The people behind the Vreal streaming startup are shutting the effort down.
The Seattle-based startup built a recording and broadcasting service which worked with a handful of VR titles as a kind of Twitch for VR. The service allowed players to relive moments they’d spent in VR and share with others using virtual cameras, and Vreal’s playback technologies, to present action from new angles.
Vreal employed around two dozen people when we reported on its fundraising round of $11.7 million in February 2018. Roughly 18 months later — the typical funding runway startup managers give themselves — and Vreal is no more.
A posting to the Vreal.net website states:
“Moving on to new realities…”
“Vreal started with an ambitious idea – VR is immersive, and VR content should be immersive too. For those that are a part of the VR community, it’s always inspiring to see the wonder and awe on a friend’s face when you first put them in your VR headset. VR is magical, and the Vreal team wanted to share that magic with everyone.”
“We achieved that, and we are incredibly proud of the work we’ve done. Unfortunately, the VR market never developed as quickly as we all had hoped, and we were definitely ahead of our time. As a result, Vreal is shutting down operations and our wonderful team members are moving on to other opportunities.”
“It’s been a incredible journey and we want to thank our community, our partners and investors for the support they’ve given us along the way. We will be keeping the Discord server open for a week or so if anyone has any questions or wants to connect.”
“Much love from the Vreal team”
