“Virtual reality porn will make 2D porn obsolete.”

It's a bold statement, but if anyone is going to make it, Alec Helmy is more qualified than most. The founder and president of the adult industry's leading news website, XBIZ, Helmy has his finger on the, erm, pulse – and a year on from that prediction and the soothsayer of smut appears to have been somewhat vindicated.

Of course, 2D porn is far from obsolete, but if the first forays into virtual reality porn are anything to go by, the industry appears to be about to take a significant evolutionary step.

In tech circles, every year is the year of something; last year it was wearable fitness trackers, a couple of years before that it was those giant curved TVs (that nobody bought). 2016, finally, is going to be the year virtual reality goes mainstream.