The term "walled garden" describes a platform where the content inside is tightly controlled. Steam is a walled garden; Valve has to let you on the platform. The iPhone and iPad app stores are walled gardens, as Apple has strict controls about what kind of content runs and is released on the hardware.
The Oculus Rift, as has been previously reported, is not a walled garden.
The question of adult content almost always comes up when I discuss virtual reality with individuals both inside and outside the gaming industry, but it's rarely discussed openly at events like Oculus Connect.
I asked Oculus' Nate Mitchell about pornography on the hardware, and there are two sides to his answer: They won't allow it on the store, and they won't stop it outside of their platform.
"We're actively barring, prohibiting adult entertainment content from being in the store, period," he said. "If you're on the Oculus platform, there's none of that content. We have a zero tolerance policy for that."
So Oculus itself won't be in the business of selling or profiting from pornography, but there's nothing stopping other people from creating or selling adult virtual reality content on their own sites or storefronts.
"The Rift's hardware SDK is open," Mitchell explained. "But as for content that we're offering to people, and anything that's on what we would consider to be on the Oculus platform, we don't offer, we prohibit it."
This is important
Adult virtual reality content will help drive adoption of the technology, even if few people are willing to talk about using the hardware for this purpose. Oculus will benefit from an ecosystem where porn is just one more form of content that's available on the device.
There are too many downsides to selling it themselves, but keeping the hardware open so anyone can develop and release adult content is a big deal. The store may be a walled garden, but the Rift itself is open; a peripheral that anyone can support and developer for with or without the support of of Oculus.
It also means those goofy experiences that show you things like the apartment in Seinfeld can continue. Oculus can't allow infringing content on its store, but people can still make fun things that use existing characters or properties and release them for free themselves. An open ecosystem is a good thing, and it benefits everyone ... not just people looking for adult content.