https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOyWUHcK06E
I know some of our younger readers may find this hard to believe, but way back in the day (I’m talking, like, almost 10 years ago), you had to actually go to a brick-and-mortar building to rent movies printed on physical media if you wanted to watch them at home. If you brought them back even a day late, you got charged extra fees. It was a crazy time, man. Of course, such establishments were all put out of business by Netflix. Yet some of us still cling onto a misguided nostalgia for Blockbuster Video and the like. Ironically, the entity that destroyed the video store may be planning to bring it back in virtual reality.
Every year, Netflix has a “hack day” during which employees propose and design new Netflix features — many of which end up being officially added to the service. This year, somebody came up with a virtual reality video store that replicates the mom ‘n’ pop shops of our youth. All of our favorite categories are now lined up on virtual shelves, and users can pick them up and play them by… throwing them at the wall? Okay, I don’t remember that being a thing.
Obviously the virtual video store is still pretty rough being that it was hacked together in a day, but it’s a fun, cheeky idea. What do you think? Would you like to see Netflix develop the virtual reality video store concept further? If they add a virtual claw machine, stale popcorn and a mysterious-yet-ultimately-disappointing “adults only” section, I’m in.
(Via Engadget)
