You didn't misread that -- PC gaming giant Sid Meier's Civilization VI is available now, in its entirety, for iPad. All of history is now at your fingertips.
The post ‘Civilization VI’ for iPad brings the full sweep of history to your fingertips appeared first on Digital Trends.
Expanding the media player capabilities of the Xbox One even further, an early version of Kodi has launched on the Xbox One store, just without all the bells and whistles of the PC version.
The post Kodi is now available for the Xbox One, with some limitations appeared first on Digital Trends.
A few months ago VRFocus reported on Dutch production studio House of Secrets plans to release a virtual reality (VR) platformer for Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Rift called KIN. The mobile launch has now taken place, with the PC version due to appear sometime in January 2018.
KIN is a highly stylized VR puzzle platformer where you’ll traverse the remnants of an ancient civilization on a distant planet. As the story and the alien landscapes unfold, your character, a small mysterious girl with big hair clad in a bright dress must defeat enemies along the way, navigating the hostile terrain and completing the assortment of puzzles.
The abstract aesthetic seen in KIN is very similar to House of Secrets other VR projects, such as APEX and Surge. The former is an animated VR music video which premiered at the Tribeca film festival in April of 2017, and can be found on Steam and the Oculus Store. The latter is a real-time VR music video which showcases a seamless fusion between music and visual effects, transporting the viewer into a world caught in a permanent sunset, inhabited by mysterious abstract creatures.
KIN is available now for Gear VR on Oculus Store for £7.99 GBP. For Oculus Rift, House of Secrets has simply given a launch window of January 2018. When VRFocus receives a more concise date we’ll let you know.
HTC may have decided to abandon its plans for a mobile headset with Google but Lenovo still seem to be going strong, with a recent FFC filing showcasing a new headset called the Mirage Solo, which would utilise the Daydream platform.
If the Mirage name sounds slightly familiar then you’d be right, slightly confusingly the Lenovo Mirage is the company’s augmented reality (AR) headset which comes bundled with Star Wars: Jedi Challenges. Discovered by Lets Go Digital, the same site which found the Vive Focus trademark, the FCC test report doesn’t list a massive amount of amazing information, simply confirming the name: Lenovo Mirage Solo with Daydream, model number: the Lenovo VR-1541F and that’ll come equipped with a 4.000 mAh Li-Ion battery plus Bluetooth 5.0 support. None of the documents reveal which processor is to be used, so depending on cost possibly either the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 or maybe the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, just like the Vive Focus.
While the documents certainly help to solidify the fact that Lenovo has another headset in the works, as and when it’s going to appear is another matter. The first time it was mentioned was during the Google I/O conference in conjunction with HTC. With CES 2018 just over a week away Lenovo will probably use the event to officially unveil the Mirage Solo – or a little later during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) which has seen VR increase its presence. After which, if a release window isn’t revealed, customers could be waiting until Winter 2018 to get their hands on the device.
This might be fine when it comes to Vive Focus which HTC has officially confirmed for release in China next year – with a western launch still a grey area. Yet there are more standalone headsets on the way. Oculus Go is due for release early 2018 – but doesn’t feature inside-out tracking (Mirage Solo should include Google’s WorldSense) – and then there’s Pico Neo which is compatible with Vive Wave.
2018 is certainly shaping up to be a wire free year for VR, with VRFocus attending CES 2018 to bring you the first details on the latest announcements as they happen.
Virtual reality can never be too immersive, at least until we get to something like the Star Trek Holodeck. While VR’s visuals and sound make you feel like you’re wandering in a 3D space, the feeling disappears the second you touch something. That’s why Haptx is the latest company to try to tackle this problem — with haptic gloves that enable you to feel things that you touch in VR.
VR has been slow in taking off with consumers, and it just might take another generation or two of the technology before it lives up to its potential. Haptic technology, which could really bring the force feedback and sensation of touch, might be necessary in the next generation of VR systems.
Jake Rubin, CEO of Seattle-based Haptx, showed me his company’s haptic gloves at the recent VRX event in San Francisco. I could feel the texture, size, weight, and impact of objects in a virtual environment. It enables tactile feedback, force feedback, and motion tracking.
Above: Haptx lets you feel a fox walking across your hand.
Rubin said the company’s Haptx Skin is a microfluidic smart textile that delivers high fidelity tactile feedback. The gloves have more than 100 points where air bubbles can be inflated to displace your skin and make you feel something as you move your hand through the virtual world. Haptx combines this with motion-tracking technology to figure out where your hand is in a 3D space and the kind of feedback it should send to your hand.
“We have proprietary algorithms that simulate interaction with any virtual object,” Rubin said. “There are no electronic motors in the glove. It is microfluidics.”
The demo showed me a farm in VR. I could run my fingers through strands of grain in a field and feel them on my skin. I could touch the clouds in the sky, and the stars as well, and each felt different, due to different resistive forces. A fox jumped into my hand as I held it open. That was a lot more fun than feeling the eight legs of a spider walking across my hand.
I asked if the spider would bite me.
“We found that was a little much for people,” Rubin said.
Raindrops fell on my hand, and as the drops bounced on my hand, I could feel them. I was giggling while it was happening. For the finale, a bunch of UFOs invaded the farm and I had to knock them out of the way. Each time I hit one, I could feel its force on my hand.
“It’s the haptic equivalent of a visual display,” Rubin said. “Instead of a pixel that changes color, you have a pixel that changes pressure. We have a high-density, high-displacement, and high-bandwidth solution in a light and thin package.”
I used the demo with an HTC Vive VR headset that was connected by wire to a big box. That box controls the flow of air into the glove, which also had a custom sensor attached to it. The glove has panels in the palm and fingers, allowing you to feel the shape texture of objects. There’s a force feedback exoskeleton in the fingers with microfluidic actuators that apply resistance to your fingers as you grab things.
Above: You can feel the rocks and the wheat in this demo with a Haptx Skin glove.
The glove is still a prototype, and it’s pretty bulky. But it sure beats a rumble game controller, which is used in video game systems today but isn’t very useful in enterprise applications. And it’s a proof of concept demonstrating that the tech can fit in a glove.
“Haptics today are limited to vibrations, which buzz when you touch something,” Rubin said. “It doesn’t tell you anything about the size, shape, and texture. We believe microfluidics can displace your skin in the same way that happens in real life. It is augmented with force feedback to provide resistance.”
Right now, the system can only handle one glove, but soon it will handle two. The company hopes to ship Haptx gloves to its first 20 customers in the middle of 2018. After that, it will scale up full production.
“We’re already talking to top studios, intellectual property creators, theme parks, and arcades,” Rubin said. “Those will be some of our first customers. Initially, we’re focused on location-based entertainment.”
The initial applications will be arcades and theme parks. Beyond gaming, the company is looking at markets in entertainment, design, manufacturing, and training.
Rubin started the company in 2012 with cofounder Bob Crockett, who heads the biomedical department at Cal Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. Rivals include Dexta Robotics, Tactai, and Ultrahaptics. Years ago, Jaron Lanier’s data gloves were tracking systems only, and they tracked only one kind of motion.
Haptx raised $9 million in funding from NetEase, Dawn Patrol Ventures, the Virtual Reality Company, Keeler Investment Group, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, Disney Imagineering executive Jon Snoddy, Digital Kitchen founder Paul Matthaeus, and others.
The company has more than 30 people. It previously operated under the name AxonVR.
This post by Dean Takahashi originally appeared on VentureBeat.
Tagged with: Haptx
A New Year is almost upon us, for many this means that soon the Holiday break will be over and it will be time to return to work. Perhaps the dawning of another year will mean it is time to look for new opportunities. With virtual reality (VR) an ever-growing industry, now might be a good time to see what is available and see if there’s a suitable role out there for you.
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Location |
Company |
Role |
Link |
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Bristol, UK |
VR Star |
VR Games Content Tester |
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London, UK |
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Product Manager, Social VR |
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Luton, UK |
AiSolve |
Creative Producer and Technical Director, Virtual Reality |
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Luton, UK |
AiSolve |
Graphics Programmer |
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Menlo Park, California |
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Product Specialist |
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Menlo Park, California |
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Product Manager |
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San Francisco, California |
Great Wave Tech |
Unity Developer |
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New York |
Verizon |
Augmented and Virtual Reality Product Manager |
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Lutterworth, UK |
Holovis |
Solutions Architect, Virtual Reality Experience Designer |
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Lutterworth, UK |
Holovis |
Software Engineer |
Click Here to Apply |
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Lutterworth, UK |
Holovis |
Graduate AutoCAD Technician |
Click Here to Apply |
You can check out last week’s VR Job Hub for further listings and if you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should to be send to myself at keva@vrfocus.comand also pgraham@vrfocus.com.
The VR Job Hub will be back on VRFocus in the New Year.
It's been said that good artists borrow, but great artists steal. That's true nowhere more than in game design. Here are 10 great ideas from this year's best games, which we hope someone steals and re-purposes in 2018.
The post Dear game designers: Please rip off these brilliant game ideas from 2017 appeared first on Digital Trends.
Christmas is past, and many people no doubt peeked under the Christmas tree to find a shiny new PlayStation VR waiting for them, some of which may well have been obtained during Black Friday, judging by the listed sales figures.
For those looking to spend their gift money on some titles for their new PlayStation VR, or veteran owners looking for a good deal, all could do worse than to cast an eye over these end-of-year deals on the PlayStation Store.
A riotous VR party game. One person is ensconced in VR, looking at a bomb about to go off. Another person, out of VR, has the instructions. Players have to learn to quickly and effectively communicate, or… well… kaboom.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is available for £5.79, a 51% discount.
Players of Tethered are placed in the role of a spirit guardian who is trying to release other guadians who have been trapped by evil energy. To do this, players must solve puzzles and gather resources from across the beautiful hand-painted islands with the help of loyal servants, the ‘peeps’ who can be sent to do certain tasks to help you in your goal.
Tethered is available for £7.39, a 61% discount.
Fast-paced rhythm game Thumper was a launch title for the PlayStation VR. Gameplay involves steering a small ship through a course filled with psychedelic colour, moving always with the beat of the music, which gradually becomes increasingly complex.
Thumper is available for £6.49, a 59% discount.
One of the PlayStation VR’s earliest contenders for an eSports title, RIGS: Mechanised Combat League is a first-person arena shooter where players take control of powerful robotic battlers to take part in a futuristic sport that mixes elements of combat, motorsport, basketball and football.
RIGS: Mechanised Combat League is available for £11.99, a 52% discount.
This puzzle-platform title from Psytec Games is expecting a sequel at some point in 2018, so now is a good chance to experience the original. Players need to plot a route through a stylised, hard-angled landscape by running, jumping or swinging using a grappling hook. The result is a system that is easy to learn, but tricky to master.
Windlands is available for £7.39, a 61% discount.
Scarcely needing an introduction is Rebellion’s VR remake of the classic 1980s Atari title where you take control of a Tron-inspired tank and go around shooting other tanks and enemy towers to bits. The developers regularly introduce updates, so there’s often a new challenge to take on.
Battlezone is available for £9.99, a 71% discount.
Dark winter nights are perfect for some horror in VR. Weeping Doll is a dark, story-based experience that challenges players to explore various creepy environments and solve tricky puzzles as a sinister doll, fueled by all the negative thoughts of an abused child seeks to take revenge on the parents responsible.
Weeping Doll is available for £3.29, a 58% discount.
Want to improve your football skills? (Or soccer skills, for our American readers), then Headmaster is here to help. With a framing device of an unexpectedly prison-like ‘Football Improvement Centre’, the player is subjected to several lessons aimed at improving various football skills, including an option to engage in 6-player local multiplayer in a ‘pass-and-play’ high score challenge.
Headmaster is available for £7.39, a 53% discount.
British development studio nDreams had its first big-budget VR title with the release of puzzle-based adventure The Assembly, which combines a relatively simple gameplay with a series of moral dilemmas as players explore a mysterious underground bunker.
The Assembly is available for £9.79, a 51% discount.
For those who have purchased, or been given, a new PlayStation VR and are unsure what genre of type of videogame to try first, there is the option of getting a compilation title such as PlayStation VR Worlds, which offers a variety of VR experiences to try, including the highly praised ‘The London Heist‘.
PlayStation VR Worlds is available for £11.99, a 52% discount.
Digital Domain, the visual effects and virtual reality (VR) experience company which has been hired to create VR solutions for a new TV drama called Ten Years Late and previously made Monkey King, has revealed its VR original Micro Giants is to be featured at the New Frontier exhibition of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.
Created by Digital Domain’s Greater China team, Micro Giants takes viewers into the tiny world of insects and plants, featuring an immersive narrative about a micro-ecosystem that includes vivid details and beautiful design.
“We thank the organizers of the film festival for giving us this opportunity. To be recognized shows off Digital Domain’s VR strength and creativity, but also helps to showcase the accomplishments of the Chinese VR community. I’m thrilled to see that Digital Domain can showcase more regional talent on the international stage with an original VR creation like ‘Micro Giants’,” said Daniel Seah, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Digital Domain. “As another original IP for Digital Domain, ‘Micro Giants’ has fully demonstrated our top artistic creativity and advanced VR technology. Since we entered the VR market, Digital Domain has expanded from only B2B to achieving remarkable results in B2C. As ‘Micro Giants’ receives this international honor, we’re even more confident of, and holding higher expectations for, the future of our VR business.”
Yifu Zhou, the Director of Micro Giants and current Creative Director at Digital Domain Greater China, joined Digital Domain in 2013, venturing into VR in 2016 with projects like TFBOYS’ VR music video The Big Dreamer, the live broadcast of Faye Wong’s Moments Live concert using VR special effects, and the VR extra of the film Legend of the Naga Pearls.
“We’ve been trying to make today’s films more viable and more diverse through VR, said Zhou. “Micro Giants is completely produced through CG, using 360-degree animation to unveil the secret world in forests and under grasses as vividly as it can be. This is made possible by the clever artistic conceptualization and extraordinary skills of our team. I’m very pleased to see that this creation can be recognized by the Sundance Film Festival. This not only is encouraging to Digital Domain’s Greater China team, but also will further inspire the enthusiasm of Chinese artists around the world for VR creation.”
The Sundance Film Festival takes place from 18th – 28th January 2018 in Park City, Utah. As further VR creations are unveiled for the festival, VRFocus will keep you updated.
So obviously Christmas Day has come and gone and we’re only a small period of time away from 2018. By the time this goes out some people will already be in the following year whilst we’re all kicking about in 2017 still. Talk about being behind the times, huh?
Now considering the day I could probably find something appropriate online for you to enjoy. Sadly, there has yet to be a 360 degree version of Dinner For One made. Which feels like a missed opportunity, frankly. Someone please sort that out for this time next year. I’d hate for it to be the “same procedure as every year”.
But, whilst a 360 degree video of last year’s Hogmanay, or the fireworks shooting off and going kaboom over Sydney Harbour and the opera house that’s there I could probably locate. I do feel myself harking back to the idea of Christmas and Christmas celebrations. I don’t really want to let go just yet.
So, with that in mind we’re off in our little 360 degree time machine to Wesley Chapel, Florida in 2016 for a full on musical display courtesy of some Christmas trees. Or alternatively a lot of lights set in sequence to Wizards In Winter by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It’s a Symphony in Lights and it’s today’s Life In 360° video.
The five tree display is put on by the people at Wiregrass Mall (‘The Shops at Wiregrass’) and is, it seems, something of a tradition at this point. Should you look online you’ll find footage of the display from as far back as 2009 with merely a cursory search on YouTube. Of course, things were a bit more sedate and traditional in those days. Less rock music and more traditionally festive musical fayre. A few years later however, and the performing pines were rocking out with the best of them.
Here however ends Life In 360° for another year. Not that you have to wait long for us to resume our hunt for all things 360 degrees. Come back tomorrow at the same time to find out where our journey takes us next, here on VRFocus. But most importantly have a very happy New Year.
Pimax came to the attention of many virtual reality (VR) enthusiasts when it launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund an 8K VR headset. The phenomenal success of that campaign has apparently piqued the interest of investors, leading to a new injection of funds.
The Kickstarter campaign for the Pimax 8K headset completed with over $4 million (USD) in donations, vastly overshooting the original funding goal of $200,000 and unlocking a plethora of stretch goals for its backers, such a a choice of controller designs so users can pick between HTC Vive-style touchpad or a more traditional thumbstick. Other stretch goals included a comfort kit and prescription lenses for the visor.
Now, according to Chinese tech publication YiVian, Pimax has now announced that is has closed almost ￥100 million in Series A funding, led by Chinese firms O-Film and Tianma Bearing Group.
The Pimax Kickstarter campaign become the best-funded VR project on the crowd-funding platform, surpassing the $2.45 million raised by a similar campaign by Oculus. The huge amount of interest in the project appeared to prove that the public were eager to get hold of VR headsets with a large field-of-view and higher resolution, with both the 8K and 5K variants of the Pimax headset offering higher resolution displays that is currently available on even high-end VR headsets.
Pimax have confirmed through a Kickstarter update that that final design of the headset is locked and ready for manufacture, and that Pimax is now part of the OpenXR working group in an effort to make it simpler for developers to create content for the device.
It is expected that Pimax will use the new funding injection to scale its operations upwards and outwards, perhaps bringing the Pimax 8K headset to general commercial availability.
The first headsets are expected to ship to Kickstarter backers in early 2018. Further news on Pimax will be right here on VRFocus.
Whether you’ve had a busy Christmas or plan to have an even busier New Year, there’s always time to fit it some casual virtual reality (VR) gaming. This week German indie studio Zentrifuge has released its first VR title for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, a casual real-time strategy (RTS) title called void LINK.
Available through Steam Early Access, void LINK puts you in the role of a Field Co-ordinator’ working for an intergalactic mining consortium. It’s up to you to successfully run resource extraction operations in far-out regions of space, not only mining resources but also creating your own fleet and taking on hostiles as and when necessary.
With the fleet building, you don’t just gather resources to buy bigger and better ships, you can actually create your own custom ships. Zentrifuge has created a voxel-style editor so that every ship can be built using basic building blocks – Laser, Propulsion, Sensors, Armour, Missiles, Shield – however you like. The design can even done during battle, enabling players to counteract specific threats should they not already be equipped to do so.
The current early access version features both online gameplay to test your skills against friends, alongside a global leaderboard, and there’s also a single-player mode for you to practice against AI opponents. With early access expected to last up to 12 months, Zentrifuge plans on adding a total of 12 modules for ship building with reduced restrictions on how they can be applied. A short single-player campaign will be introduced to further explore the title away from PvP, and the AI opponents in practice play will offer more of a challenge.
The Steam Early Access title is available with a 40 percent launch discount until 3rd January. So HTC Vive and Oculus Rift owners can pick it up for £4.31 GBP rather than £7.19. For any further updates as void LINK continues development, keep reading VRFocus.
Virtual reality is taking off a little slow, but the team at Holospark is practicing its VR storytelling skills so that it can deliver cinematic moments the way that the best movies and games do.
The Bellevue, Washington-based VR studio has a half-dozen people on a Séance: The Unquiet, a ghost story set in VR. It hired a couple of actors for a demo that turned out to be both dramatic and spooky. Holospark is working on a ghost story for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR headsets. The team is using the Unreal game engine and the latest in Hollywood performance capture technology to create cinematic storytelling.
Séance will be a ghost story with characters, drama, scares, and dramatic music. I saw a demo of it and I was impressed with the detailed touches. The lip-syncing was good, and the eyes of the characters followed my own when I looked at them. The female character is like a fortune teller, and she gets into your personal space, as she sits across the table from you, as she tells you about a dream she has.
“It shows you the power of the medium,” said Bruce Sharp, VR art director at Holospark, in an interview with GamesBeat. “When they get in your personal space, it gets uncomfortable.”
“That deepens your connection with the characters,” said Séance co-creator John Scott Tynes, who is executive producer on the project.
You’ll be rewarded if you interact with the actors by looking from one face to another. For instance, one might wink at you while the other is talking. Or maybe you can raise your glass in a toast when the characters ask you to do so. The intent is to make the character look more realistic the closer the person is to you in the 3D space of VR.
“We want to work on characters who feel present and deliver an emotional performance like you haven’t seen before in VR,” said Sharp. “We capture the performance of the actors and make it feel real. The characters see you and react to you. We think the character presence will make this into mainstream entertainment.”
Above: Séance: The Unquiet is a demo of a new kind of VR entertainment.
Sharp and Tynes think of their upcoming VR creation not so much as a video game but as a new medium. It’s more like an episodic TV show in VR.
“We want to create dynamic moments of interactivity, like a ghost passing through you,” Tynes said. “We used two veteran actors and captured it, put it into the Unreal system, and they will make you feel a part of a studio. It’s built from the ground up for this new medium.”
Holospark previously created The Impossible Travel Agency, which combines classical music and other worldly visuals in VR.
“VR is like an amplifier of immersion and talent,” Sharp said.
Tynes is optimistic about VR because Facebook plans to launch its $200 Oculus Go headset in 2018, helping to bring down the price of VR to mass market levels.
“We’re eyeing holiday 2019 as a time when the second and third-generation VR devices hit the market and reach a mainstream audience,” Tynes said. “We see an opportunity to do awesome entertainment, like a TV series in VR. It will be immersive and accessible to people, much like they just access a TV series on Netflix.”
So far, Séance is just a demo, but it looks pretty good. Holospark has been playing with the ideas for storytelling in VR for a couple of years.
The studio has a long way to go, but I liked what they’ve shown me so far. They’re looking to find partners to help them create this new kind of entertainment. With adequate funding, Séance could turn into a bigger project.
“When you think about it, when Darth Vader cuts off Luke Skywalker’s hand in Star Wars, the person with the best view of the action is the actor,” Sharp said. “And you can get that kind of view in anything except VR.”
This post by Dean Takahashi originally appeared on VentureBeat.
Tagged with: holospark, The Unquiet
Virtual reality developers have to be creative to survive the VR desert, where sales haven’t kept up with expectations. So Vander Caballero, founder of Minority Media and creator of the VR game Time Machine VR, has adopted a new strategy to get through the tough times.
Montreal-based Minority Media, which also created the groundbreaking PSN title Papo Y Yo in 2012, has created the four-player VR game Chaos Jump for virtual reality arcades. VR arcades are starting to thrive in places like China, and they may become a viable business for VR game developers who are awaiting broader adoption of home VR headsets. It’s a strategy that many developers are thinking about, but Minority Media is busy executing on it, said Caballero, in a talk and an interview at the recent MIGS 2017 game conference in Montreal.
Above: Players try Chaos Jump at MIGS 2017.
It’s as good a survival strategy as any, and some kind of strategy is in order because too many VR startups got funding under the overhyped hopes for VR from 2014 to 2016. When sales came out to be a pittance of expectations in 2016 and 2017, investors scaled back and stopped pouring money into every VR startup that came along. Some startups are failing. Some are getting acquired, and others like Minority Media are figuring out how to generate revenues.
Roughly 8.4 million VR units have sold, but 4.9 million of those are Samsung Gear VR mobile devices, Caballero said.
“Some of us will die on the climb up the mountain,” Caballero said. “Some of us will reach the top. It’s growing slowly, and people are sad that it’s not picking up as they thought when there were crazy expectations. We’re in this period of people wondering, ‘Why do I need a VR headset?’”
Minority Media’s approach was always to create original content, coming from the days of Papa Y Yo, which was loosely based on Caballero’s alcoholic father. After the success of that game, cofounder Julian Barnoin and Caballero saw a demo of the Oculus Rift. They fell in love with it and got their hands on a dev kit. They started making games for it, and then Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion in 2014. They wanted to make games for everyone. They didn’t want anyone to get sick, and they wanted it to be the highest quality. So they build Time Machine VR, which took players back to an undersea adventure with monstrous sea creatures.
Minority Media’s Time Machine VR, debuted in May 2016 on the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. It also came out later on the PSVR and Gear VR. It was only one of an estimated 30 games that cleared $1 million in revenues, hauling in $1.2 million. That was enough to keep the company afloat, along with grants from the Canadian government. The company was happy to have one of the few titles that got some traction, and it received good reviews regarding the game’s quality. The next game, The Other Room, also got good reviews, but it had almost no sales.
Above: Vander Caballero talks about VR arcade games at MIGS 2017.
“We learned that VR is a moving target,” Caballero said. “You get new technology every six months that may change your game or make it obsolete. Retention of users is hard, and they expect a lot of the titles to be free. The lifespan of games is maybe two months to three months.”
That was when the company entered into its period of “rage and despair,” along with the rest of the industry, Caballero said.
“During that time is when you get your greatest learning,” he said. “I asked why are we here. VR is such an amazing technology.”
He added, “Santa Clause is not happening. We asked if the potential of VR was misunderstood. It was like the 5-cent admission that movie theaters charged in 1905. Nobody wanted to pay. People didn’t get it. With VR, this is like a dragon breathing VR at small companies.”
But Caballero saw different patterns for VR in China, where people go outside of their homes for entertainment. His company partnered with D-Box, a maker of a VR chair, to debut the Time Machine VR in HTC’s Viveland Arcades.
“It’s doing really well in China,” Caballero said.
In the arcades, players may pay something like $1 for 10 minutes, or less. They don’t have to buy VR headsets and laptops that together cost more than $1,500 just to get started.
Minority Media’s next title is Chaos Jump Squad. I tried it out at MIGS 2017 at a demo booth. It was an action-packed experience, where you have to go back in time, shoot a bunch of drones that attack you, steal a bunch of gold, and then escape with your haul back to present day. You can play both cooperatively and competitively with three other players at the same time. The one who makes it back with the most gold wins. It’s a sweaty experience that you can play in 10 minutes.
Above: Chaos Jump
Caballero said this kind of experience could be a way to make arcade fans happy and generate enough revenue to make it through the period of rage and despair, toward “a new hope.”
As for the future of VR, Caballero believes we’ll use it to “buy memories.” A couple of friends will go to a simulation room and get the experience of climbing Mount Everest together. They’ll buy tickets, much like they do for The Void’s experience in New York, and get a full VR experience with things like motion-tracking rigs, tactile, walls, special effects, and a room-size experience. That is a turnkey solution, kind of like how arcade machine makers delivered an entire box to the arcades.
“That’s where it’s going to go,” Caballero said. “It will be more meaningful, with more haptic feedback, and motion sickness goes to zero. It will be realistic and easy to use.”
This post by Dean Takahashi originally appeared on VentureBeat.
Tagged with: minority media
Game delays are inevitable. Every year some of the games we're most excited about wind up taking longer than expected to ship. As we move into the new year, we take an early look at some of the games that may get pushed back.
The post Here are 8 games we think might get delayed in 2018 appeared first on Digital Trends.
It’s almost the end of 2017, a year that has seen many new developments in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) along with its related technologies. A dizzying number of sports teams covering a very wide variety of sports have taken to these technologies to engage with fans, train players and even help with rehabilitation after injury.
It’s going to be pretty interesting to see what 2018 will hold, but 2017 still has a couple more stories to tell.
American football stadiums are gigantic, vast theatres of concrete and steel that tries to host the vast number of fans of the NFL. But even these giant edifices can’t hold all the fans of a given team, and even if that were possible, not all fans can travel.
As reported by Sport Techie, NFL team the Minnesota Vikings have come up with a solution to this by partnering with VR content company Zeality to create a VR app for the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR that lets users explore the Vikings’ home at U.S. Bank Stadium in 360-degrees, with footage from every home game played there since it opened in 2016 available to view through the app.
“Virtual reality and 360 content is very important to our organization,” said Scott Kegley, Vikings Executive Director of Digital Media and Innovation, in a statement. “We understand only a small percentage of our large fan base is able to attend a Vikings game or event. We want to bring experiences to them, and immersive technology is allowing us to do that.”
Said Zeality co-Founder and CEO Dipak M. Patel in a statement: “The Vikings are not only innovating new ways of creating content using immersive media, they are also one of the leaders in delivering these experiences to their fans.”
Some moments in sports have gone down in history, becoming indelibly seared into the memories of those fortunate enough to witness them live. One such moment was the day Steve Waugh stunned everyone at the Sydney Cricket Ground to achieve what he described as his ‘perfect day’.
Despite critics saying he was off his from, and rumours of impending retirement, Waugh scored a century and surpassed 10,000 Test runs. That achievement has gone down in cricketing history, and has now been lovingly recreated in AR.
Waugh donned a motion-capture suit to re-create his famous innings in a project commissioned by the Sydney Cricket & Sports Ground Trust, and developed by technology partner Avanade. The app allows fans to use a mobile device to view an AR recreation of the moment. The experience will also be offered on HoloLens during the Ashes test in Sydney in January.
“It was actually a lot harder than I thought to recreate the shot because when you’re playing it’s just instinct, you don’t think about it. To mirror the exact trigger movements that accompany each shot was difficult to achieve as they were instinctive and not manufactured,” Waugh told CIO.
There will be more from This Week in VR Sport in the New Year.
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few years, you are probably well aware of the advancements in Virtual Reality (VR) – especially if you;ve been keeping track of things here on VRFocus. VR has definitely changed the way we view and interact with different technologies. It has now made its way to pretty much revolutionize the way we watch movies. While the technology continues to advance and become more mainstream, VR is definitely the present and the future of home entertainment.
Who doesn’t dream of having an IMAX theater at home? You know, the massive screen with in-depth clarity and sharpness which gives you the feeling as if the movie was being made in front of you. VR sort of gives you the IMAX experience at home, providing you with a gigantic screen in front of you, without there actually being a screen. When viewing a movie with a VR headset, the image basically takes the space of your complete view. This means you see nothing but the movie, giving you the ultimate viewing experience.
As the technology advances and as more movies are produced for optimal VR experience, we can certainly expect VR to take over home entertainment and possibly replace televisions.
Home entertainment enthusiasts tend to spend thousands of dollars on television or projection that provide exceptional picture quality. Spending a lot of money, just so they can feel like they are there. VR takes this “feeling of being there” to another level. It allows you to navigate on the screen, looking left, right, up, and down with the screen moving and showcasing exactly what you want to see. This capability will definitely revolutionize the way movies are watched with the element of interaction being added to it. VR based games have already taken advantage of this and while big production movies have not, in the near future we can certainly see them doing it.
We all have been there, being completely engrossed in a movie when, all of a sudden, a notification appears of a message on your phone or a call that takes your attention away.
VR allows you to keep little distractions away. Since you wear a headset, your view to the outside world is completely blocked off and you concentrate on the movie. The headphones also block off any external noise so you won’t be distracted much whether it is your phone ringing or someone walking in front of you. You can sit back and enjoy the movie with no distractions.
VR also presents a wonderful way for people that are generally on the move to catch up on movies. Since movies, in general, are digital, you can easily access them on your mobile phone by either downloading them or streaming them. There are numerous VR headsets that work well with mobile phones, they may not be the best as far as resolution goes but certainly better quality and viewing experience than just watching a movie on your mobile. VR being portable makes it easy for you to access the content anywhere.
So, where can you get VR content?
While the online libraries for VR content aren’t as extensive as we would have liked, we need to remember that VR is still developing. Both Hulu and Netflix have shows and movies that are compatible with VR so if you have a headset already or are planning to get one for your home, then you should definitely give them a try. On the Netflix VR app alone you can get a variety of TV shows and films to suit all ages and interests. Everything from the action of Black Hawk Down and the suspense of Jaws, to classic comedy films such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or family films such as Zootopia (or Zootropolis) and The Jungle Book. In the coming years, the digital library for VR content should continue to grow and match that of DVDs and Blu-ray.
All of which just leaves the headset itself. With Christmas approaching, we’re now at the point where VR systems are most definately a wishlist possibility and they make a wonderful gift. If you are considering to get the perfect system then you should certainly give the Oculus Rift a try – and why not, if you’re a home entertainment enthusiast, go the extra mile for the experience as the need to spend excess money on buying different devices for the perfect home entertainment system is no longer required. You don’t need to buy a projector, sound system, a screen and so on to have the ultimate movie experience. All you will need is a VR headset, a decent pair of headphones, and a comfortable recliner to get the optimal viewing and listening experience when watching your favorite movie at home. With Social VR also developing, you will be able to watch your favorite movies and shows with friends on VR headsets without being in the same room, which will only make the overall VR experience much better.
As we’ve seen on a couple of occasions in the last few months on our, normally, thrice weekly early morning look at 360 degree video in Life In 360° that (despite appearances often to the contrary) the medium isn’t all about someone filming an event somewhere or a short. Nor is it always some sort of promotional tie-in for a television programme, or a film, or something of that ilk. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I hasten to add. On those rare(r) occasions we do see something more creative that just film. We’ve seen adaptions of hand drawn animation, claymation, computer generated imagery to instruct, inform and entertain. Sometimes all three.
Today’s video gets creative with CG animation as we follow Norwegian animation house Putty Studios’ quirky creation as they do the one thing you should under no circumstances do in any kind of cartoon short: Push the red button. Although, in this instance it sets off something at least interesting – Rube Goldberg Machine.
If you’re familiar with the name but not what it does, such a concept is named after, you may not be surprised to learn, Rube Goldberg. A cartoonist and inventor. The whole point of a Rube Goldberg Machine is to do something relatively straightforward, except the number of steps taken are ridiculous in their number and over-complexity. A good example of this would be the machine in the board game Mouse Trap. No one in their right mind would employ such an overly elaborate device in reality just to catch mice.
Which is rather the point.
Anyway, it seems the fellow is intent on starting this machine. Seriously, no good will come of this action at all. At least you’re in the designated safety zone. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you. Just… don’t move. Eh?
There’s also a making of video as well from the Putty Studios team that you might want to see which shows the various stages of production. You can find that below. VRFocus will be back tomorrow at the same time for another example of 360 degree use. We’ll see you then.
In the tech world, a lot happens in a week. So much news goes on that it's almost impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of it. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of the top tech stories from this week.
The post Weekly Rewind: The best of 2017, the truth on eggnog, the future of photography appeared first on Digital Trends.
The HTC Vive Tracker is a weird peripheral for your VR setup. It’s a little black puck with tiny feet, like something you’d use to prop up furniture. What it does, though, is stranger still -- it brings physical objects into virtual reality.
The post HTC Vive Tracker Review appeared first on Digital Trends.
After successfully outrunning the Whiterun guards – not my first and certainly won’t be my last time hotfooting it from the law – I find myself on the trail of High Hrothgar looking for these Greybeards that the Jarl of Whiterun informed me of. They’ve been calling me. I heard them roar like thunder across the sky after I felled the dragon, and now I feel compelled to heed their call.
However, little did I know about just how recluse these weirdoes are. 7,000 steps you say? Pah. It felt like twice that.
I meet a few interesting people on my journey however; some delivery guy at the foot of the climb, a religious type who makes the pilgrimage to High Hrothgar every year, and a warrior who appears to be carrying some very fine jewellery. The latter of which I of course decide is too wealthy for her own good, and knowing that no one else is around I decide to relieve her of her burden by force. She puts up little resistance, and I find myself in possession of some rather tasty looking stolen goods.
I venture further and see no sign of the bears the delivery man’s friend had warned me about, though I do spy a frost troll lurking about. I manage to stay out of its way as I journey further, and upon reaching the top pf the mountain there is little to welcome me. A shrine with an empty chest? Who are these people?
Entering High Hrothgar the Greybeards quickly gather around me in a slightly intimidating manner. They assure me that all is well and enquire about my experiences with dragons, soon asking me to demonstrate the power I had gained. They too refer to this as a ‘shout’.
They endeavour to teach me more, offering me great power in the form of words. I’m along for the ride, but somewhere in the back of my mind I wonder where this is all leading. A second word for my shout that appears to break momentum, and an all new word that grants me a shout powerful enough to gain my own; why would these Greybeards be so keen to offer me this power with nothing in exchange?
It soon dawns on me that this isn’t a one-sided deal. The Greybeards have an objective, too. The hero that this land has slowly come to believe I can be is the agenda they too are pushing for. They present me with a quest and warn of the danger that lies ahead; talk of battling more dragons and becoming a hugely powerful being for the sake of all of Tamriel. This is not what I bargained for.
I leave High Hrothgar without the enthusiasm with which I arrived. This isn’t the life I was bargaining for. Perhaps it would’ve been better had my fate been determined by the executioner those five long days ago?
Google and Apple laid the groundwork in 2017 for larger augmented reality ambitions, but it is still unclear whether compelling AR glasses will arrive anytime soon.
Hundreds of millions of iPhones and Androids got updates providing high quality AR with Android’s ARCore and iOS’s ARKit this year. AR Stickers on Pixel phones are also inserting compelling droids and stormtroopers into fun photos and videos while Apple used face tracking for cool Animojis on iPhone X.
Using ARCore to insert a walker and BB-8 here at Lucasfilm. That’s a real @David_Jagneaux though. http://pic.twitter.com/SidzNJlv73
— Ian Hamilton (@hmltn) December 12, 2017
But there is a large technical gap between doing cool things with a phone screen and delivering a compelling AR experience directly to your eyes. Magic Leap is targeting 2018 for an initial AR headset release and Microsoft is reportedly looking at 2019 for the next version of its HoloLens AR headset. At $3,000, HoloLens is only making inroads for use in limited ways — for things like on-site training.
The field of view, cost and overall bulk of hardware required to deliver a complete AR experience remains an unsolved problem on the road to mass market appeal. We are likely still years away from having a personal assistant that walks down the aisles of the grocery store with you. There are notably AR headsets available already like those from ODG and Meta. But they are expensive and these initial systems aren’t taking off with general consumers.
ODG
“The field of view, the quality of the display itself, it’s not there yet,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said of AR earlier this year.
Cook told The Independent “I can tell you the technology itself doesn’t exist to do that in a quality way. The display technology required, as well as putting enough stuff around your face – there’s huge challenges with that.”
The Magic Leap system promised for 2018 looks steampunk and bulky (check out the image at the top of this post) even if it offloads work to a wired processing unit you’re supposed to keep attached to a pocket. Rony Abovitz, CEO and founder of the startup which first grabbed attention with a bizarre 2013 TEDx talk, has raised nearly $2 billion to fund Magic Leap including a hefty chunk from Google.
Even if Magic Leap fulfills it’s first public promise and delivers its system to creators in 2018, it will not be perfect.
“I spent a few minutes holding out first a credit card in front of my face and then my hands to try to be able to describe how big that invisible frame is. The credit card was much too small,” Rolling Stone’s Brian Crecente wrote about Magic Leap’s field of view. “I ended up with this: The viewing space is about the size of a VHS tape held in front of you with your arms half extended. It’s much larger than the HoloLens, but it’s still there.”
So if Magic Leap’s first headset isn’t perfect and Microsoft is not slated to ship its next AR headset until 2019, does the AR industry take off in the next 12 months? Excitement will certainly build for AR in 2018, but it is looking like most people will still experience it through the glass of their cell phone.
There is so much work to be done to miniaturize electronics for AR glasses while maximizing processing power and battery life. Meanwhile, features like blocking the view of a far away object with a nearby object are still lacking from most cell phone-based AR solutions. Right now you can stand next to a digital stormtrooper but a Pixel phone will not likely recognize that you’re walking in front of the character. This is something digital objects need to get right more often for really compelling AR.
Magic Leap is even setting expectations that its first headset will only work indoors initially. It is yet another huge technical problem to ensure a safe and smooth experience with an AR headset while out anywhere in the real world. You can’t have someone walk into traffic, for example, because the real cars were blocked by a digital Star Wars character.
VR kicks off 2018 with an all-in-one system that costs just $200 and will work great while seated and there are many innovations in store for wireless solutions to move about larger areas in VR. As the report of the death of a man in Russia suggests, though, knowing the world around you indoors or outdoors matters tremendously with VR and AR and improvements need to be made there across the board for increased safety and usability.
Millions of people will use VR and AR in 2018, but I’m guessing only VR will be seen through millions of headsets sold throughout the year.
Tagged with: Magic Leap, ODG
And that’s a wrap on 2017. We’ve played some amazing games in VR this year but, as always, we’re wondering what’s next. It’s a bit of a tradition here now to round up all the big releases we’re looking forward to in the coming year, so that’s exactly what we’ve done. This year’s list is the biggest one yet, and that’s without including scores of promising titles already in Early Access. With VR headsets now cheaper than they’ve ever been before, 2018 is shaping up to be a great year to jump in on the fun.
It might not be the full game, but Ace Combat 7’s VR mode still sounds like it will be a worthwhile and thrilling affair. Hop into the cockpit of an elite aircraft and pull of cinematic stunts as you engage in massive dogfights. We were hoping to play this in 2017, but delays suggest that developer Project Aces is making sure it nails the experience.
Imagine a world in which we use guns for everything; not just firefights but also our jobs in the doughnut factories, driving to work and more. The American Dream provides a bit of satire on the state of gun control in the US with what promises to be a thoughtful, memorable journey through a world gone mad.
Albino Lullaby’s first episode arrived alongside the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive a year and a half ago now, but we’re only just starting to learn about the next promising installment. This is a horror series that doesn’t rely on jump scares but instead psychological tricks that will keep you on your feet. We have high hopes for the second episode.
Once canceled but now back in development, the P.T.-inspired Allison Road still sounds like one of the most terrifying games on its way to VR headsets right now. We’re almost not looking forward to the game’s brand of terror, which doesn’t hold back on the jumps and screams. For the steel-hearted only.
The developers of Alvo knew what VR was missing, so they set out to build it for themselves. Alvo is a Counter-Strike-inspired multiplayer shooter that’s set to support a range of headsets and input mechanisms. We’re hoping for intense street shootouts in which we need to depend on teammates to take the upper hand.
A journey into the tricky subject of mental health, Anamorphine looks like one of 2018’s most unique and memorable VR experiences. Revisit the past of a troubled couple as they reach an impossible point in their lives, exploring dream-like memories. Will protagonist Tyler find a way to move forward with their lives or will he succumb?
There’s been a lot of archery in VR so far, but Apex Construct remains hugely promising by offering a full adventure based on that mechanic. We still have much to learn about this new world that’s seemingly overrun with robots, but we’re looking forward to uncovering more as the year goes on.
Ark Park may have quietly slipped away from its late-2017 release date but it’s not getting away from us that easily. This spin-off to Ark: Survival Evolved promises to make good on where that game’s VR support fell flat with a mix of educational exploration and team-based wave shooting. Maybe holding back until the year Jurassic World 2 releases was a good idea.
Senza Peso developer Kite & Lightning has been working on its first full VR game for some time now, but we’re hoping 2018 is the year we get to play it for ourselves. Set on a strange planet in which humans have stopped aging, deformed ‘Bebys’ battle it out for supremacy. The team’s recent work with facial capture on the iPhone X has been especially interesting to watch.
Sony London builds on what it learned with its popular London Heist demo here. Blood and Truth promises a full, highly-polished first-person shooter campaign on PSVR, with realistic shootouts thanks to PlayStation Move. Step into the shoes of a former SAS soldier and take the fight to the gangs of the UK capital in this sweary shooter.
We haven’t heard any more on Blunt Force since its announcement in 2016, but the high amount of visual polish has us hoping it’ll resurface this year. It’s a World War II-set shooter with a story from Hollywood screenwriter Mark Bristol that aims to provide a full gaming experience within VR. Here’s hoping it lives up to that promise.
Ship combat could work very well in VR, but flying ship combat could work even better. Bow to Blood promises to keep players busy as they balance protecting their own ship with destroying their enemy. We’re looking for pirate-infused action that will keep us coming back for more.
Hidden Path Entertainment’s new Oculus Studios game may have slipped out of its original 2017 release window, but we’re very excited for it. This is a real-time strategy game that reimagines the genre as a table-top board game with pieces that come to life. Capture points on the map and defend them from invading forces either in single or multiplayer modes.
Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games makes a departure from its horror series with this straight-faced military shooter built around the new PlayStation Aim controller. Engage in intense firefights on war-torn streets using a cover system that sees you darting between locations and then physically hiding behind whatever you can to avoid incoming fire. Will this nail the VR FPS formula?
Budget Cuts promised a full gaming experience on Vive at a time when such experiences were few and far between. The industry has moved on quite considerably since those days, but developer Neat Corporation assures us that its project is still very much in development. Will a full game’s worth of sneaking around vents and taking out sentry bots prove as fun as the 18-month old demo was? We hope so.
Some of us have been writing about Classroom Aquatic for close to three years now, and we’re not exactly sure how much closer it is to release (it seems to have fallen of the face of the earth). Still, the original concept, which casts you as a foreign exchange student in a class full of dolphins that you must cheat off of in order to pass tests, is enough to keep us hoping that we’ll finally get to play it in 2018.
We know very little about this VR debut from former PlayStation figurehead Shahid Kamal Ahmad right now, but we’re still excited byt it. It shares its name with the 32 year old action-adventure, Chimera, which Ahmad also worked on. That said, he’s promising an experience quite different from that debut. What does he have in store?
Coatsink and Fierce Kaiju are two UK-based indie developers known for their early adoption of VR hardware, both releasing games on the Innovator’s Edition of Gear VR. After releasing games like Viral EX and Augemented Empire, the two are pairing up for an unannounced project which we really hope will reach even greater heights than either of them have yet achieved on their own.
The MOBA genre continues to thrive on PC, so it’s no surprise to see someone take a stab at it on VR as well. This Sunsoft-developed game promises diorama-like battles in which you control various heroes in warzones. Can VR add anything to what’s becoming an over-populated genre? Fingers crossed.
We’ve played around with the demo for Derail Valley already and it promises a lot of fun for train fans. In this breezy experience you explore an island by rail, collecting cargo and making sure not to come off the tracks.
Echo Combat remains one of Rift’s breakout success stories of 2017, perhaps even more so than its single-player component, Lone Echo. With a rock solid foundation for zero-gravity eSports now laid, we can’t wait to see how Ready at Dawn builds on the game with this action-focused update. Stay tuned for more details in the coming year.
Eden Tomorrow debuted at Gamescom several years ago with a promising demo that let you walk with space dinosaurs. It’s been away for sometime since, but now it’s back promising a full adventure that we’ll hopefully get our hands-on next year. We’re looking for more amazing moments out of this one.
When done right, stealth can be even more thrilling in VR than it is on a standard screen, and Espire 1 is looking to truly capitalize on that. This could be VR’s very own Splinter Cell, casting you as an elite agent that infiltrates bases, completes top secret missions and then evacuates before getting caught. Sam Fisher may soon have to eat his heart out.
We’re hoping the standard for VR shooters picks up in 2018, and Evasion’s bright visuals, cooperative multiplayer and smooth locomotion options certainly have us thinking it’ll meet that bar. With a full campaign for one to four players and class-based gameplay, you can be sure that this isn’t just another wave shooter.
Inspired by the likes of Spaceteam and Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Failspace promises hours of co-op fun in VR. One to five players team up to take care of their ship as it falls to pieces around them. Expect loud squabbles and screams of panic as you work against the clock.
Revealed just a few days ago, Firewall has quickly become one of our most anticipated VR games of 2018. In this PSVR exclusive, two teams of up to four players each go head-to-head in tactical skirmishes, controlled either with the DualShock 4 or PlayStation Aim controller. It looks like a Rainbow Six game, but bringing it to life in VR could be like holding a paintball match into your living room with none of the mess.
Another game we had hoped to have played by now, Golem promises a memorable adventure on PSVR. With its intriguing use of just one Move controller for exploration and sword combat, we’re excited to see if the game manages to set any new standards in VR gaming. At the very least, it’s ancient ruins look like a joy to explore.
A curious VR remake of a PS2 game, Gungrave VR looks absolutely crazy. Expect a mix of first and third-person action that will have you unleashing a storm of bullets upon massive enemies. We’re looking forward to finding out exactly why anyone thought this would be a great fit for a VR game.
So far ILMxLAB has released two pretty excellent Star Wars experiences for VR headsets, but its upcoming piece starring Darth Vader remains one of our most anticipated projects on the horizon. Get ready for an interactive journey starring the Dark Lord himself that we’re hoping will break new ground and shine a light on the character in new ways.
A true prequel to Supermassive Games’ beloved Until Dawn, The Inpatient is a hugely promising psychological horror game in which you’re trapped in an insane asylum and must make a hasty escape. The game uses PSVR’s built-in mic to let you actually speak dialogue that appears on screen and make a deeper connection with the characters around you.
The developer of the graphically astounding Everest VR returns with a very significant departure from its first project. In this Dark Souls-esque action game you take on demonic enemies with a bow and arrow. Roguelike elements promise that we’ll have more to come back to, too.
Fans of games like Echo the Dolphin might want to check this enchanting new title. Together with a friend or AI partner, you explore the remains of mankind, left to drown in a neon-lit ocean. It looks utterly breathtaking and a perfect example of VR’s ability to amaze through discovery. Prepare to have your jaw dropped.
The dreams of many a comic book fan are about to come to life; Marvel: Powers United VR brings together your favorite heroes for a superhero showdown like no other. Team up with three friends online and step into the shoes of Rocket Raccoon, Deadpool, Thor and Hulk (well, feet for Hulk) amongst others as you battle scores of enemies and take on iconic baddies. This may be Rift’s biggest game of 2018.
Announced back at Paris Games Week, Megatlith looks like a promising new VR shooter. You become a titan that uses their size and firepower to win a contest to become a god. With free locomotion and destructible environments, this might be one of next year’s most polished action games.
Coming off the back of the excellent Tiny Trax, Velocity developer FuturLab is already taking its next stab at VR gaming with this cutesy robot battler. It’s early in development right now, so wouldn’t expect to see anything until late 2018 at the latest, but given the studio’s pedigree, this is one you should already be getting excited about.
Having stolen our hearts at E3, Moss quickly became one of our most anticipated PSVR games on the horizon. Building on the third-person VR adventure genre seen in the likes of Chronos, you control a small but brave mouse on an adventure like no other. We’re looking forward to intense battles and clever puzzles as we form the most unlikely of friendships.
The wacky world of One Piece is finally coming to PSVR with an exclusive experience that’s looking like it’ll please fans of the series. Jump on board a pirate ship and meet the cast of characters, all faithfully recreated within VR. This might not be the longest experience coming to VR next year but it’s sure to provide fan service by the bucket load.
With procedurally generated levels that have players stealthily lurking through ships hoping to avoid enemies, The Persistence looks like a disturbing brand of VR horror. Each time you die you’ll take on a new crew member, which will hopefully lend a weighty consequence to this promising title.
All signs suggest that the long-delayed Pixel Ripped 1989 may finally be released in 2018. Though we’ve been waiting since the days of the Oculus Rift DK1, the concept remains no less endearing; revisit your childhood gaming years playing through a fictional gaming series on a virtual screen across different generations of devices. There’s a nostalgia-fuelled promise here that we can’t wait to dive into.
We’ve been paying close attention to this promising debut from UK-based Cooperative Innovations for a year now. Not only does Erda promise hours of co-op questing with friends but the team behind it has taken a long look at the current state of VR sword combat in hopes it can provide a much richer experience than what’s come before.
This graphically stunning first-person shooter appeared seemingly from thin air with a demo that gave us just a tease of the game last month. You’re a space marine that joins a squad of other gruff soldiers exploring a murky world filled with monsters. It might not be the most original concept, but Reboant promises visuals not yet seen on VR headsets.
Echo Grotto developer Gaugepunk Games returns with its third VR project, a charming model train simulator set on New Zealand that you can enjoy either as a tabletop diorama or explore at human scale. Given the studio’s penchant for delivering highly-immersive experiences, we’ll be expecting a lot from this.
Former members of The Climb developer Crytek assemble here for one of 2018’s most intriguing VR games. Take on the role of the last shaman of a tribe, searching for the reason behind the weather that has wiped out all of his tribe. Stealth-based gameplay takes center stage in this chilly adventure that will have you fighting the elements.
We were pleased to see Smash Hit Plunder revived for PSVR earlier this year; Unseen Diplomacy developer Triangular Pixels had originally planned to release it on Gear VR but we’d since thought it may have been canceled. The good news is it’s still on track, and it promises all the loot-grabbing, stuff-smashing action you could ever hope for in a VR game.
Arcade shooter thrills await you in this multiplayer jet-packed fueled action game from Ubisoft. Expect zero-gravity shootouts with the Touch controllers and Vive wands as you jet around enormous maps, grabbing guns and dodging incoming fire. Think Echo Arena but with guns (and no, not Echo Combat).
Raw Data developer Survios is back with a new game that’s every bit as polished as its popular wave shooter, yet mechanically completely different. You swing your arms to race down tracks as fast as possible, grabbing power-ups and firing weapons at opponents. This could be VR’s very own Mario Kart.
Lucky’s Tale developer Playful Corp is back with its latest project that marks its first game for PSVR. This is a 2D platformer of sorts in which the player’s character, Spectra, forms a strong bond with a giant robotic companion as she explores an alien planet. Expect classic platforming action with a few twists in this imaginative adventure.
We really don’t have much to go on from Torn other than some striking initial imagery. It’s a mystery game in which you explore a house in the Vermont forest that belongs to a man that’s been missing for 64 years. Expect puzzles and mysteries aplenty as you make your way through a richly detailed environment.
Ubisoft’s second wave of VR content includes this strange VR thriller tackling the subject of PTSD. It’s difficult to get a grip on what the full experience will actually look like, but that very much seems like the point of it all; a jarring, uncomfortable journey through the psyche that will leave you anxious. Sounds lovely.
This one might be flying under your radar right now, so make sure you take note. Unkown Fate promises a full first-person adventure for VR in which you’ll explore a fantastical new world filled not only with wonder but strange enemies and a range of puzzles. This looks like it could have some of the most surreal sights yet seen in a VR game.
One of VR’s first full games gets the sequel it deserves. Windlands 2 promises full co-op support, letting groups of friends swing through scenic environments together before taking on giant bosses with a new bow and arrow mechanic. Developer Psytec Games really seems to be building on what it learned in the early days of VR here.
It’s finally happening: Wipeout is coming to VR. What many considered to be a no-brainer for Sony’s PSVR headset is arriving a year after the kit’s release as a free update to Wiepout: The Omega Collection. Expect to race around classic tracks at break-neck speeds with a cockpit view that truly puts you in the experience for the first time. This mode will include all game options and every track, so it promises to be a meaty game.
After spending 2017 with Rick and Morty, Owlchemy Labs is finally returning to the series it made its name with. In many ways Job Simulator served as a template for the current state of VR gaming and now the studio is going on vacation. Announced just a few weeks ago, Vacation Simulator promises to deliver more slapstick VR worlds that we love to get lost in, now complete with the shining sun, crystal clear waters and maybe a new job bot or two.
Image credit to Damien Labonte
Nearly two years on from the launch of the Vive and we’re sadly no closer to learning exactly what Valve itself is making for it and other SteamVR headsets. We do know that it will be releasing three full games for the platform, though. We hate to beat a dead horse but, when you’re talking about the developer of Half-Life, Portal and Left4Dead, you could stay silent for another year and these would still be some of our most anticipated projects.
Konami’s VR debut sees the company revisit its beloved mech combat game, this time from a first-person view inside the cockpit of the legendary war machine, Jehuty. We’re still not sure exactly how the entire game will fit into VR, but we’re hopeful for a faithful port.