Category: Atlas V

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‘Mobile Suit Gundam’ Interactive Anime Coming to Quest This Fall, New Mixed Reality Gameplay Revealed

Bandai Namco revealed late last year that it was partnering with XR studio Atlas V (Gloom Eyes, BATTLESCAR) to release a Mobile Suit Gundam game for Quest. While we saw a pretty vague teaser earlier this year, the studios tossed out a little more information today for its “full-length” anime, including release window and mixed reality elements.

Update (June 26th, 2024): Announced during UploadVR’s Summer Showcase today, Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom is officially coming to Quest this fall, bringing along with it some mixed reality gameplay elements revealed in a new trailer. UploadVR says the MR part of the game is set to include the ability to fight battles in your own living room using mobile suits featured in the main storyline and exclusive suits “designed specifically for this immersive experience,” 

The new trailer follows above the original article, which includes all other extant information about the game.

Original Article (March 21st, 2024): Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom is being pitched as a “virtual reality interactive movie,” which is said to provide fans with the opportunity to immerse themselves in the Gundam series in a new way and brand new story.

While the studios were previously very light on the detail when the project was announced late last year, it’s now been revealed the narrative will take place in the Universal Century 0096, including battle scenes in outer space.

Now, just in time for the Tokyo-based anime consumer show Anime Japan, we’ve got a brand new teaser for Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom (linked above).

If you’re looking for a slightly deeper dive, Bandai Namco Filmworks and Altas V also showed off a behind-the-scenes video at SXSW 2024 last week, which gives us a brief glimpse its storyboards and character design.

In the meantime, we’ll be waiting to hear word on exactly when to expect Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom on Quest, as for now the release date is still a complete mystery. The studios tell us we should expect a Quest Store page soon however, which will let you wishlist the game.

The post ‘Mobile Suit Gundam’ Interactive Anime Coming to Quest This Fall, New Mixed Reality Gameplay Revealed appeared first on Road to VR.

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Wallace and Gromit VR Experience Announced For Quest

Aardman Animations announced a new collaboration with Atlas V and Meta to bring a new Wallace and Gromit VR experience to Quest 2.

Wallace and Gromit: The Grand Getaway will release for Meta Quest 2 in 2023, which Aardman says will be the “next step” for the pair’s adventures in immersive media after the mobile AR experience ‘The Big Fix Up’, which released last year for iPhone and Android.

Here’s a description of The Grand Getaway, direct from Aardman:

In ‘The Grand Getaway’, holidays are in the offing for Wallace and Gromit. Sun, sand, and the chance to test out their latest contraption, Auto-Caddy. But Wallace has his dates mixed up – they have to be on the other side of the country in just half an hour! There’s only one thing for it… they’ll take the Rocket. But a mishap with the controls sends Wallace, Gromit and Auto-Caddy hurtling off course. Will this be a holiday to remember?

Funded by Meta, The Grand Getaway will be a co-production between Aardman and Atlas V, allowing players to “walk around, explore and get hands-on (or paws-on!) within the world of Wallace & Gromit.”

Aardman is an animation studio known for a myriad of successful animation properties, movies and shorts, including Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, Shawn the Sheep and more. Atlas V, meanwhile, is a production studio that has also worked on animated movies, but focused around immersive VR experiences and narratives, such as Gloomy Eyes, Battlescar and Madrid Noir. It will work on this new Wallace and Gromit experience in association with studios No Ghost and Albyon.

I was a big fan of Madrid Noir – it made some interesting stylistic choices with how it framed narrative in an immersive medium. There were sections where the animated characters were staged like a stage play occurring around you, with dramatic lighting and environments that almost looked like a movie set. The history of strong stylistic presentation makes me excited to see what a Wallace and Gromit collaboration with Aardman will look like. On paper, it’s a match made in heaven.

You can read more about The Grand Getaway over on Aardman’s site.

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Wallace & Gromit Are Going on a VR Adventure in 2023

Aardman’s beloved characters Wallace and Gromit will be making a return to the world of XR gaming the animation company has announced today. Working with Atlas V (Battlescar, Madrid Noir, Gloomy Eyes) and Meta, Wallace & Gromit: The Grand Getaway will be coming to Meta Quest 2 next year.

Oculus Quest 2 top down

First reported by Variety, Wallace & Gromit: The Grand Getaway will be a brand-new adventure for the duo where they plan to go on holiday. As you might expect things don’t exactly go according to plan.

“Wallace has his dates mixed up – they have to be on the other side of the country in just half an hour!” explains the synopsis. “There’s only one thing for it… they’ll take the Rocket. But a mishap with the controls sends Wallace, Gromit and Auto-Caddy hurtling off course. Will this be a holiday to remember?” Currently, no gameplay details have been released, but with Meta funding the project and Atlas V working with London’s No Ghost and Albyon in Lyon it’s going to be a high quality production

“The entire studio is so excited about this project, which provides us with a perfect opportunity to do what we love – combining memorable characters and engaging storytelling with emerging technologies to offer fans a totally immersive experience,” said Sean Clarke, Managing Director of Aardman in a statement. “For loyal fans of Wallace & Gromit, this will be real wish-fulfilment territory – after watching the characters on screen for decades, they will now have an opportunity to step into their world and play an active role in this new story as it unfolds. For those new to the characters, it’s the ultimate way to get to know them, the humour, and the hijinks that have made them so popular.”

Wallace & Gromit - The Big Fix Up
Wallace & Gromit – The Big Fix Up

Plus, Ben Whitehead will return as the voice of Wallace having taken over from the late Peter Sallis.

“It was challenging for all of us to come together to reach the level of expectations and standards that such an IP demands, but we are convinced that the fans of Wallace & Gromit and the VR community will experience amazing immersive adventures by interacting with these two much-loved characters,” Antoine Cayrol & Arnaud Colinart, Producers and co-founders at Atlas V commented.

Wallace and Gromit’s last big immersive experience was The Big Fix Up, an augmented reality (AR) title where players had to help fix up the duo’s home town of Bristol, UK.

As further details for Wallace & Gromit: The Grand Getaway are released, gmw3 will let you know.

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Atlas V Launches VR Movie/Experience Publishing Service, Astrea

Atlas V, the production studio that’s worked on VR movies and experiences like Battlescar and Gloomy Eyes, this week launched its new publishing and distribution arm, Astrea.

Short VR films and experiences are all the rage at festivals like Sundance and Venice (which is taking place this week), but not all of these works find their way onto consumer VR headsets later down the line. Astrea’s publishing services hope to change that.

“Every year, some of the most talented creators are producing XR stories that make us open our eyes to perspectives unseen – but only if you are lucky to be in the festival circuits,” the team’s Danielle Giroux tells me over email. “Our tight knit, hardworking team of passionate VR storytelling problem solvers is changing this. Every day, we explore new avenues of distribution, building upon our extensive network of VR industry connections around the world. Publishing, international licensing, location-based entertainment, immersive installations, localization — these are the major pillars that make up our approach.”

Even with this approach considered, most consumer VR headsets in the market today are billed as gaming devices; they mostly feature content made by videogame developers and are sold on storefronts that place a huge emphasis on gaming. This has been a struggle for VR filmmakers and artists without a solid sense of how and where to publish their works, but Giroux is keen to see this sector grow.

“Just because the majority are interested in games, doesn’t mean there isn’t room for narrative VR films,” Giroux says. “People don’t always know what they like until they try it. Mass VR adoption hasn’t fully happened yet, but even still, Story Seekers are out there. And they have a vision we share – that this medium has so much potential […] We have a very diverse catalog – different formats, different genres, different equipment. There is no one rule for every project. Astrea is new, young, and challenging the status quo by not being afraid to try – even if it doesn’t always go as planned.”

Astrea’s plan, then, is to work project-to-project to decide the best ways to publish and publicize a project. “To crystallize that point, for us the best approach is to get the project out in as many formats and languages as possible, reach out to as many contacts as possible, and push, just keep pushing. Because the more people see these works, the more people understand what we are doing, and the more stories we can get out there.”

What isn’t planned, at least right now, is a dedicated hub app where you could select all of the publisher’s projects from one location.

“The “let’s build a platform” sometimes feels similar to the enticing conversation “let’s open a bar” you might have with an old friend,” Giroux explains. “It’s true that this very decentralized viewing system is challenging. Not only for us as distributors (one project published across four platforms, means four different requirements, four different sets of assets, four different communities, etc.). It’s tough for users at home who have to pick and choose where to find things, who might be limited by their equipment or their bandwidth. And it’s even harder for location based entertainment, who are sometimes worried to invest money into equipment that might become obsolete in the near future. But right now, we feel it is worth the challenges.

“We need to build the infrastructure, to teach consumers about this type of content. And to do this, we need to meet them where they are, not try to convince them to go another place. That means we need to collaborate with existing platforms. We are building a brand to guide audiences so they know how they can navigate to find this type of award-winning immersive content.”

Astrea’s current line-up includes 37 projects across home headsets, location-based installations, and unreleased titles. That includes recent works like The Dawn Of Art — which was last week nominated for a Daytime Emmy — and Gloomy Eyes but also extends back to older pieces such as Notes on Blindness and Spheres. We’ll be keeping an eye on the studio’s future projects and bringing you the latest on them. You can sign up for a newsletter with the latest on Astrea on its official website.

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Adorable VR Movie Madrid Noir Hits Quest This Week

There’s a new Oculus Quest movie in store for later this week – Madrid Noir hits platform very soon.

The movie, developed by No Ghost and Produced by Atlas V, arrives on the headset on July 1 and is now listed in the Coming Soon section of the Quest store. That’s a busy day for Quest; Tarzan VR and Chess Club also arrive that day. Madrid Noir, however, is a little different. Check out the trailer below.

In this 45 minute experience, you follow a young woman, Lola, as she searches for her missing uncle, who has been declared dead. You’ll dive deep into Lola’s memories and uncover an alarming mystery.

As the name suggests, the film takes a lot of inspiration from classic noir movies, set against a Madrid backdrop. It was first shown at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this month but the project actually dates back to a few years ago when we saw a kind of prototype for the full experience called Madrid Noir: Prologue.

Will you be checking out Madrid Noir later this week? Let us know in the comments below!

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Tribeca Film Fest VR Short ‘Madrid Noir’ Coming to Oculus Quest Summer 2021

Madrid Noir

There are some wonderful virtual reality (VR) animations available, providing short interactive experiences for all ages. With the Tribeca Film Festival returning in June, one project set to premiere is interactive VR mystery Madrid Noir, with creators No Ghost and Atlas V publically launching the short during the summer for Oculus Quest owners.

Madrid Noir

The 45-minute animated caper takes place across two acts, where a young woman called Lola returns to Madrid in the 1930s, to the apartment of her estranged uncle who was recently declared dead. Presented in a theatre production style, Madrid Noir sees her unexpectedly thrown back into the past to relive a summer she spent with him as a child, ultimately leading her to uncover a long-buried secret.

Madrid Noir is a VR spinoff of a 2018 title created by the same director, James Castillo. “I went into Madrid Noir with the idea to create a film that wasn’t just for kids or VR fans, and engaging enough for grown-ups,” Castillo told Variety. “Very often, VR content works as exhibitions or as realistic documentaries, or even games, and while these are all great, I was more interested in making a narrative-driven film that belongs to the VR space, but is accessible and taps into different aspects, since I’m a fan of storytelling.”

Like other VR shorts of this type, Madrid Noir’s immersive elements will be narrative-led. So rather than having gameplay moments like puzzles to solve, you’ll simply get light interactions that’ll involve you in, and move the story along at a set pace.

Madrid Noir

Being in the hands of Atlas V, Madrid Noir will be joining an illustrious group of VR films. The French company has helped create the Rosario Dawson narrated Battlescar, the Colin Farrell narrated Gloomy Eyes, and the cosmic Spheres.

Created using Unreal Engine, Madrid Noir will be released for the Oculus Quest platform in summer 2021. For further updates on the VR animation as well as the other immersive experiences coming to Tribeca, keep reading VRFocus.

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Atlas V’s Next VR Movie Is Madrid Noir, Coming Soon to Quest

Atlas V and No Ghost announced that their latest immersive VR movie, Madrid Noir, is coming soon to Oculus Quest.

Madrid Noir is “staged as an awe inspiring theatre production” in VR and is presented in two acts, totaling roughly 45 minutes. It’s set at night in the beautiful city of Madrid, showing a version of the city that has now been “lost to time.”

Directed by James A. Castillo, Madrid Noir will star Godeliv Van Den Brandt as Lola Petit and Fernando Guillén Cuervo as Manolo Monreal. The film has been selected as part of multiple film festivals, including the 2021 Tribecca Film Festival.

You can check out a short teaser trailer below.

If the art style feels familiar, that’s probably because Atlas V previously worked on Gloomy Eyes, one of my personal favorite immersive movie experiences available on Quest.

Here’s a more detailed synopsis of what to expect from Madrid Noir:

After her estranged uncle is declared dead, a disenchanted young woman arrives in Madrid to empty the apartment that he left behind. Lola is soon compelled to dig into her memories, where she’ll pick up her uncle’s shadowy trail and attempt to piece together the puzzles of the past. 

The Quest is now home to a number of fantastic immersive movies and experiences that go beyond gaming. If you want to check out the Atlas V back catalog before Madrid Noir, try out the excellent Battlescar and Gloomy Eyes. Otherwise, Paper Birds is another great option – we’re still waiting for part two.

You can check out our list of the best non-gaming immersive experiences for Quest here.

Madrid Noir releases Summer 2021 for both the original Quest and Quest 2.

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Punk VR Film Battlescar Explodes onto Oculus Quest & Rift Next Week

Battlescar

Back in 2017 French studio AtlasV – the team behind Spheres and Gloomy Eyes – revealed that one of its upcoming projects was a virtual reality (VR) short called Battlescar. Today, the team has announced that Battlescar is ready for release, set to arrive next week.

Battlescar

A 30 minute VR movie narrated by Rosario Dawson (The Mandalorian, Trance, Sin City) the story is set in New York City during 1978, following Lupe, a young Puerto Rican American teenager who meets Debbie in a juvenile detention center.

“Debbie exposes Lupe to the underground scene of the 1970’s Lower East side,” explains the synopsis. “Despite their total lack of musical abilities, the two runaways decide to form their own punk music band, moved by the powerful lyrics written by Lupe.”

An homage to the underground scene, taking viewers through NYC’s gritty crime and drug filled streets, Battlescar featuring artists from the era including Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Death and Lydia Lunch. The project was created by Martín Allais and Nico Casavecchia, written by Nico Casavecchia, and produced by Atlas V in co-production with Arte, Albyon and 1STAveMachine.

Battlescar

There’s been a lot of good animation recently for VR fans, with 3DAR and Baobab Studios’ Paper Birds recently released as well as Spice and Wolf VR 2 by Spicy Tails. Whilst there’s Baobab Studios’ Baba Yaga and Namoo to look forward to.

Battlescar is coming to the Oculus platform first, hitting Oculus Quest and Rift on 14th January 2021. A Steam version is then slated to arrive by the end of the month. A 360° version will be available via Youtube as well. Check out the new trailer below, and for further updates keep reading VRFocus.

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Colin Farrell Narrates VR Series ‘Gloomy Eyes’, Debuting at Sundance 2019

Colin Farrell (The Lobster, In Bruges) is lending his voice to a new three-part VR animated series called Gloomy Eyes, the first installment of which is making its premier at Sundance Film Festival 2019, Variety reports.

Farrell is narrating all three episodes of the VR series, which was co-directed by 3dar’s Jorge Tereso and Fernando Maldonado, the creators behind animated short Shave It (2012).

Here’s a synopsis of Gloomy Eyes:

1983. Woodland City has been plunged into a perpetual night for ten years now due the experiments of a mysterious priest. This man’s madness engendered to Gloomy, a half-human, half-zombie child who lives away from everyone else in the forest. How do you find your place when you’re not entirely dead, nor entirely alive, and when, in spite of your better instincts, you can’t manage to control your need for human flesh?

“Anything that invokes a sense of magic and total immersion is worth gold, and it was amazing to be a part of the vision Fernando and Jorge created in Gloomy Eyes,” Farrell told Variety. “It’s a completely transportive and beautiful experience, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, and really connected with my passion of storytelling.”

“The world we imagined in Gloomy Eyes shows the darkest side of humanity. But we balance it with the hope that two little kids bring in their eyes. To love what’s different will bring harmony once again,” Tereso and Maldonado said.

Gloomy Eyes was produced by 3dar and France’s Atlas V, and co-produced by Ryot, ARTE France and HTC Vive, with the support of the CNC, Unity and Rhône Alpes.

This year’s Sundance Film Festival takes place January 24th – February 3rd. Like many VR experiences and films premiering there, Gloomy Eyes is presenting at the festival’s New Frontier section, which highlights new media and storytelling styles.

The post Colin Farrell Narrates VR Series ‘Gloomy Eyes’, Debuting at Sundance 2019 appeared first on Road to VR.

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Room-scale VR Experience VESTIGE Gets Purchased Even Before Tribeca Premiere

At the beginning of February, shortly after the Sundance Film Festival took place, we brought you news that ZIKR: A Sufi Revival – which VRFocus reported on several times throughout the first couple of months of 2018 – had been purchased by documentary producer, sales agent and theatrical distributor Dogwoof. Now one of the individual’s behind Dogwoof has secured another deal for an immersive documentary.

Tribeca Film Festival - Header

The project in question is VESTIGE, a 10-minute-long room-scale VR documentary that take the user into the world of the character Lisa as she reminisces, trapped in memory as she recalls her former partner Erik who has died. Every viewing of VESTIGE takes a slightly different path as Lisa remembers different fragments of their life together, recalling details that unlock yet more memories as she continues down the path to ultimately recalling what led to Erik’s passing.

The purchase is made by UK-based VR distributor and sales agent Other Set, which specialises in director-driven virtual reality (VR) or immersive content from around the world and is also the latest venture of Dogwoof’s Andy Whittaker. VESTIGE is set for a Spring 2019 release and will be available for the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Microsoft’s line of Mixed Reality headsets. Coming to PC related platforms like Steam and also Viveport. The purchase is made before the planned world premiere of the project at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival.

“VESTIGE allows the viewer to experience the healing that can be discovered on the other side of grief and loss. The experience showcases the unique power of the VR medium to connect audiences to Lisa’s very human story on a visceral, emotional level.” Whittaker said, in relation to the purchase.

“As a newly formed company, we’re working to re-focus VR storytelling towards a sustainable indie film production model.” Added Producer of the experience and co-founder of AtlasV Antoine Cayrol, who VRFocus interviewed earlier this year. “With the support of Other Set and our joint mission to share outstanding content we’re thrilled to be able to dive further into the future of distribution and bring the powerful story that is VESTIGE to a wider audience.”

AtlasV are not the only production company to be involved in the creation of the project. It also involved NSC Creative, RYOT, the French CNC and Kaleidoscope which helped to fund its creation

“Our studio has been creating immersive experiences across the globe for 18 years but this is our first room-scale VR piece.” Said NSC Creative’s Paul Mowbray.  “VESTIGE is really pushing the limits of what can be done with volumetric capture and multi-narrative storytelling right now. Aaron [Bradbury, the Producer]’s success as a leading VR Creator comes from a deep technical knowledge across multiple disciplines combined with a passion to connect with the audience in a profoundly emotional way.”

VRFocus will bring you more news from the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival as we get it.