR是普通人都能玩到的。今後大家將看到，無論是在手機平臺還是其他平臺上，都會涌現出一些很出色的個體化體驗。”In recent years, Riccitiello has been working with Oculus VR to integrate its Unity 5 platform into the Oculus development kit. (Indeed, Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey was on stage during the Unity 5 press conference at the 2015 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco to discuss the role the technology has played in allowing developers to create VR experiences for its Oculus Rift headset and Crescent Bay, a retail prototype.) Unity offers free access to its platform for individuals and development studios with less than $100,000 in revenues or funding; for the rest, it charges $75 per month or $1,500 for a perpetual license. The technology competes with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4 and Crytek’s CryEngine 3.
近年來，裏奇迪略一直與Oculus VR公司合作，致力於整合“聯合5”平臺和Oculus的開發工具包（實際上，在舊金山2015年遊戲開發者大會舉行的‘聯合5’平臺新聞發佈會上，Oculus VR公司創始人帕爾默o勒基聲稱，這種技術在允許開發者爲Oculus Rift頭戴式設備和零售款Crescent Bay創造虛擬現實體驗方面發揮了關鍵作用）。此外，“聯合”平臺還向那些收入或資金不足10萬美元的個人和工作室免費開放。對其他羣體，它的收費標準是每月75美元，或一次性收取1500美元的永久使用費。該技術平臺的對手是Epic Games公司的Unreal Engine 4和Crytek公司的CryEngine 3。
