HTC Announces New First-Party Titles, ‘Front Defense: Heroes’ & ‘Super Puzzle Galaxy’

HTC’s internal development and publishing arm Vive Studios has announced two new games coming to Vive in early December. Physics puzzler Super Puzzle Galaxy from 2 Bears Studio and multiplayer WWII shooter Front Defense: Heroes from Fantahorn Studio will both launch with promotional pricing.

As detailed in a recent entry on the official Vive blog, both games are second entries from Vive Studios development partners 2 Bears Studio and Fantahorn Studio, creators of Arcade Saga (2016) and Front Defense (2017) respectively. Although Arcade Saga was updated with Oculus Touch support, both games were originally designed to take advantage of the Vive’s room-scale VR capabilities, and the new games Super Puzzle Galaxy and Front Defense: Heroes have also been described as ‘room-scale’ experiences.

Image courtesy 2 Bears Studio

Super Puzzle Galaxy will be available in early December on Steam with 75% off the standard $9.99 price at launch “for a limited time”. This physics-based puzzler involves terrain and object manipulation and will contain 48 levels and an in-game editor to create more.

Super Puzzle Galaxy was born out of a passion for creating compelling and engaging VR content for the whole family that challenges the player’s problem solving and creative abilities,” said David Sapienza, Executive Producer of 2 Bears Studio. “Adding user-generated content was a core tenet of creating something that empowers the community, and Super Puzzle Galaxy delivers a unique room-scale VR experience. We’re excited to see the levels and Rube Goldberg contraptions the community is able to come up with.”

Image courtesy Fantahorn

Front Defense: Heroes aims to build on the strengths of the first Front Defense title, but with a focus on multiplayer – a feature missing from the original. Launching on Steam and Viveport in early December at a promotional price of $4.99, the new game will feature multiple maps, offering 5v5 multiplayer across capture the flag, deathmatch, and defense mission modes. As described in our Front Defense review, its room-scale game design was the highlight, as you could only physically move around a predetermined space (no artificial locomotion was possible), taking cover behind your virtual defenses. Front Defense: Heroes appears to be expanding on this concept, introducing a new locomotion system called ‘V-Move’, described as “unique” and “innovative” on the Vive blog.

“With Front Defense: Heroes we’ve built upon our experience with Front Defense to engage the community and offer new challenges with every match,” said River Ho, producer at Fantahorn. “As a dynamic multiplayer shooter, Front Defense: Heroes lends itself perfectly to the competitive ethos of VR e-sports, an important feature as VR gaming matures.”

The post HTC Announces New First-Party Titles, ‘Front Defense: Heroes’ & ‘Super Puzzle Galaxy’ appeared first on Road to VR.

What To Download With A Viveport Subscription

What To Download With A Viveport Subscription

It might be Vive’s birthday, but owners of the headset are getting the presents. HTC today launched its Viveport Subscription service, allowing players to choose five of a select range of VR apps every month. Usually the service costs $6.99 a month, but you can get started for free in April with over 30 titles from which to choose. These aren’t just games but a wide range of experiences.

Looking through the list, it can be hard to know what to choose, so we’ve pulled out some highlights depending on what kind of VR user you are. Whether you like to play, explore, learn or something else entirely, these apps should give you just a taste of the power of VR.

For The Creators

Those of you that like to use VR to build things are in luck; some of Vive’s best experiences are available in this category. Titles like Northway Games’ Fantastic Contraption do a great job of showing you just how creative VR can be, while Space Draw lets you visualize whatever comes into your head in a 3D space. Sketchbox, meanwhile, is a VR design tool that lets you edit images and more. There’s plenty here for creatives.

For The Players

Viveport may favor experiences over games, mainly letting Steam handle the latter, but it is not without its own offerings for playtime. If you’re quick, you can grab Vive Studios’ Arcade Saga completely free of charge today only, but it’s a great pick in this category too. Indie action game Dimensional is also worth a look for its excellent use of room scale, while Albino Lullaby‘s first episode is a chilling example of what VR can do for psychological horror.

For The Explorers

If there’s one thing VR does best it’s almost certainly explore, and Viveport’s offerings have some great destinations. If you haven’t already tried it then you have to head to the icy peaks of EVEREST VR for Solfar’s stunning, informative trek up the mountain. But why stay on Earth? Mars Odyssey gives you a chance to step onto the red planet and explore for yourself, while the beautiful iOMoon gives you some of the most stunning sights yet seen in VR.

For Historians

VR isn’t as quite as good as a time machine but we’re pretty sure it’s as close as we’re ever going to get. If you’re considering a trip back in time then you have to try Airborne VR 1944, which places you in the shoes of a paratrooper making a dramatic jump on D-Day. Remembering Pearl Harbor, meanwhile, transports you to another part of the war, allowing you to live one of the most decisive days in the global conflict. Finally, the Apollo 11 VR Experience documents man’s historic mission to the moon like never before.

For The Learners

VR’s ability to educate is arguably its most important asset, and Viveport has plenty of apps that showcase that potential. 3D Organon VR Anatomy gives you a detailed run down of the human body with startlingly accurate 3D models, while We Are Stars is an imaginative and entertaining way to learn about the history of our universe. Or, hey, if you just want to learn how to be a more interesting cook then Chinese Cook VR has you covered.

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HTC Vive Marks First Anniversary with Vive Day Celebrations

As you may remember, in 2016 Oculus Rift and HTC Vive launched days apart. Last week saw the former celebrate its first anniversary with a sale and now the latter has announced its plans. For HTC Vive that special day is this Wednesday, 5th April, and to mark the occasion the company will be holding ‘Vive Day’.

As part of Vive Day, HTC will be launching new features as well as lots of new offers. The first is the Viveport subscription service which was first announced during CES 2017 in January. The service aims to provide users a new way to navigate the hundreds of apps currently available on Viveport. Customers will pay $6.99 a month choosing five titles from an ever-growing library of curated content. They’ll receive unlimited access to the apps they choose which can also be rotated out every month. The subscription service apps are also available for sale, enabling customers to try before they buy.

Viveport logo

Viveport Subscription will be launching with more than 50 titles available including virtual reality (VR) apps such as TheBlu, Richie’s Plank Experience, Everest VR, Fantastic Contraption, Mars Odyssey and more. All new customers can take advantage of a free one month trial by registering at www.viveport.com.

“The marketplace for Vive apps has grown at a tremendous pace with more than 1,600 titles now available across different app stores and over 30 new apps launching daily,” said Rikard Steiber, President of Viveport at HTC Vive. “The rapid growth of the app market is a win for VR overall yet it can present discoverability challenges that affect both customers and content creators. Introducing a subscription model to VR is a natural evolution of where this market is going, and as film, music and TV have proven it’s becoming the preferred way customers want to explore and experience entertainment content.”

On top of the Viveport subscription, HTC Vive users will be able to redeem a free copy of Vive Studio’s action game Arcade Saga, normally $19.99 USD. Arcade Saga has three game types – Smash, Bowshot and Fracture Each mode has head-to-head online multiplayer and a campaign with 84 levels to master. Additionally, new customers wanting to purchase a headset will receive $100 USD off through the online store. Both these offers are available for one day only on 5th April.

“We’re surprised every day by what our fans and developers have brought to VIVE in its first year,” said Daniel O’ Brien, GM US, HTC Vive. “We’re astounded by the impact that VR is making in the home and in the enterprise, and we want to celebrate Vive’s first birthday by giving a bit back to our fans and by introducing Vive to more people.”

HTC Vive will also be marking Vive Day with developer interviews, additional free downloads and more, so keep reading VRFocus for the latest announcements.

HTC Marks ‘Vive Day’ Anniversay With Sale, VR Subscription Launch

HTC Marks ‘Vive Day’ Anniversay With Sale, VR Subscription Launch

Update: Happy Vive Day! It’s Vive’s birthday, so you can get all the freebies and promotions listed below for the rest of the day.

Original story: Oculus hosted an extensive sale to mark the Rift’s first anniversary last week, but it looks like HTC is going one better.

The company is celebrating the one year anniversary of launch of its Vive VR headset on April 5th with ‘Vive Day’. There HTC will launch a long-anticipated software subscription service, and host promotions for VR fans both old and new.

Kicking things off is the launch of the Viveport Subscription service, the first of its kind for VR storefronts. Every Vive owner is going to get a free months’ access to this service in which they’ll be able to download five of a specific set of titles from HTC’s digital store. Confirmed launch titles include TheBlu, Richie’s Plank Experience, Everest VR, Fantastic Contraption, and Mars Odyssey. After your free trial you’ll be able to pay $6.99 a month to again download five titles which can either be apps you’ve previously selected or new ones.

A common criticism of VR software is how much value it offers, with some experiences only offering 30 to 120 minutes of content but still charging $10 or $15 at least. Seeing how consumers react to this subscription model, then, will be hugely interesting.

Next up for existing Vive owners is a free game, Arcade Saga, which is the first title released under the Vive Studios publishing arm. It’ll be available to download at no extra cost from Viveport on April 5th. For those still interested in getting a Vive, HTC will again slash the price from $799 to $699 for one day, which it’s done for promotions like Black Friday before.

We’ll have our own coverage of the Vive’s anniversary over the course of the week, so make sure to check back on Wednesday.

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HTC Unveils Vive Studios Along with Debut Title Arcade Saga

HTC has been continually striving to build its virtual reality (VR) business through various avenues since the launch of the Vive head-mounted display (HMD). Its launched initiatives such as Vive X, Viveport, the Viveport Developer Awards, Viveport M, Viveport Arcade and more. Today the company has revealed its latest venture, its own in-house software development team Vive Studios. Alongside the studio announcement, HTC has debuted its first title Arcade Saga. 

Vive Studios will produce first-party content through internal developers, such as 2 Bears, as well as partner with external developers. For third-party studios that do enter into a partnership can turn to Vive Studios for development funding as well as publishing and marketing support on VR content. The new studio will create content across key categories for VR including videogames, education, cinematic, design, social, real-estate and sports, as well as tools and applications that can empower other areas such as media, retail, healthcare, and location-based entertainment centres and arcades.

Arcade Saga image 1

“We’re excited to formally unveil Vive Studios as a new pillar in HTC’s initiative to drive persistent growth for VR,” said Joel Breton, VP of content at HTC Vive. “Vive Studios’ aim is to nurture and discover development talent and help create content that will continually push the boundaries of the kinds of experiences VR can deliver. The VR ecosystem needs a persistent flow of exciting experiences and AAA content that can help grow our audience. We’re excited to mark our launch with the debut of our first internally developed title ‘Arcade Saga’, a game that represents the kind of deeper and more challenging experience we believe VR enthusiasts are ready to embrace.”

Arcade Saga, the debut title from Vive Studios and 2 Bears Studio has been inspired by classic arcade games such as Breakout, Galaga and Arkanoid. Players find themselves taking on the role of an AI fighting threats developed by humans. Designed to enslave CPUs, these threats represent firewalls and viruses that manifest as three distinct challenges – Fracture, Smash, and Bowshot. Combining the physics and physicality of games such as pinball, table tennis and archery, Arcade Saga delivers more than 84 levels to master. Designed for all ages, with three difficulty modes that allow for family, casual and hardcore play, the title features an upgrade system to gain new weapons and abilities, and massive boss fights to overcome.

Arcade Saga delivers exciting and deep VR game play painted with strokes from classic arcade games that people will instantly remember,” said J. Epps, Creative Director at 2 Bears Studios. “By combining an homage to familiar games with our backstory putting players in the role of a CPU fighting humans, Arcade Saga is the VR equivalent of not just walking through an arcade but getting inside the game.”

Arcade Saga launches on Steam for HTC Vive on 10th December, with Chinese customers able to access it through Viveport.

For all the latest news on HTC Vive, keep reading VRFocus.