The UK government has revealed plans to invest in the use and development of immersive technologies to “help pioneer the next generation of products, services and experiences”. £33m is being invested from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund as part of its ambition to grow the artificial intelligence and data-driven economy.
PWC has predicted that the UK’s virtual reality industry will grow at a faster rate than any other entertainment and media industry between 2016 and 2021, reaching £801m in value, and that by 2021 there will be 16m virtual reality headsets in use in the UK.
The fund is planned to draw on the expertise of the UK research base as well as fundamentally change products and services in the next 20 years.
Virtual reality is becoming more and more ubiquitous, with presences in classrooms, shops, art galleries, and homes. This market expansion creates opportunities for UK based creative businesses.
The government has said that it wants 10% of all “global creative immersive content” to be UK-made by 2025, and for the UK’s share of total global investment in immersive technologies to reach 10% by the same period, and also revealed that the UK’s investment share in 2016 was 5% of the global total.
