Qualcomm Incorporated announced a strategic relationship with the Interactive Entertainment Group (IEG) of Tencent to build a VR/AR focused innovation centre in China. The collaboration aims to accelerate development in mobile VR and AR gaming to improve its quality for China’s huge consumer base.

Qualcomm and Tencent aim to meet the increasing consumer demand for higher quality mobile VR/AR content. Zhiming Nie, General Manager, Interactive Entertainment R&D Department, Tencent said, “The joint innovation center will attempt to fully utilize Qualcomm Wireless Communication Technologies (China) Ltd’s latest technologies and mobile devices based on Snapdragon, to develop and optimize more superior gaming products for Chinese players.”

The companies recognise the potential of mobile VR/AR, and wish to capitalise on its advantages. Adrian Ong, Vice President, Business Development, Qualcomm China said, “As virtual and augmented reality deployment accelerates, mobile has many distinct advantages, such as making it possible to enjoy incredibly immersive wirelessly virtually anywhere you go, along with the scale of a large existing customer base.”

China continues to grow into the most promising of VR/AR markets, and is now becoming a hotspot for research and development. Last week, HTC and the Shenzhen Municipal Government set up a $1.45 billion Shenzhen VR Investment Fund to accelerate R&D in VR’s core technologies.