HTC Vive Gets Major Price Cut, Now $600
Hot on the heels of the $400 Summer Rift sale, HTC is doing some of its own price slashing, bringing the complete Vive system down by $200 to a new permanently lowered price of $600.
‘Manifest 99’ Takes You on a Train Ride to the Afterlife, Launching on PSVR September 12th
Manifest 99, a new release coming to PSVR on September 12th, is being described as an “interactive narrative VR experience” that “straddles the line between dream and nightmare.”
James Cameron: ‘If I wasn’t making Avatar [sequels] I would be experimenting with VR’
James Camera is one of Hollywood’s most celebrated directors, best known for Titanic, and Avatar, two of the world’s top grossing films. He’s also been an evangelist of technological innovation in cinema production. Despite past skepticism, Cameron’s latest thoughts on VR show that he’s coming around to the idea, but still taking a pragmatic look.
‘Google Earth VR’ Lets You Experience the Total Solar Eclipse Right Now
Whether or not you’re in the narrow band of ‘solar eclipse totality’ that’s making its way across the continental United States on Monday, August 21st, Google Earth VR has seen a recent update that will let you experience the rare event from the comfort of your own HTC Vive or Oculus Rift.
Kopin’s ‘Elf’ Headset is Impressively Compact, More Than 3x the Pixels of Rift and Vive
Kopin is touting a new prototype VR headset featuring their 4K OLED ‘Lightning’ microdisplay that they say is made specifically for VR. At nearly half the size of other headsets, and made from lightweight materials, the device feels featherlight compared to VR products on the market today.
Merleau-Ponty’s ‘Phenomenology of Perception’ & Embodied Metaphors
I had a chance to catch up with phenomenologist Kai Riemer at SIGGRAPH where he gave his perspective on what phenomenology is and why it’s holistic approach could provide some vital insights for people working in VR.
Immersv Raises $10.5M Investment to Bring Ads into VR and Mobile 360 Video
Today, California-based interactive advertising platform Immersv announced the successful completion of a $10.5 million Series A round of financing, led by venture capital fund Rogers Venture Partners. This marks a positive step for the company, and another indication of the incredible (and unavoidable) potential of VR monetisation.
‘Hover Junkers’ is Getting a Single Player Mode, Here’s the Teaser Trailer
Developer StressLevelZero is fulfilling their promise of adding a single player campaign to Hover Junkers—one of the Vive’s earliest titles—arriving in the free 1.3 ‘Junkroad’ update. The team recently posted a short gameplay teaser, showing a distinctly less frantic atmosphere compared to the game’s original multiplayer mode, with the full trailer and release coming in the next few weeks.
One of the First Games Ever Shown on Vive Launches This Fall on Vive, Rift, and Windows VR
Arizona Sunshine developer Vertigo Games announced today that Skyworld, a top-down strategy game built for VR is coming to the Vive, Rift, and Windows VR headsets. The game was shown way back in 2015 as one of the first demos made for the HTC Vive, and it’s now finally resurfacing this Fall.
Tyler Hurd’s Psychedelic VR Music Video ‘Chocolate’ Now Available on Vive and Rift
Chocolate, the latest virtual creation from the mind of Tyler Hurd—the VR animator and director behind BUTTS (2015) and Old Friend (2016)—launched today on the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
Strategy Game ‘League of War: VR Arena’ Comes to PSVR This Fall
Independent developer MunkyFun is bringing League of War: VR Arena exclusively to Sony’s PSVR platform this Fall. Detailed in an entry on the official PlayStation Blog, the studio’s first VR game is described as being similar to ‘holographic chess’ but with plenty of tanks and explosions, based on the developer’s League of War franchise for mobile.
Horror & Gore in VR – Designing ‘Killing Floor: Incursion’
Killing Floor: Incursion is a horror game featuring lots of gore that is sure to evoke visceral reactions in players. I had a chance to play a demo at GDC 2017, and I can say that it’s definitely an experience that has stuck with me. The mechanics of beating enemies with their dismembered limbs had an extreme amount of blood splattering that it was a mix of being at the same time grossly disturbing and ridiculously comic. I had a chance to talk with project lead Leland Scali about the horror genre in VR, pushing the boundaries of how far to take gore within immersive VR, and their deeper game design process of creating an experience within their Killing Floor universe.
