Investments in virtual and augmented reality exceeded $ 1.1 billion in the first two months of 2016

The sphere of virtual reality remains one of the most promising for startups, which proves the volume of investment in such projects. In just two months of 2016, total investment in augmented and virtual reality projects amounted to more than $ 1.1 billion. Digi-Capital analysts say that in 2015, investments in virtual and augmented reality projects amounted to $ 686 million and this year it’s the first time exceeded a billion dollars.

Of this amount, $ 794 million was invested in the next round of investment of the Magic Leap project, which ended February 2. About $ 300 million fell on technical developments in the field of virtual (AR) and augmented reality (VR), various services, peripheral equipment, games, applications, and others.
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Even without taking into account the investment in Magic Leap, the total investment increased by 20% compared with 250 million investment in the last quarter of 2016. And, of course, investors still have almost four weeks to make this gap in investment between two quarters much more significant. According to the assumptions of Digi-Capital Managing Director and Eyetouch Reality CEO Tim Merel, total revenue in the AR / VR segment was $ 120 billion by 2020. Investments in similar projects have not ceased to decline over the past six quarters.



Among the most significant acquisitions in this area is the absorption of Oculus Rift by Facebook for $ 2 billion. Now the company is actively cooperating with game studios to develop and support existing projects of augmented reality helmet. Prospects for virtual reality and see large gaming studios. So, Sony is developing the PlayStation VR augmented reality helmet for the PlayStation 4, which is expected to enter the market later this year and receive support from several game projects at once. And if it is rather difficult to assess the prospects of such projects, then a large user base can increase the probability of the success of PlayStation VR on the market.

It is worth noting that due to the increased interest in augmented and virtual reality, investments in other areas are suffering - for example, in the games segment, the total expenditure on investments and acquisitions fell by 81% in 2015. In part, this will change in 2016 due to the completion of the deal between Activision Blizzard Inc. and King’s mobile game development studio for an impressive $ 5.9 billion.