Apple’s New VR Headset Has Everyone Seeing Ready Player One (& Not In A Good Way)

Following the unveiling of the Apple Vision Pro, the company’s new futuristic VR headset, Twitter users have been quick to draw similarities to 2018’s Ready Player One. Based on the novel of the same name by Ernest Cline, Ready Player One is directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cookie, and Ben Mendelsohn. The science fiction adventure film takes place in the future largely in a virtual world known as the OASIS, which users access through headsets.

At the company’s recent WWDC 2023 keynote event, the company unveiled the Apple Vision Pro headset, which allows users to use apps, watch content, and otherwise interact with an augmented reality. Users on Twitter were quick to compare not just the headset but also the specific framing and shot choice used in the video presentation to elements of Ready Player One, and not everyone is feeling good about the new device. Check out some of the tweets below:

How Similar Is The Apple Vision Pro To Ready Player One?

While, on the surface, the Apple Vision Pro looks a lot like the headsets in Ready Player One, their functions are quite different. In the Spielberg film, for example, the headsets are a portal to a virtual reality world known as the OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation). The Vision Pro, on the other hand, seemingly isn’t connected to a shared “metaverse” in which the user interacts with other users, and is mostly a way to interact with apps, take pictures, and watch content.

That alone, then, makes the two products very different, but it’s not hard to see the Vision Pro as one step closer to this eventual reality. In Ready Player One, the world is overpopulated, polluted, and generally not in a great state. The OASIS, then, is where vast swathes of the population go to escape, forgoing real-world interaction in favor of living in a more fantastical space where they can be whoever they want to be. Some Twitter users above make clear that this reality is not one that humanity should be striving toward.

It should also be mentioned that one of the key themes of Ready Player One is the dangers of capitalism. Sheridan’s main character, for example, is attempting to secure control of the OASIS so that a large tech corporation can’t flood it with ads. Considering Apple is one of the largest technology companies in the world, it’s not hard to see why some Twitter users are approaching the new device with a measure of apprehension.

Source: Various/ Twitter (see above)