Virtual Reality developers team up to foster future technology in the Immersive Technology Alliance

A non-profit games collective known as the Immersive Technology Alliance is helping to bring together members of the games industry to help foster the development of games using augmented reality, virtual reality, 3D and gesture control technology, Venture Beat reports.

The alliance, which was previously known as the S3DGA, so far includes Technical Illusions, maker of the CastAR augmented-reality gaming solution, and Avegant, maker of the Glyph virtual retinal display headset. Other include Epson, GameFace Labs, Big Blue Bubble, I'm in VR, YEI Technology, Electronic Arts, Jon Peddie Research, MTBS3DS, Crew Communications, TGC, HDMI, Harvard University, BBB, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Next3D, Digital Extremes, Survios, Vrelia, Virtuix Omni, and Nanoveu.

High-profile virtual reality company Oculus VR has recently dropped out of the alliance, however.

"There was confusion on March 13 about whether Oculus was a member of the Immersive Technology Alliance," said an Oculus spokesman in a statement. "We've spoken with the ITA's leadership and clarified that we are not, and have not been, a member of the group. We appreciate the ITA moving so quickly to correct their website and media to reflect this."

ITA executive director Neil Schneider states it's not clear why Oculus, which was previously part of the alliance, has since dropped out.

"Oculus was a paying member in the non-profit alliance, (Oculus founder) Palmer Luckey had been involved in a private advisory capacity to help transition S3DGA to the newly named ITA (with others from other member companies), and their logo was on the site without question until yesterday," Schneider said.

"They were also informed of the GDC ITA meeting and invited to speak; though we were advised they couldn't do it because of a scheduling conflict, and would try to attend if time permitted. We got our first official notification of them leaving the alliance late in the evening on March 15th. We have since removed Oculus' logos from The ITA website. We'd welcome Oculus' membership as we would anyone else's — and they are encouraged to revisit this when they are ready."

The Immersive Technology Alliance is expected to be unveiled this week at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.