Overview
Virtual Cast is a social VR service co-developed by Dwango and Infinite Loop, announced and launched on April 13, 2018 during the third Niconico Chokaigi 2018 announcement broadcast, and now operated by Virtual Cast, Inc. The service originated as a project by the niconico user Miyumiyu, with Dwango providing support; Miyumiyu took the title of CVO, or Chief Virtualization Technology Officer, at the new company. On the surface it does what VRChat does — put people in a shared VR space — but Virtual Cast was pointed at a narrower, stranger problem: letting a streamer perform inside VR while the audience, sitting in a comment box on the other side of the screen, reaches in and touches the performance.
That audience reach is the product. Virtual Cast supports niconico Live (with software integration), YouTube Live (software integration; as of May 21, 2020, limited to the two corporate license types because of Google API specifications, with 360-degree video support), OPENREC.tv, TwitCasting, Twitch, SHOWROOM (software integration), and REALITY. On niconico, one of its supported platforms, it is used mainly for user broadcasts and channel broadcasts, but also frequently appears on official niconico programs featuring virtual YouTubers. The toolset includes a “drop-in” function that lets a VR visitor enter another streamer’s broadcast directly (toggleable), a viewer submission feature that pushes Twitter posts along with niconico Live and SHOWROOM comments and images into the VR space, and drawing and camera functions built for production. A Direct View Mode lets users operate the whole thing from a PC monitor without any VR hardware.
Virtual Cast has shipped on Steam since July 31, 2019 (Ver 1.7.0b), and from March 2020 it has been distributed in two forms: a beta for early features and a stable production version. Commercial licensing splits three ways — consumer for individuals, business for corporations, and enterprise, in which Virtual Cast, Inc. supports program production. A separate Oculus Quest 2 build is distributed outside Steam and is developed independently of the Steam version.
History
Virtual Cast launched on April 13, 2018, the same day it was announced on the third Niconico Chokaigi 2018 announcement broadcast. Dwango and Infinite Loop built it, but the project began with the niconico user Miyumiyu, who later took the role of CVO, Chief Virtualization Technology Officer, at Virtual Cast, Inc. In August 2018, niconico Live began paying streamers through V Gifts under niconico’s Creator Incentive Program, with rewards tied to the number of V Gifts viewers purchased; at first the feature worked only in experimental broadcasts before being fully implemented, and on smartphones only the niconico Live app supported it.
Broadcasting partnerships followed. At the end of May 2019, a business alliance made it possible to stream through REALITY, the service offered by Wright Flyer Live Entertainment. In early June of the same year, a partnership with SHOWROOM was announced, enabling broadcasts through Virtual Cast and a joint official program between the two companies. On November 28, 2019, V Gifts extended to SHOWROOM gifting; on YouTube, Super Chats arrive as card-shaped items bearing messages.
The distribution model shifted on July 31, 2019, when Virtual Cast moved to Steam distribution at Ver 1.7.0b. From March 2020, it shipped in two forms, the beta for early implementations and the stable official version. On November 12, 2020, the beta update and subsequent stable builds introduced two VR space types: Studio, used since launch for live streaming and single-space presentations, and Room, added later for detailed user-built spaces. Users can switch between the two from the menu.
THE SEED ONLINE, abbreviated TSO, is a data-registration service for inserting staging effects and holdable items into VR spaces, usable in services beyond Virtual Cast. It handles VRM character data and VCI, or Virtual Cast Interactive, data for backgrounds and other elements. The concept, whose name derives from a term used in Sword Art Online, was announced with an alpha version published on February 23, 2019, allowing development and publication of VR items, game functions, and special effects, with support for Custom Cast and SHOWROOM V alongside Virtual Cast. A beta in late March 2020 raised import limits and added a sales system; the completed version went live in summer 2020. At the end of March 2021, an app from Virtual Cast, Inc. enabled AR display via TSO. On March 2, 2023, TSO was merged into VirtualCast.
The financial record was not gentle. Dwango ran the Virtual Cast system with Infinite Loop, streaming on niconico Live, and the first term from July to December 2018 ended with a net loss of 156.5 million yen. On April 22, 2019, Dwango switched to the new business TUNEDiD, and on April 15 of that year, the VTuber subsidiary Rido and Watanabe Amaduction, which operated Hayamura Yu, were dissolved to offset the deficit. On October 1, 2019, roughly 1 billion yen was raised through third-party allotment and other means to expand product development and operations. Educational institutions and remote-work communication were also presented as uses, with deployment planned at N High School and S High School, run by Dwango Gakuen. In AR, the company offered polaris, an AR live system that composites with a real concert venue in real time through video streaming.
On October 1, 2023, a new corporate structure decided at an extraordinary shareholders meeting was announced. The capital relationship with Infinite Loop was dissolved, making Virtual Cast a Dwango subsidiary; headquarters moved to Tokyo; president Kentaro Matsui and Miyumiyu, who had taken the title Team Virtual Officer, stepped down. Togi Ota, representative of LOGIC&MAGIC, became the new president, and with profitability in sight on the business-to-business side, the company said it would shift from passive PR through engineers’ activities toward active PR aimed at increasing users across a wider range of fields.
Business Model
Virtual Cast sells access to a stage, and it sells the stage in three tiers. Commercial licensing divides into consumer for individuals, business for corporations, and enterprise, in which Virtual Cast, Inc. itself supports program production. The money arrives from several directions rather than one: the Steam release has been distributed since July 31, 2019, alongside a separately developed Oculus Quest 2 build, and since March 2020 the service has shipped in two parallel tracks, a beta for early implementations and a stable production version, which lets the operators ship features fast without asking broadcasters to gamble their programs on them.
Gifting is the consumer-facing engine. V Gifts let viewers drop touchable items into the virtual space, and under niconico’s Creator Incentive Program streamers are paid according to the total number of V Gifts their viewers purchase. The reach of that mechanism has been extended platform by platform — to SHOWROOM gifting after November 28, 2019, and to YouTube Super Chats, which arrive as card-shaped items carrying messages. On the smartphone side, only the niconico Live app supports it.
The toolset scales with the customer. Studio, in use since launch, is described officially as specialized for live streaming and single-space presentation, with a My Studio for managing one’s own broadcast and admission settings and public studios that remain available even when no host is present; a menu lets users jump into other studios that are currently streaming. Room, introduced in the November 12, 2020 update, adds contact and collision detection through colliders, supports VCI objects that persist when the room itself is switched, and includes multiple My Rooms per user for creation, invitations, public settings, and whitelists. Stream cameras let a user flip between an VR view of the desktop rendering from their own perspective and a live broadcast fed through the camera. None of this requires a headset: Direct View Mode runs the whole thing from a PC monitor, which widens the pool of people who can be sold a license.
Cultural Impact
A stream is a one-way performance. Virtual Cast made it a two-way one. The drop-in function lets a VR visitor walk directly into another streamer’s broadcast, toggleable at the host’s discretion, and viewer submissions push Twitter posts along with niconico Live and SHOWROOM comments and images into the space itself. The audience stops being a scrolling column of text and becomes something that occupies the room and can be touched.
That design pulled the service into places the operators did not have to build themselves. The tool set supports niconico Live, YouTube Live, OPENREC.tv, TwitCasting, Twitch, SHOWROOM, and REALITY, and on niconico the software appears not only in user and channel broadcasts but repeatedly in official programs featuring virtual YouTubers. THE SEED ONLINE extended the same logic past Virtual Cast’s own walls by registering VRM and VCI data that other services — Custom Cast and SHOWROOM V among them — could use, and through TSO an app from Virtual Cast, Inc. brought AR display into the picture at the end of March 2021. The company has also presented the software as a communication channel for educational institutions and remote work, with deployment planned at N High School and S High School, run by Dwango Gakuen, and in AR it offered polaris, a system that composites a real concert venue with streamed footage in real time.
The numbers attached to that reach were not the flattering kind at first. Dwango’s operation of the Virtual Cast system with Infinite Loop produced a first-term net loss of 156.5 million yen for July through December 2018, prompting the April 22, 2019 pivot to the new business TUNEDiD and the April 15, 2019 dissolution of the VTuber subsidiary Rido and of Watanabe Amaduction, which operated Hayamura Yu, to offset the deficit. On October 1, 2019, roughly 1 billion yen came in through third-party allotment and other means to expand development and operations. By October 1, 2023, when the new structure was announced — capital ties with Infinite Loop dissolved, headquarters moved to Tokyo, president Kentaro Matsui and Miyumiyu stepping down, LOGIC&MAGIC representative Togi Ota taking the presidency — the business-to-business side had reached the point where profitability was in sight, and the company said it would move from engineers’ passive promotion toward active promotion aimed at pulling in users across many more fields. The stage had been built for a comment box. It turned out the comment box was a market.