Category: Skonec Entertainment

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Skonec to Showcase new VR Title Operation Black Wolf at JAEPO 2018

Western gamers will know South Korean developer Skonec Entertainment through its first-person shooter (FPS) Mortal Blitz, which arrived last year for PlayStation VR, before being ported to HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. In its home country however, the company is better known for its virtual reality (VR) theme park attraction Mortal Blitz for Walking Attraction, created alongside the home version. Next month sees the Japan Amusement Expo (JAEPO) 2018 take place and Skonec Entertainment will be showcasing its latest project, Operation Black Wolf.

Mortal Blitz_PSVR_Artwork_02_00

At present Skonec Entertainment has only mentioned what the VR videogame will be called, revealing no other details about what the title will play or look like. That’s not to say VRFocus can’t make a few reasonable assumptions base on what’s known about the company and its tech.

Being called Operation Black Wolf its certainly sounds like a military themed title. And since it’ll be going into the Walking Attraction franchise where players don headsets and guns, a military FPS is the most likely experience. While Mortal Blitz is a sci-fi horror, filled with nasty, monstrous creatures and hi-tech weaponry, Operation Black Wolf may go in the opposite direction, offering a more realistic, simulator style experience, possibly featuring team-based objectives or even team deathmatches with other Walking Attraction kiosks.

For now that’s all just guess work, with Skonec Entertainment keeping details under wraps until JAEPO 2018, which starts in a couple of weeks time from 9th – 11th February 2018.

Additionally, Skonec Entertainment has received the Best VR Theme Park Attraction Award for Mortal Blitz for Walking Attraction at the 2018 VR/AR industry Ecology Summit Forum, hosted by a Chinese VR media company 913VR. Held in the China National Convention Center last week, leading companies attending the event included AMD, HTC, VRCORE, PIMAX, NetEase, Baidu XR, Depoon, Matrix, Shanda Group and the Institute for Culture Creativity Tsinghua University.

Mortal Blitz EP-1 originally launched back in 2015 for Gear VR. It casts players as a special agent finding themselves trapped in a secret research facility. Using an assortment of weapons, including environmental objects, they need to fight through Teratoma mutants as they search for a means of escape.

As Skonec Entertainment release further details on Operation Black Wolf, VRFocus will keep you updated.

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Mortal Blitz Coming to Oculus Home

Sci-fi cyberpunk first-person shooter Mortal Blitz has been available for Oculus Rift via Steam for a while, but soon users who prefer to go direct when it comes to using the Facebook-owned virtual reality (VR) platform will be able to access the title through Oculus Home.

Mortal Blitz was originally released on Samsung Gear VR in 2015 where it received a mostly positive reception. Since then, the title has undergone some significant change and evolution as it has been ported to high-end VR platforms like HTC Vive and PlayStation VR. Developer SKonec Entertainment have gradually introduced new gameplay features to the PlayStation VR, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift versions with the latter two receiving updates via Steam.

Mortal Blitz VR PlayStation VR key art

Among the updates have been new gameplay modes and new costumes for protagonist Rachel as well as other features such as a ranking system. The title puts the player in the role of Rachel, who finds herself facing down a hostile alien horde in deep space. Fortunately, Rachel has at her disposal a vast arsenal of weaponry with which to cut down the threat. Dual wielding is possible for twice the carnage, and combat can be made more stylish with finishing moves that can be used on stunned opponents.

The Oculus Home version of Mortal Blitz will appear on the Oculus Store on 25th August, 2017. It is expected to be priced the same as on Steam, at £14.99 (GBP).

VRFocus will bring you further news on Mortal Blitz as it becomes available.

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Warehouse Scale Multiplayer VR Games Come to ChinaJoy 2017

SKonec Entertainment has announced that they are participating in ChinaJoy 2017, the largest gaming and digital entertainment exhibition in China, with their own booth at B2B area. Furthering the virtual reality (VR) programme at the company, SKonec Entertainment will be introducing ‘VR Square’ and its new concept as a ‘VR multiplex’.

SKonec Entertainment’s new VR videogames, such as the location-based edition of the popular Mortal Blitz, known as Mortal Blitz Arcade, and two-player casual shooter Juicy PangPang will also be presented during the show. Mortal Blitz for Walking Attraction, a variation of Mortal Blitz Arcade, has previously acted as the public face of VR Square, which already operates in Korea, Japan and China.

ChinaJoy’s B2B event begins today, 27th July 27th to 29th July 2017, at the Shanghai New International Expo Center. SKonec’s booth will be located at W2 Hall, C113, offering several game demos, including those in the VR Square programme, available to try during the show.

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has already announced a selection of new PlayStation VR videogames that will be shown at ChinaJoy this year, and VRFocus will keep you updated with any further VR titles showcased at the event.

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Mortal Blitz to Receive New Gameplay Mode & More

Last week saw the official Steam debut of SKonec Entertainment’s Mortal Blitz, a virtual reality (VR) exclusive title available for Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR and now also the HTC Vive. Following that release, the development studio has confirmed to VRFocus that a number of new features will soon be coming to all the high-end VR platforms.

 

 

Mortal Blitz_PSVR_Artwork_01_00Mortal Blitz is a first-person shooter (FPS) designed specifically for VR formats. Players take on the role of Rachel as she endeavours to survive an alien onslaught in deep space. Facing off against a variety of enemies, players have a wealthy arsenal of weaponry at their disposal to take down the evil invaders.

Having debuted on Samsung Gear VR back in 2015, Mortal Blitz has since seen significant changes as it received subsequent launches on high-end VR formats. Those changes will continue, as SKonec Entertainment has revealed that a selection of new features are included in the HTC Vive edition and will soon be made available for Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR also.

Included with the update is a brand new gameplay mode, known as ‘Extreme’, and a new costume for Rachel. Additional updates include a new ranking system.

Jordhan Choi, a VP of SKonec Entertainment, noted that Mortal Blitz had been ranked the top downloaded PlayStation VR content in North America, Asia and Europe. Referring to the HTC Vive release, he said: “We are expecting impressive results from this release in the biggest VR gaming platform.”

Mortal Blitz is currently available for Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR. The above updates are already available in the Steam version, with Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR specific editions set to follow. VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest VR titles from SKonec Entertainment.

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SKonec Entertainment Launches Mortal Blitz for PlayStation VR

Today, South Korean developer SKonec Entertainment has released its first-person shooter (FPS) Mortal Blitz for PlayStation VR. 

Mortal Blitz EP-1 originally launched back in 2015 for Gear VR, for which it then created Mortal Blitz for Walking Attraction, a free roaming shooter for theme parks and arcades.

Just as the mobile version, Mortal Blitz casts players as a special agent finding themselves trapped in a secret research facility. Using an assortment of weapons, including environmental objects, they need to fight through Teratoma mutants as they search for a means of escape.

Mortal Blitz_PSVR_Artwork_02_00

The studio has also developed what it calls a ‘Groggy System’, where the player can engaged in stylized gun play using slow motion and in-air shots.

Director of SKonec Entertainment’s B2C department, JongHyun Yuk,said in a statement: “Sony has recorded the most anticipated PSVR games on their demo disc for their global launching last fall, and SKonec Entertainment’s Mortal Blitz was the only game from S.Korea and by so doing proved its excellent technology and game elements. The commercial version of this game will fully support not only PS Move Motion Controller but also DualShock 4 Controller. This will surely slake many players’ thirst on fresh PSVR game titles.”

Mortal Blitz can only be downloaded through the PlayStation.Store in certain territories. These are US, Canada, S.Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Hong Kong. The title currently supports four languages, Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese both simplified and traditional. At present there’s no confirmation of a European release date.

For further updates on Mortal Blitz, VRFocuskeep reading .

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Launch Trailer for PlayStation VR Version of Mortal Blitz Released

Developer Skonec Entertainment has released a new trailer for the upcoming PlayStation VR version of first-person shooter (FPS) videogame Mortal Blitz.

Korean developer Skonec first released Mortal Blitz for the Gear VR back in 2015. Since that version launched, the creators have been working on an upgraded version that will be coming to the PlayStation VR in April 2017.

Mortal Blitz VR PlayStation VR screenshot

Mortal Blitz is a fast-paced arcade shooter which puts the player in the role of a special agent trapped in the depths of a secret research facility, where a group of dangerous mutants have escaped from confinement. The player needs to find a way out while fighting off the mutant forces.

 

Skonec previously released an early gameplay trailer for the PlayStation VR version which showed off the improved graphical capabilities and the larger number of enemies on screen. The title has since seen more enhancements to take advantage of the PlayStation 4 hardware.

Though the title is slated to be released in April 2017, a date has not yet been confirmed, nor has a price point.

 

You can watch the PSVR launch trailer below.

VRFocus will bring you further information on Mortal Blitz and other PlayStation VR projects when they come in.

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Mortal Blitz Arcade Version Gives You A Gun Controller And Backpack

Mortal Blitz Arcade Version Gives You A Gun Controller And Backpack

As virtual reality becomes less and less the purview of wealthier players, those who find themselves stuck in apartments are continuing to look for attractions that might satiate their taste. Already, facilities like the Void, Urban Safari, and Dave & Busters are throwing their weight into the ring, but plenty more competitors are popping up to take a bite out of the market.

Skonec Entertainment, a South Korea-based company, is one such company among many. UploadVR took some time to check out their latest at the 2017 Game Developers Conference (GDC). At the show they had an updated build of Mortal Blitz VR, a shooter that’s already available on the Oculus Home Store for Gear VR, but this time it was adapted for a larger roomscale complete with a gun peripheral. It’s all part of their plan for a multi-room business that caters to quick experiences.

This newer version of Mortal Blitz was on display using Skonec’s VR Square setup at their GDC booth. It was designed for a roughly 20 foot by 20 foot space, though the developers plan to release on PlayStation VR in the near future, so one assumes the experience can be scaled down.

The first thing players may notice after entering the world of Mortal Blitz is how much it feels like a classic arcade shooter such as Time Crisis or House of the Dead, for better or worse. While wearing a mobile VR backpack that lets you traverse at your leisure, Skonec also gives players specialized gloves that track your interactions with wall-mounted buttons that activate doors and elevators, plus a full-sized rifle that feels ripped right out of Aliens.

My demo starts off with a quick introduction to a shadowy industrial complex filled with demon-alien hybrids similar to Dead Space’s necromorphs. After they take out a friendly soldier, you’re escorted through a series of areas where enemies quickly advance on you, before positioning themselves as easy targets on all sides of the room, including the walls and ceiling. Once they’ve advanced far enough, enemies spit out balls of blueish fire that quickly damage you. It’s possible to shoot them out of the air, and almost preferable, considering any amount of physical dodging seemed ineffective.

To Skonec’s credit, it’s not as uninventive as it could be. After a relatively drab series of shooting galleries, a quick trip in a plummeting elevator allows players to defend themselves from the enemies from behind the lip of a half-opened door, lending some thrill to it all. Unfortunately, by the time you’re shooting down winged versions of the same enemies (and witnessing a relatively cool explosion take any remaining enemies down), and a quick jaunt across a thin railing suspend in “midair,” my time with Mortal Blitz was over, and the experience quickly faded.

It’s important to note that, depending on your tastes in VR, Mortal Blitz may either remind you of the arcade’s classic shooter days, or bore you to tears. Even though I’m a child of Time Crisis (I once spent my entire 11th birthday’s earnings on a single run of the original), I found the experience quickly fading from memory after a few minutes. While a sense of rigid mobility was understandable for a game played on a screen, Mortal Blitz still feels restrictive in a similar way, despite the freedom that full-scale VR could ostensibly offer.

When a lit path appears to guide your next footsteps, it doesn’t feel like exploration. It feels like those precious moments in-between shooting galleries when you can see your character ducking into the next bit of cover. It makes me wonder how much more intense or frightening the experience might have been if I had the extra room to move around. To make matters just slightly worse, I did experience a slight amount of motion sickness as well.

Altogether, the experience lasted roughly 10 minutes, and it’s currently unknown if the experience will translate to a considerably longer adventure, in or out of full-scale VR. Mortal Blitz is far from the only game Skonec is planning on offering, and thankfully their catalog of experiences looks to take from far more than classic arcade shooters.

Skonec’s ultimate plan is to open up attraction centers with a number of rooms and “pods” that multiple users can cycle through, each with their own attraction taking roughly 15 minutes to get through. It sounds similar to VR arcades that have popped up in China, or even the recent IMAX centers.

Such attractions include Dino Adventures: Secret World, evoking a Robinson: The Journey vibe, The Road of Fear, and the family friendly, far-off Dark Tale Heroes, a supposed blend of Disney-esque characters and magic. Perhaps most notably, Installation VR will be Skonec’s attempt to branch out into more tangible experiences, supposedly incorporating stairs and various obstructions synced to your movement in the app.

At the end of my time with Mortal Blitz, a Skonec representative asked me to fill out a survey. When asked what I thought I might pay for the pleasure of experiencing something like Mortal Blitz at one of Skonec’s planned outlets, I half-heartedly answered $10. Granted, that would ostensibly be per attraction, but it remains to be seen, like any other virtual reality arcade, if Skonec Entertainment can manage to stay afloat when these aggressively “okay” attractions may not necessarily instill enough “awe” in its customers.

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Mortal Blitz Attraction Showcased at Korean VR Festival 2016

Last week the Korean Virtual Reality Festival (KVRF) 2016 was held in the country’s capital Seoul. Exhibiting at the event was Skonec Entertainment with its VR videogame Mortal Blitz. The title originally launched on Samsung’s mobile head-mounted display (HMD) Gear VR back in November 2015, when the consumer version of the device arrived. For the festival though the developer has unveiled a new version that turns the title into a free roaming attraction.

Similar in design to VR experiences like The VOID, Mortal Blitz for Walking Attraction utilises what looks like a backpack PC along with a gun controller and an Oculus Rift headset.

Mortal Blitz VR PlayStation VR screenshot

As you’ll see from the trailer below, players are able to free roam around an environment littered with various blocks some of which can be interacted with in-game. There are parts of the video though where the players seem to walk on a dedicated platform possibly for certain ‘on-rails’ sections.

This type of experience is gaining popularity with theme parks and other public attractions as a new way for visitors to enjoy immersive entertainment. Hwang Dae Sil, Skonec Entertainment CEO, said in a statement: “Through collaboration with [the] world’s leading theme parks as well as related businesses in Korea will actively seek to help introduce the VR Korean theme park in China and global markets including Japan and the United States.”

Mortal Blitz was originally scheduled to see a worldwide launch on PlayStation VR this week but as yet hasn’t appeared on either the US or UK PlayStation Stores.

As VRFocus learns more about Mortal Blitz for Walking Attraction, we’ll endeavour to keep you updated.