Oculus Rift gets its worst-possible application with this creepy male gaze app

We knew that commercial erotic apps for virtual reality were coming. But guess what? They’re here.

Play Girls, coming out later this year, and compatible with Oculus Rift, has a lot of things that give me pause, such as the uncanny valley weirdness of the bikini-clad actress, who was professionally motion-captured and is, according to her profile, 150 cm tall. Also giving me pause: the idea that someone would be ogling her from inside a black mask fantasy-world.

The software is coming out of Japan from a company called PG Production, and is a piece of pure titillation, presenting a virtual young woman standing on the beach in front of a tiki bar. The interaction seems to solely involve spinning the camera around her body as she stands. You can check out the trailer on their site, which is probably technically safe for work, but still involves a lot of deeply problematic objectification.

This new technology is powerful stuff, but there will be a lot more along these lines. We hope to see it used in equal measure for positive ends, such as BeAnotherLab’s Gender Swap project.