USA Today's Emerging Tech Director Talks Interactive Storytelling Digital Trends

For Thursday, December 20, on Digital Trends Live, our host Greg Nibler sat down with the Director of Emerging Tech for USA Today, Ray Soto, to talk about how the news organization is using virtual reality and augmented reality to create compelling interactive stories. Soto started his career as a video game developer, never imaging he would enter the world of VR. "I did not expect to get into creative storytelling within USA Today and news, but when I think about, it's a perfect fit, virtual reality and augmented reality the tools are very similar to what you find in the video game industry. When you consider my background -- video game developer -- we are passionate about telling stories. It was definitely a transition, it was a challenge, because when you consider video games being highly creative, in the news space you can't make stuff up, so there was quite a bit of a learning curve but something that I very much appreciate having the opportunity to make that transition from video games into creative storytelling. The conversation about integrating VR started five years ago and the initial challenge was finding how it would fit in the world of USA Today. "The conversations really started off with what do we do with this platform, that provides a unique perspective for the audience.