For the past few years, Quantum Storey has built its XR platform around immersive storytelling, bringing books to life using the power of virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR). Today, the company has announced a collaboration with Hasbro, entering a multi-year licensing agreement that’ll include the My Little Pony, Transformers and Clue franchises.
Image credit: Quantum Story Company, Inc.
This publishing collaboration’s first product will be My Little Pony: Virtual Magic based upon Hasbro’s film, My Little Pony, A New Generation. Utilising Quantum Storey’s platform which combines mobile devices and XR technology, My Little Pony: Virtual Magic will feature PortalPoints that reward readers at the end of every chapter, transporting them inside the world they were just reading.
To increase the active engagement of readers, there’s a gamification system featuring an achievements panel. The more a child reads the more they’ll be rewarded, unlocking filters of characters from previous chapters, whilst parents receive notifications of how well they’re doing.
“Quantum Storey is excited to team up with Hasbro to add an entirely new dimension of interaction that will inspire young fans seeking a deeper connection with their favourite characters,” said Quantum Storey CEO and Founder J.M. Haines in a statement. “and to kick off this collaboration, we are introducing the world’s first Quantum Movie Novel, My Little Pony: Virtual Magic, based on Hasbro’s major hit film, My Little Pony: A New Generation.”
“We are thrilled to collaborate with Quantum Storey to offer readers new and exciting ways to experience our brands through their innovative XR platform,” Marissa Mansolillo, head of Content Strategy for Hasbro Publishing adds. “My Little Pony is the perfect brand to launch with as consumers are eager to dive into the world of our new generation of characters, and learn more about their origins.”
My Little Pony: Virtual Magic is currently slated to arrive this Spring, with the Transformers and Clue editions still in development. For continued updates, keep reading gmw3.
NERF Ultimate Championship is an upcoming VR arena shooter that’s getting ready to launch into closed beta later this month. If you’re looking to go hands-on, there’s still time to sign up for your chance to wall-run and blast your way to victory.
NERF Ultimate Championship is officially heading into closed beta in “mid to late March,” Hasbro and VR studio Secret Location say. “We will be contacting candidates as soon as we’ve matched them with folks in similar time zones and available timeslots.”
For your chance to participate you simply need to fill out a short questionnaire, which will be open until March 15th at 1:00 PM ET (local time here).
The NERF-brand 4v4 team shooter is headed to Quest sometime this year, so you might just get an opportunity to play it before everyone else, and even help guide development.
It seems the studio is selecting some specific criteria for the first round of beta testers—we aren’t sure what that is, so we can’t say for sure. The developers say selected participants should be contacted within a week however, which also includes an invite to the closed beta’s private Discord Server and instructions on the next steps.
We’re looking forward to seeing more of NERF Ultimate Championship in the coming weeks, as developers Secret Location are also known for bullet-hell shooter Blasters of the Universe (2017), VR retelling of Philip K. Dick’s The Great C (2018), and time-bending puzzle game Transpose (2018).
Last week toy company Hasbro held its annual Pulse Con event online, and amongst all the announcements the company revealed a new Transformers virtual reality (VR) experience. Called Transformers Beyond Reality, the videogame will be coming to PlayStation VR and SteamVR headsets before the end of the year.
Described as: “A thrilling arcade-style first-person shooter VR game,” Transformers Beyond Reality likely won’t hold many surprises on the narrative front; you play an Autobot fighting the Decepticons to help save both Earth and Cybertron. So expect plenty of big guns and explosions.
Keeping with the original toy and cartoon designs rather than the revamped one from all the Michael Bay movies, Transformers Beyond Reality is being built by Meta4 Interactive. This is possibly why some of the footage shown feels a little familiar, that’s because the team previously worked on location-based entertainment (LBE) title Transformers: VR Battle Arena from 2019 and its follow up Transformers: VR Invasion.
Both of these were 4-player experiences whereas Transformers Beyond Reality looks to be a single-player adventure – although gameplay specifics have yet to be confirmed. What looks pretty definite from the brief gameplay shown is that Transformers Beyond Reality is going to be an on-rails shooter, as each clip showed the player character wandering down the middle of city streets, shooting enemies with one hand and being able to use a shield in the other.
Even with sparse details at least there isn’t long to wait. A Winter 2021 launch for PlayStation VR and SteamVR players has been confirmed, so you can be battling giant robots in time for Christmas.
Hasbro isn’t solely interested in bringing the Transformers franchise to VR. During the summer it revealed a collaboration with TOMY and Niantic Labs for an augmented reality (AR) title called Transformers: Heavy Metal. Another geo-location experience, players will be able to fight Decepticons in turn-based battles, either on their own or with friends.
For continued updates on Transformers Beyond Reality as 2021 draws to an end, keep reading VRFocus.
Hasbro announced a new Transformers VR game this week, coming to PSVR and SteamVR headsets this winter.
The game, titled Transformers Beyond Reality, was announced at Hasbro Pulse Con, a virtual event featuring new announcements from the toy company. During the day one stream, Hasbro announced the title and gave an exclusive first look with an announcement trailer, which you can view embedded below. If the timestamp doesn’t work, the trailer begins at roughly at the 1:42:20 mark.
Hasbro says the game is being developed by Metaphor Interactive and will release for PSVR and SteamVR later this year. The plot sounds shockingly familiar — you will join the Autobots in a fight against the Deceptions to save Earth and Cybertron. What else is new? Beyond that, there’s surprisingly little info, except for some sparse Twitter and Facebook accounts associated with the game, which describe it as a “thrilling arcade-style first-person shooter VR game”.
This isn’t the first piece of Transformers VR media announced recently, but it is the first one available for home release — Transformers: VR Invasion is a location-based VR experience that will be available in the US, UK and Australia. The last we heard about that experience was last December, with a release date still not finalized.
Hasbro and VR studio Secret Location announced at UploadVR’s Summer Showcase that its long-awaited Nerf-brand multiplayer shooter is coming to Meta Quest 2 in August. They also threw out a new trailer that drills a little deeper into Nerf Ultimate Championship’s gameplay, weapons, and locomotion.
Update (June 9th, 2022): Nerf Ultimate Championship is coming to Quest 2 on August 25th, the studios reveal. Secret Location also shows off some of the game’s wall-running action, double jumping, and shooting mechanics in the new ‘World Overview’ trailer. Check it out below:
Original Article (June 15th, 2021): Called Nerf Ultimate Championship, the arena shooter is said to offer what Secret Location calls “a wide range of new and classic blasters as you leap around fantastic arenas in intense head-to-head team matches.”
“Soak in the sound of roaring fans and master your skills as you begin your journey to become the Ultimate NERF Champion,” the studio says on the game’s official website.
The game, which was revealed in UploadVR’s E3 showcase, is still somewhat of a mystery beyond that description; the trailer below doesn’t show any gameplay (see update). Considering the Facebook/Oculus branding, we’re supposing the Quest platform holder will act as the game’s publisher, possibly making it a Quest exclusive.
Secret Location is known for a number of high-quality VR games and experiences including bullet-hell shooter Blasters of the Universe (2017), a VR retelling of Philip K. Dick’s The Great C (2018) and time-bending puzzle game Transpose (2018).
Niantic Labs is used to bringing big name IP’s like Pokemon and Harry Potter into augmented reality (AR) and today it’s revealed another. The AR specialist company has announced a collaboration with Hasbro and TOMY on a new AR videogame called Transformers: Heavy Metal.
Built on the Niantic Lightship platform Transformers: Heavy Metalwill see players team up with Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and other Autobots as they battle the Decepticons. Seattle-based Very Very Spaceship is leading development creating a narrative where players join the Guardian Network, a group of humans helping the Autobots. As one of these Guardians, players have to discover resources and regions across the world whilst battling Decepticons in turn-based battles, either solo or with friends.
“Transformers is the perfect franchise for AR. Battling and interacting with giant robots in the real world is an amazing experience,” said John Hanke, CEO of Niantic. “We want to live up to the high expectations of Transformers fans around the world and bring them a game unlike anything they’ve played before.”
If you’ve played either Pokemon GO or Harry Potter: Wizards Unite then you’ll know the type of real-world gaming Niantic Labs encourages through its projects, requiring players to get out and about to maximise the experience. This is thanks to the Lightship platform Niantic has developed, providing real-time 3D mapping and multiplayer social experiences which developers can use to build their own AR worlds using the Niantic Lightship ARDK.
Specific gameplay details for Transformers: Heavy Metal have yet to be revealed but there shouldn’t be too long to wait to find out. While a global launch is slated for later in 2021 a soft launch will be taking place in select markets soon.
Covering the immersive Out-of-Home entertainment scene for VRFocus, in his latest Virtual Arena column, industry specialist Kevin Williams reports – concluding this two-part feature. The impact of the latest trends in free-roaming VR attractions is looked at, as well as the continued success of VR enclosure business. Then the report turns its gaze to the impact of the health crisis, and what life for the VR entertainment scene could be #AfterLockdown.
Amusement Expo International: Image credit KWP
Returning to the surprisingly crowded show floor of the influential B2B Amusement Expo International (AEI) in New Orleans, during early March. Days before the global health crisis would shut down all commerce – this show revealed the key trends and issues that would need to be reevaluated for a market in transition after lockdown.
Moving away from the approach of standalone VR amusement platforms, seen on the show floor that conformed to the more traditional pay-to-play model (covered in the first part). The amusement and entertainment facility sector had been revolutionized by the appearance and deployment of multi-player videogame experiences that offer a compelling attraction.
This approach has seen two unique categories – the first being “VR Enclosure” systems, these using frameworks to cordon off the player space. This has become a distinctive category of its own, and one of the most successful developers of this approach is Hologate. The company based in Germany has sold hundreds of their four-player systems across the market and came to AEI with an updated ‘HOLOGATE Arena’ – offering a compact two-player version of the system, to suit all sizes of location.
VR teamwork in the latest blaster from HOLOGATE. Image credit: KWP
Another developer of this kind of VR enclosure system was from Minority Media, having developed its own small foot-print enclosure, the operation was promoting its latest dedicated game system with ‘Transformers: VR Battle Arena’. Based on the popular Hasbro franchise, four players compete in a player-vs-player blaster, taking part as the famous robots in a fast base and competitive experience.
Looking at a larger enclosure offering, AEI exhibitor Inowize, in partnership with their lead distributor had their six-player enclosure system called the ‘Arkadia VR Arena’. The platform using the HTC Vive Pro headsets, tethered to the ceiling of the enclosure, offering a multiplayer immersive game experience. The flexibility of the system also offering a four-player variant.
The need to offer the latest platform that achieves the best ROI is essential in a fast-moving sector such as VR amusement and entertainment deployment. The latest variants of the VR enclosure category have started to use the new and emerging VR technology. Manufacturer Box Blaster has created a dedicated enclosure to suit the needs of the market, using the latest Valve Index high-end VR headsets for their four-player ‘Box Blaser VR’. And have focused on a family-friendly approach for their content to drive the key demographic interested in trying VR experiences.
Box Blaster VR. Image credit: KWP
Purpose-built enclosures that allow entertainment facilities to run their own VR arcade-style operations, to compete with independent venues, was also on display. The new developer Sektor VR presented at AEI, their enclosure called the ‘Sektor 001’ that used a giant LED spectator screen to allow the audience to see the virtual environment that the players inhabit. The enclosure allowing two players at a time, both using wireless HTC Vive Pro headsets. As with all in this category, the operation is from a touch-screen kiosk, offering a selection of games provided through the popular Springboard VR content distribution platform.
One of the largest and most impressive of the enclosure systems is that offering from Virtuix – a completely enclosed environment offered by their ‘Omni Arena’. The attendant attracting players to come inside the system, prepare to enter the VR environment using the innovative omnidirectional treadmill, to physically navigate the virtual world. Virtuix has worked hard to create a competitive game environment and were running cash prize ‘VRZ Tournament’ during the show, illustrating the eSports credentials of their hardware.
As we saw leading up to the Health crisis, interest in “Arena Scale VR – Standalone” (the second leading category) has grown exponentially. These represented the deployment of the next innovation in tech, with the Standalone VR headsets such as Oculus Quest, Pico Neo2, HTC Focus Plus, and other systems offering a VR multi-player platform. That could be a cheap alternative to the more expensive and complicated backpack PC VR platforms, for area-scale (free-roaming) deployment. As covered in VRFocus recently this sector still garners much interest with developers like VirtuaActions and their ‘Cyberaction Arena’.
VEX Arena. Image credit: KWP
The March AEI show reflected the growth of popularity in this trend across the trade floor. Those companies exhibiting with their entry into this category included VEX Solutions with its ‘VEX Arena’ representing a six-player free-roaming turn-key system. The platform building on the operations’ experience with backpack VR systems. The new ‘VEX Arena’ uses specially customised Pico Neo2 headsets. A flexible arena platform that can accommodate four, six, eight and even 10-player configurations.
Another exhibitor with this category of experience was Arenaverse – showing its ‘Arenaverse’ platform, offering a free-roaming system requiring a minimum footprint of 20ft x 30ft – a totally scalable platform ranging from two players all the way up to twelve. An operation comprising accomplished VR executives in this field, many of the lessons from previous endeavours have been applied. Recently coming out of secret development, the platform comprises a unique operator kiosk that charges the headsets and launches the experiences.
The AEI exhibitor, Scale-1 Portal, is an official Oculus IVS Partner, and presented using the Oculus Quest headset, their new ‘Voxel Arena’ – one of the first official standalone free-roaming four-player spaces, crafted to offer unique multi-player specialist experiences. One of these unique titles is the energetic rhythm music game (‘RYTM’), played as a group in a highly frenetic immersive music experience.
Voxel Arena. Image credit: KWP
This is a snapshot of the considerable impact that VR had on the last major amusement and entertainment trade event of the post-pandemic market. The March Amusement Expo was driven by the innovation that VR was having on the industry, seeing 10% of the exhibitors on the show floor offering a VR solution of some kind.
VR Entertainment’s Future
From all the developments that were presented at the beginning of March, the then Out-of-Home entertainment sector looked to be continuing its rapid growth in market dominance. But this advance would be placed on hold as global commerce was impacted by the ravages of the COVID-19 epidemic. With all Western VR arcades and location-based entertainment centres shuttered, the industry has been placed in hibernation, eager to re-emerge.
One of the many shuttered location-based entertainment facilities. Image credit: KWP
Going into these latest weeks of lockdown for the entertainment, hospitality and non-essential businesses, across the West; there is a mood towards attempting to understand what the #AfterLockdown future business for location-based entertainment (LBE) VR will look like. Many operators drawing up plans on how they will welcome their guests to the new landscape of social entertainment in an evolving landscape.
The consumer VR scene while in lockdown has proven that the interest in this technology has not diminished, and with the successful launch of Valve’s Half-Life: Alyx, there has been a desire for more. Not every one of the record number of watchers of the streamed “lets-play” of the videogame has access to the VR hardware or intend to buy it, but this does not mean they would not pay heavily to be able to experience the title. And already plans are in place to support VR arcades to run this title as an option to their clientele.
Hygiene and safe operation of their experiences are a constant for the Out-of-Home entertainment sector long before we entered the grip of the pandemic. Numerous developers have added extensive cleaning and guest operation procedures to ensure that as with the 3D cinema sector (with 3D glasses), bowling sector (with shoes and socks), paintball sector (with goggles and masks) and even the Go-kart sector (with helmets and race suits), the guests experience is a clean and comfortable one. Many operators of VR hardware have deployed “Ninja Masks” (disposable paper liners for VR headsets) to customers using their hardware.
Manufacturers are also looking to incorporate dedicated self-disinfection systems to their hardware, similar to that seen with VR LEO USA’s platform (covered in the previous part) – as well as emulating the work that CleanBox Technology has been developing with their UV-C disinfection stations for VR deployment in enterprise. Companies also like VR Cover have supplied specialist versions of their system for use on most VR amusement platforms.
Operators of large numbers of VR headsets ensuring the manufacturers accommodate the needs of resilience and durability regarding deployment in entertainment. The extra development time that has been afforded to the industry during this hiatus will inevitably result in major development work, and increased ingenuity in the deployment of this technology into the market.
Once the restrictions of isolation are eventually lifted and the population is allowed once again to enjoy themselves, there will be no doubt that VR entertainment will continue to play its part in the vast variety of offerings from the Out-of-Home entertainment landscape. But with increased burden on disposable incomes and concerns of venues operating under restrictions from local government, that the “new normal” for the sector will take some time to be defined with undefined new elements added to the mix. We await, with interest, to report on these new developments.
Minority Media, the virtual reality (VR) developer behind Time Machine VRhas announced a new location-based entertainment (LBE) experience in collaboration with Hasbro, Transformers: VR Battle Arena.
The LBE title offers a 4-player, PvP experience where players can jump into some of the most famous Autobots and Decepticons to battle for supremacy. The Allspark has shattered into pieces around the planet and it’s up to players to collect these fragments whilst battling other Cybertronians. With three roomscale environments to navigate – a refinery, a cityscape and the docks – the player with the most shards at the end wins.
Transformers: VR Battle Arena has been designed as an all-in-one attraction for venue operators. The arena has a small footprint ideal for most arcades and the system only requires one person to operate it.
“An out-of-home multiplayer virtual reality game is an exciting way to put fans right into the middle of the larger-than-life action associated with the Transformers franchise,” notes Casey Collins, GM & SVP of Entertainment and Licensing at Hasbro in a statement. “Now anyone can become the heroic Autobots Optimus Prime or Bumblebee, or unleash their inner Decepticon by stepping into the role of Megatron or Soundwave for a massively fun battle on the epic scale fans have come to expect.”
“There are generations of fans who will now be able to experience actually becoming one of the huge Transformers bots,” adds Vander Caballero, CEO of Minority Media, the award-winning game studio that created the popular location-based entertainment multiplayer VR game Chaos Jump. “Minority Media and Hasbro have come together to craft a heart-pounding player versus player battle – a truly fun and immersive Transformers adventure that delivers the awe-inspiring thrill of being and seeing building-sized Transformers robots as you chase and fight your way through this game.”
Transformers: VR Battle Arena will make its public debut at the IAAPA Expo in Orlando later this month (19th-22nd November). To keep players coming back for more Minority Media and Hasbro will add further characters, new team play modes, additional battle arenas, more powerups, and new weapons after launch. As news of Transformers: VR Battle Arena locations appears, VRFocus will let you know.
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Manufacturers are also looking to incorporate dedicated self-disinfection systems to their hardware, similar to that seen with VR LEO USA’s platform (covered in the previous part) – as well as emulating the work that CleanBox Technology has been developing with their UV-C disinfection stations for VR deployment in enterprise. Companies also like VR Cover have supplied specialist versions of their system for use on most VR amusement platforms.
