Modified version of presentation from 2015 Gaming Insiders conference explaining the value of avatars in social VR and games

1. Gaming Insiders Summit
Brett G. Durrett, CEO
Stewart Bonn, SVP Product
September 24, 2015

2. • Programming games at age 16 (some even published!)
• Founded & ran game development studio, 15+ titles
• 15 years of experience using avatars for social
Brett, Games and Social…

3. “IMVU is the LEADING AVATAR-BASED SOCIAL NETWORK
that connects people in a way that is fun, creative
aspirational, and MEANINGFUL”
- TOP 10 SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS.
COMSCORE, FEBRUARY 2014

4. IMVU is entirely user-created…
UGC ecosystem drives massive content creation
Creators
Over 100K Creators that
create clothes, animations,
rooms and furniture
Marketplace
Users buy 200K
3D products daily
Economy
Items sell for credits,
Creators earn royalties in
real dollars, some
exceeding $10K per month
Content
10K new 3D items
submitted daily

5. [ NEED IMAGE FOR SLIDE ]
VR GAMES WILL BE AWESOME!

6. [ NEED IMAGE FOR SLIDE ]
SOCIAL WILL MAKE VR HUGE

7. “We’re making a long-term bet that immersive, virtual and
augmented reality will become a part of people’s daily life.”
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO Facebook
2014 announcement of Oculus VR acquisition
"We're working on VR because I think it's the next major
computing and communication platform after phones...I think
we'll also have glasses on our faces that can help us out
throughout the day and give us the ability to share our
experiences with those we love in completely immersive and
new ways that aren't possible today."
July, 2015 predictions about the future, Business Insider

8. "For virtual reality to really cross into the mainstream, it's
gotta be more than just really awesome, killer games.
What is the Twitter or Instagram of VR? By that, I don't
mean having tweets in VR or having filtered photos in VR
— I mean that it's native to that platform, it's born of that
platform and would not have existed without that platform."
Nick DiCarlo , Samsung’s VR Vice President

9. “Seeing other people is incredibly engaging and that's
one of the drivers that made us partner with
Facebook -- social communication. Not social
newsfeeds but actual face-to-face seeing multiple
avatars in a play experience, that's going to be a very
big part of the future in VR.”
Brendan Iribe, CEO Oculus VR

10. social |ˈsōSHəl|
adjective
1 [ attrib. ] relating to or involving activities in which people spend time talking to each other
or doing enjoyable things with each other
• liking to be with and talk to people : happy to be with people
• of or relating to people or society in general

11. SOCIAL REQUIRES PEOPLE
IN VR, PEOPLE ARE AVATARS

12. DELIVER EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS

13. REALISM - BEWARE THE UNCANNY VALLEY

14. REALISM NOT NECESSARY FOR EXPRESSION

15. UNIQUELY EXPRESS YOURSELF

16. IMVU Customers LOVE Their Avatars!
They have a vested connection to the personas they create
....and want to take them everywhere!

17. The challenge…
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
18000
20000
Feb-08 Jul-09 Nov-10 Apr-12 Aug-13 Dec-14 May-16
iOS Game Submissions “Steam has already
released more games in
2014 than in all of 2013”
- May, 2014
“Will we see an indie
boom or an indie
apocalypse as mobile
goes triple-A?”
- Dean Takahashi, Sept,
2015

18. How Can You Compete?
Stand out Get noticed Monetize

19. First-mover Advantage

20. IMVU API Features:
• Login to IMVU
• Load a user's avatar
• Load friend’s avatars
• Automatically loads mesh level of detail (LOD)
• Post images to our IMVU Feed
• Multi-User support

21. IMVU Everywhere
Immersive 3d on the
desktop.
...WebGL 3d on the
browser
...native iOS
and Android
IMVU IMVU Next IMVU Mobile

22. • Sponsors include: Unity, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Lean Startup
• Virtual Hackathon: Sept 23-Oct 16
• Awards Ceremony: October 22, 2015
• Finalists featured on IMVU.com
• Lots of Prize$ including People’s Choice
We challenge individuals or teams to create and showcase cutting edge
games and virtual experiences that redefine the power of social connectivity.

23. What next?
• Visit hackwme.com
• Visit developer.imvu.com