Earlier this year VR Bound announced the inaugural VR Awards 2017, celebrating outstanding achievements within the virtual reality (VR) industry. While the dates have slightly changed since that first announcement, today the organiser has revealed that AMD, Foundry and HP have all partnered together to back the awards.
“Today marks the day of an exciting announcement with several companies that are passionate about seeing immersive technologies flourish and prosper. We will continue to stand by our mission to recognise and celebrate achievement in VR, opening up more possibilities each day,” said Daniel Colaianni, co-founder, VR Bound, in a statement.
Alongside the partner update, VR Bound has unveiled the shortlist for each of the 12 categories:
- VR Headset of the Year
- HTC Vive
- Oculus Rift
- OSVR – Razer
- PlayStation VR
- StarVR – Starbreeze
- Mobile VR Headset of the Year
- Merge VR
- Google Daydream View
- Samsung Gear VR
- Homido V2
- VR Hardware of the Year
- Birdly – Sominacs
- Leap Motion
- Oculus Touch
- Hardlight Suit – NullSpace VR
- Ultrahaptics
- VR Game of the Year
- Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality – Owlchemy Labs
- Robo Recall – Epic Games
- Audioshield – Dylan Fitterer
- Lucky’s Tale – Playful Corp
- Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes – Steel Crate Games
- Raw Data – Survios
- Tender Claws – Virtual Virtual Reality
- Arizona Sunshine – Vertigo Games & Jay Walkers Interactive
- SUPERHOT VR – Superhot Team
- Battlezone – Rebellion
- Lone Echo – Ready at Dawn
- Innovative VR Company of the year
- Zero Latency
- Technicolor Experience Center
- G’Audio Lab
- Merge VR
- Globacore
- Jaunt VR
- VR Experience of the Year
- theblu – WEVR
- Horizons VR – Reactify
- Rec Room – Against Gravity
- Tilt Brush – Google
- Google Earth VR – Google
- Mission:ISS – Magnopus
- Home – A VR Spacewalk – REWIND
- Richie’s Plank Experience – Toast
- Most Creative use of Marketing in VR
- Virtual Explorer – Greenpeace
- UNICEF 360 – Idea Studio
- Ford F-150 Raptor: Born to Baja – Optima Batteries
- ABC – ‘Catch Jack’ Time After Time – Pebble Studios
- IKEA VR – IKEA
- Jaguar Electrifies – The Future is Now – Imagination
- The Chainsmokers: Paris VR – Kuju
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: VR – Framestore
- Alien: Covenant In Utero – RSA VR
- Capital Creates Change – Infinite360
- Interactive VR Media / Film of the Year
- ‘The Mummy’ Zero Gravity Stunt VR Experience – 5th Wall
- Tabel – Google
- INVASION! – Baobab Studios
- Allumette – Penrose Studios
- KOBOLD VR – Anotherworld VR
- Separate Silences – Hver Sin Stilhed
- VR Start-up of the Year
- Inception VR
- Cerevrum Inc.
- MANDT VR
- LiveLike
- MetaVRse
- Best use of VR in Education and Training
- VR Education Experiences – Unimersiv
- PROCAT – Make Real
- VF4-360 – Leicester Fire and Rescue
- VirtualSpeech – VirtualSpeech
- BLVRD – Boulevard
- Skill Hub VR – Cerevrum Inc.
- EDF Energy ‘Reactor Builder’ – Make Real
- ITI Crane Simulator – Industrial Training International
- Space Descent VR with Time Peake – Alchemy VR
- Best use of VR in Healthcare
- VRSIMS – AiSolve
- Osso VR – Osso VR
- Vivid Vision – Vivid Vision
- ImmersiCare – Tribemix
- Best out of home VR entertainment
- Ghostbusters: Dimension – The VOID
- The Repository – Universal Creative
- Derren Brown’s Ghost Train
- Zero Latency
- Magic Butterfly – REWIND
“At Foundry, we are passionate about working with storytellers and artists to explore the creative potential that VR opens up. With the VR Awards we are proud to recognise the ground-breaking achievements of the VR pioneers and showcase their work to a global audience,” Alex Mahon, CEO, Foundry, commented.
“For AMD, collaborating with one of our most valued partners, Foundry, on this prestigious event exhibits our dedication to those in the field making great strides in this incredible immersive technology,” said Roy Taylor, CVP of Media & Entertainment, AMD. “It’s a pleasure and an honor for AMD to give the much-deserved recognition to VR content creators and innovators. Amongst the ‘blood, sweat, and tears’ required to be a winner the VR eco-system, it’s important to relax and enjoy each other’s’ company. We certainly look forward to it!”
The VR Awards ceremony takes place at 6pm on Monday 9th October 2017 in London, UK. For any further updates, keep reading VRFocus.