While playing Marvel’s Spider-Man recently, we were once again sucked into the game’s incredible photo mode. While this feature is common in many games, there isn’t a place to share these images, aside from Reddit, Discord and our headers.

That is changing as Flickr has now launched a Virtual Photography category where creators can upload images created in games or other virtual environments.

“When you upload content to Flickr, you need to choose where it ‘fits,’ a category that accurately describes what you’re sharing. Until now, Flickr offered three options for content categorization: photos, illustration/art, and screenshots. Today, we’re introducing a fourth category, virtual photography, because ‘screenshots’ didn’t quite meet the needs of this creative and growing community,” writes community manager at Flickr, Leticia Roncero.

While your first thought when hearing “virtual environments” might be the metaverse, that’s not what Flickr had in mind. In a blog post, the image hosting platform explains that this category was created to serve two type of virtual photography – general video game photography and photography in Second Life.

We suspect that talk of the metaverse did have some influence here but seeing a game that launched in 2003 mentioned by name alongside the release of a new feature is, well, surprising.

Flickr has also said that virtual photography will be included in its World Photography Day contest so you could stand a chance to win some prizes. Entries for that contest close on 19th September so head here to submit your entry.

We’re keen to share and see some of the incredible captures folks have taken over the years flooding Flickr now that there is an official category.