Category: Starbreeze

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Starbreeze’s Civilian Warfare Experience Hero Debuts On StarVR At Sundance

Starbreeze’s Civilian Warfare Experience Hero Debuts On StarVR At Sundance

The Sundance Film Festival in Utah usually serves as one of the best opportunities to check out creative VR experiences beyond gaming, and it looks like this year will be no different.

For starters, StarVR headset creator Starbreeze this week confirmed that it will be at the festival with a new experience from iNK Stories, the studio behind the cinematic story-based game, 1979 Revolution: Black Friday. The pair has teamed up to debut Hero, a large-scale installation that will explore modern era civilian warfare and its effects on humanity.

The piece is an interactive documentary of sorts, taking users on a sensory experience that asks them what they would do in drastic situations. The installation will feature 30 speakers, subwoofers and advanced playback using object-based audio from Xperi.

It will be shown on StarVR, the company’s high-end VR headset that offers 210 degrees field of view (FOV) and 5K resolution via dual 5.5 inch HD panels. This isn’t a consumer-orientated headset, instead focusing on installation-based experiences such as this and IMAX’s VR arcades. It’s something of an odd departure for Starbreeze, which is primarily known for game development and titles like The Darkness.

Expect a worldwide tour of Hero following its showing at Sundance, though the nature of the installation suggests it’s not something we’ll get to see in our own headsets anytime soon.

Sundance kicks off on January 18th and runs through to January 28th. Expect to see more intriguing VR experiences come out off the woodwork within the next few days, then.

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StarVR-Brillen zukünftig in japanischen SEGA-Arcadezentren

Die 5K-VR-Brille StarVR von Starbreeze und Acer hält in Zukunft Einzug in japanische Spielezentren. Dank einer Kollaboration mit SEGA wird die Brille zukünftig in diversen Arcadeeinrichtungen für VR-Erfahrungen genutzt und zeigt damit deutlich, welchen Weg das Unternehmen anstrebt. Die Anfangsphase machen ab März 2018 drei Spielezentren in Japan, wobei im Laufe des Jahres mehr Lokalitäten landesweit dazu kommen sollen. Seit Dezember 2017 werden die StarVR-Brillen in der größten VR-Arcadeeinrichtung des Unternehmens namens Shinjuku Kabukicho verwendet. Die ersten ausgewählten VR-Titel für die Brillen sind John Wick Chronicles und The Mummy Prodigium Strike.

StarVR – 5K-VR-Brillen in japanischen Arcade-Zentren von SEGA

Die beiden Unternehmen StarVR und SEGA verkündeten ihre Kollaboration, um die 5K-VR-Brillen zukünftig in Japan in diversen Spielezentren über das Land zu verteilen. Bis März 2018 soll die VR-Brille in drei Einrichtungen von SEGA vorzufinden sein, um die VR-Erfahrungen John Wick Chronicles und The Mummy Prodigium Strike anzubieten. Daraufhin sollen sie bis Ende des Jahres in bis zu zehn Arcadehallen vorzufinden sein. Zudem sollen weitere VR-Erfahrungen für die neue VR-Brille folgen.

STARVR Sega

Bereits seit dem 22. Dezember nutzt SEGA’s größtes VR-Arcadezentrum Shinjuku Kabukicho in Tokio die Brillen von StarVR. Dort können Besucher ein Ticket für 1200 Yen beziehungsweise rund 9 Euro erwerben, um die VR-Erfahrungen auszuprobieren. Das Unternehmen bietet in Japan knapp 200 Spielehallen an und ist damit einer der führenden Betreiber des Landes.

Laut Tadashi Kawaguchi, Senior Vice President von SEGA, ist das Ziel der Kollaboration die bestmögliche Arcadeerfahrung in Japan zu ermöglichen. Er ist überzeugt davon, dies mit den neuen StarVR-Brillen und ihren  Spezifikationen sowie dem dazugehörigen Premium-Content zu erreichen.

Ähnlich positive Worte findet auch Jerry Kao, Vorsitzender von StarVR. Auch er setzt den Fokus auf das Angebot einzigartiger, immersiver und qualitativ hochwertiger VR-Erfahrungen für den japanischen Arcademarkt. Dementsprechend blickt er positiv auf die zukünftige Zusammenarbeit.

Die StarVR-Brille bietet Displays mit einer Auflösung von 5120 x 1440 Pixel und besitzt ein Field of View von 210 Grad. Außerdem nutzt die VR-Brille ein optisches Tracking für akkurate Bewegungserfassung für LBE (Location-Based Entertainment).

(Quellen: StarVR | Road to VR)

Der Beitrag StarVR-Brillen zukünftig in japanischen SEGA-Arcadezentren zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

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StarVR Headset Rolls Out to SEGA Game Center Locations Across Japan

StarVR, a joint venture between Acer and Starbreeze, and SEGA Entertainment announced a collaboration to bring the eponymous wide field of view (FOV) StarVR headset to SEGA Game Center locations across Japan. The StarVR headset will be featured at three SEGA arcade locations by March 2018, and expand to a total of more than ten locations by the end of 2018.

SEGA’s flagship Game Center in Shinjuku Kabukicho was the first to see the StarVR installation back in late December 2017.

Starbreeze Studio’s VR titles John Wick Chronicles (2017) and The Mummy Prodigium Strike will be the first experiences available to arcade-goes, although StarVR says more titles will be introduced gradually. Each experience costs ¥1,200 (~$11) per ticket.

Photo by Road to VR

Starbreeze surprised attendees back at E3 2015 when they unveiled StarVR, a 210 FOV, 5120×1440 resolution VR headset born from project InfinitEye. Little was known about the company’s plans for the headset until Starbreeze and Acer announced a joint venture to “market and produce” StarVR in an effort to showcase Starbreeze’s games at location-based VR centers like SEGA’s Shinjuku arcade.

“We’re especially excited to bring StarVR arcade experiences to Japan, as it has the world’s most sophisticated arcade industry and culture,” said Jerry Kao, Vice Chairman of StarVR Corporation. “Collaborating with SEGA Entertainment, the leader in the local market, we’re confident that we can make truly immersive and premium VR experiences widely available to Japanese consumers soon.”

The post StarVR Headset Rolls Out to SEGA Game Center Locations Across Japan appeared first on Road to VR.

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Details About the OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead to be Revealed This Sunday

It’s been sometime since Starbreeze studio OVERKILL revealed anything about its virtual reality (VR) compatible title The Walking Dead, the most recent being a postponement of the videogame until 2018. Fans of the series or some of its other videogame spin offs won’t have to wait much longer however, with the studio running a countdown timer due to finish this Sunday.

Apart from the iconic US Capitol building in the background and ‘Washington is about to Fall’ appearing in some tweets, neither the countdown website or the studios social channels reveal any further details, just that you need to tune into the official OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead website on Sunday, 10th December at 12pm PT (8pm GMT) to learn more.

Overkill's The Walking Dead VR

The setup will likely be very similar to the livestream Starbreeze held in May when it confirmed work on a virtual reality (VR) port of Payday 2. Supporting HTC Vive, Payday 2 VR arrived last month as a free beta for anyone who owned the original PC title – or those who managed to pick up one of the 5 million copies going free in June.

OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead was first unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Los Angeles, back in June 2015, and since then Starbreeze Studios has frequently showcased the title at numerous events. The videogame is supposedly an immersive co-op title based on that universe, exploring new exclusive characters and storylines, whether that’s still the case or development has taken a different course remains to be seen.

As further details are released on OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead VRFocus will bring you the latest updates.

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Payday 2 VR Beta Update Improves Your Crime Spree Capabilities

Last week Starbreeze Studios released the long awaited beta for its highly popular crime spree videogame Payday 2, giving HTC Vive owners the chance to pull off heists, have shootouts with police and more. Today, the studio has rolled out a second update for players, adding content whilst ironing out some issues.

The update doesn’t feature anything too major, with some added transports, a couple of characters and a new melee weapon. It’s mainly an issue fix patch more than anything, improving the gameplay for a smoother experience.

If you missed the first update last week that had one big addition, Oculus Touch support so the Payday 2 VR beta recognises the motion  controllers.

Check out the full Payday 2 VR Beta 1.2 update changelog below. For any further announcements, keep reading VRFocus.

  • Content
  • Added Transport: Crossroads
  • Added Transport: Downtown
  • Added Transport: Harbor
  • Added Transport: Park
  • Added Transport: Underpass
  • Added Big Oil
  • Added Mallcrasher
  • Added Ethan and Hila
  • Added the Tag Team Perk Deck
  • Added the Great Ruler Melee WeaponGeneral
  • Fixed a “divide by 0” crash that caused some players to not be able to every start the game
  • Fixed an issue where the stop hand icon and interaction circles was not visible through walls
  • Tweaked the controls to climb ladders
  • Changed the adaptive quality setting, it will now default to 140% of supersampling quality level when turned off
  • Increased resolution of the game image in the pause menu and custody screenMenu
  • Fixed an issue where laser pointer was not disabled properly when switching hand in the menu
  • Fixed an issue where the belt did not switch sides when choosing a different weapon hand during game play
  • Fixed an issue where the reload system did not change when choosing a different setting during game play
  • Fixed an issue where Dallas would spawn in the main menu before the players chosen character would appear
  • Implement name labels in the VR lobby
  • Moved the characters in the VR lobby slightly closer to the playerWeapons
  • Fixed tased state so it properly shoots from the weapon, and fires both weapons when using akimbo
  • Added a small amount of damage to weapon butt hits
  • Fixed an issue where switching weapons would use the wrong grip settings
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Starbreeze ‘Dedicated’ to VR Game Development

In a recent livestream discussing Starbreeze AB’s Q2 report, 1st January – 30th September 2017, CEO Bo Andersson Klint and CFO Sebastian Ahlskog discussed the recent virtual reality (VR) partnerships the company had entered into and the future of Starbreeze’s involvement in the medium. Klint assured investors that despite a push for new hardware, Starbreeze remains committed to VR software development.

“We are investing in creating substantial value for our shareholders. In order to more clearly demonstrate our ambitions, we published new financial goals ahead of the listing on Nasdaq Stockholm,” explained Klint during the livestream. “One of our targets is to achieve revenues of at least SEK 2 billion in 2020, not including PAYDAY 3. The majority of the revenues will be generated by our own game development. We also see tremendous growth potential in a continued expansion of the publishing game portfolio, new platforms like VR and new geographical markets.”

When going into specifics relating to VR, the representatives of Starbreeze explained that partnering with a hardware manufacturer for StarVR allowed the company to dedicate more resources to developing software for that and other formats.

“The questions we are asked most often about our VR ventures is why we – a game company – should engage in hardware production and how we can compete with other tech giants. Starbreeze remains fully committed to its virtual reality expansion and the answer is twofold. One, we firmly believe virtual reality is one of the emerging techs that is here to stay and we aim to be one of the future key stakeholders in creating immersive experiences, now and in the future.

Secondly, we found that while the consumer market was alluring, the B2B market has great potential where we have an opportunity to take a strong position. Finding the right partner to bring the product to market has been key, and with our collaboration with Acer and through the creation of the StarVR joint venture, we’re well positioned to take market share in the B2B space.

Payday-2-VR---2We remain dedicated to our VR venture. We are looking to be smart about our investments and make sure we get maximum benefit from all of them. We have driven design and technical innovation within the framework of our VR partnership with Acer. The time is now right to gear up the investment in the joint venture company and get the headset onto the B2B market and into VR centers. This phase is capital intensive and Acer will be taking on a larger share of the financing and, accordingly, a larger stake in the joint venture.

With Acer as our strategic partner and with their financial muscle, we can focus our resources on our core business – content is still king.”

Starbreeze has of course just launched a beta testing phase for Payday 2 VR, which has been very well received by HTC Vive players. A future update to incorporate Oculus Rift is also expected, but no date has yet been given. VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest details on Starbreeze’s investment in VR, both hardware and software.

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‘Payday 2’ VR Beta Now Available, Supporting Cross-play with Desktop Players

Payday 2 (2013), the popular FPS with four-player co-op, has now updated to include access to the VR beta for HTC Vive. The beta is free, and will see updates in discrete phases, the first of which is now available for owners of the game.

The goal behind the beta is to give players on PC and VR access to the same Payday 2 content. For now though, some weapons aren’t available for VR players, something that will hopefully change in successive beta phases.

Although technically running through SteamVR, the game currently only officially supports Vive, and only renders Vive controllers. Some users have reported that Windows VR headsets work fine as well. Oculus Rift users will have to do an extra step to emulate the Vive’s controller and remap Touch’s buttons however. Reddit user ‘ElectrickMedic’ put together a handy guide on how to install the OpenVR Input Emulator to get the beta working for Rift.

image courtesy Overkill Software

Since June 2017, the game has only been available in its ‘Ultimate Edition’, which includes all the DLC for a total of $45. At the time of this writing, the base game sans DLC doesn’t appear to be available anywhere.

To get access to the VR beta, you’ll have to opt into the beta branch on Steam:

Find PAYDAY 2 in your Steam library and right-click – select Properties. In the Properties window – select the tab called “BETAS”. In the drop down menu in the BETAS tab – select “open_vr_beta” and close the window. This will automatically push the beta branch update. You can opt out at any time by reverting back to the stable branch.

Overkill recommends playing on window 8 or higher and with a
GTX 980 or better.

The post ‘Payday 2’ VR Beta Now Available, Supporting Cross-play with Desktop Players appeared first on Road to VR.

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Acer investiert weitere 5 Millionen US-Dollar in Starbreeze und StarVR

Auch dieses Jahr investiert Acer weiterhin in den VR-Partner Starbreeze. Mit den jetzigen 5 Millionen Dollar erhöht sich der Anteil der Kapitalsumme von Acer auf Zwei-Drittel. Das taiwanische Unternehmen stellt für Starbreeze das Virtual Reality Headset StarVR her, das mit einem Field of View von 210 Grad und einer hohen 5K-Auflösung glänzen kann. Bisher zielt die VR-Brille lediglich auf den professionellen Markt wie Arcade-Hallen und IMAX-Zentren ab.

Nächste Finanzierung von Acer für Starbreeze und StarVR

Die Partnerschaft mit Acer klang vielversprechend – kündigte das taiwanische Unternehmen doch auf der IFA letzten Jahres an, das StarVR Headset in großen Stückzahlen produzieren zu wollen. Noch ist es nicht so weit, aber im April 2017 konnte Road to VR eine deutlich verbesserte Version des Headsets testen. Durch das weite Sichtfeld von 210 Grad, der Auflösung von 5120 x 1440 Pixeln und guten Content konnte die StarVR überzeugen.

Das Joint Venture zwischen Acer und Starbreeze hatten die Unternehmen im Juni letzten Jahres angekündigt: Insgesamt 10 Millionen US-Dollar flossen zu gleichen Teilen in das Unternehmen, nach dem Investitionsplan soll die Kapitalisierung am Ende 25 Millionen erreichen. Laut VR Focus soll es allerdings derzeit keinen Zeitplan Pläne für eine weitere Kapitalerhöhung geben. Beide Unternehmen betonen, wie wichtig für sie VR ist: Für Acer bleibt die virtuelle Realität eine Schlüsseltechnologie, die man im Fokus habe.

(Quelle: VR Focus)

Der Beitrag Acer investiert weitere 5 Millionen US-Dollar in Starbreeze und StarVR zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

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Acer Invest $5m in Starbreeze’s StarVR Corporation

Starbreeze AB and Acer Inc. have today announced that a new capitalisation plan has been agreed for the StarVR Corporation; the joint venture for marketing and sales of the StarVR virtual reality (VR) headset. Under the new agreement, Acer will invest $5 million USD into the joint venture and increase its interest to 66.7%. Starbreeze will be relieved from its remaining capital commitment of $7.5 million and its interest will be 33.3%.

Star VR / StarVR HMDThe joint venture, originally announced in June 2016, was created with a capitalisation plan of up to $25 million to be shared equally between Starbreeze and Acer through capital injections on a set schedule. As of today, a total of $10 million has been injected into the company in equal amounts by the two parties. Under the new arrangement, Acer will provide a capital injection of $5 million into the joint venture. No further capital injections have been agreed, but the parties are proceeding in their support of the joint venture. As majority owner Acer will be able to facilitate future financing for StarVR Corporation should further capital needs arise.

“Starbreeze remains fully dedicated to the field of VR where we see great potential in the development of location-based VR that gives users access to premium VR experiences. We have pushed design and technical innovation to fruition in our StarVR collaboration with Acer. Starbreeze will continue to push innovation in the headset and focus on its core business – content. Our games and related premium VR experiences will primarily use the StarVR headset for location-based VR centers and we are eager to continue contributing to the success of StarVR,” says Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson Klint.

“VR is one of Acer’s key focus areas, as we continue to make huge strides across hardware, software and content development to unlock its potential. The increase of Acer’s stake in StarVR underlines our commitment to the industry, and we look forward to continuing to deliver best-in-class VR experiences through our successful partnership with Starbreeze and ongoing technological innovation,” says Acer Chairman and CEO Jason Chen.

Starbreeze continues to hold StarVR-related intellectual property rights, including patents and trademarks related to InfinitEye, StarVR (headset), ePawn and the StarVR SDK (Software Development Kit). Acer continues to hold patents related to electrical engineering, mechanical design and ergonomics that are used in the headset. R&D and reference design for the StarVR headset will also be carried out by Starbreeze and Acer going forward.

StarVR

The StarVR headset is being developed as a high-quality VR product primarily for the out-of-home entertainment sector, where the main differentiation against other VR headsets aimed at a professional market is the 210-degree field of view with 5K resolution. The purpose of the joint venture is to sell the StarVR system to location-based VR centers, amusement parks and various B2B segments, such as real estate sales, the automobile industry, medical devices and education.
The joint venture manages a sales organisation and aftermarket support. Under the terms of the joint venture, Starbreeze owns and controls IP rights related to StarVR, while Acer manufactures the product. R&D and reference design work for the StarVR headset will be carried out jointly by Starbreeze and Acer.

The StarVR head-mounted display (HMD) has already made its public debut at the IMAX VR Center, Los Angeles, and this agreement will inevitably lead to Acer rolling out more instances of the hardware for out-of-home entertainment centres. VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest details on the StarVR HMD, and both Acer and Starbreeze’s VR initiatives.

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Starbreeze Tease Possible Payday 2 VR News or Beta Release

Back in May developer Starbreeze held a livestream event which saw the studio announce work on a virtual reality (VR) version of Payday 2 for HTC Vive. Since then news on development has been fairly quiet, until now that is. This month Starbreeze will be having a Payday 2 event called Locke and Load and in a teasing tweet seem to indicate a possible VR announcement.

The event begins on Thursday 19th, running until 28th October and in the tweet (seen below) the studio has put several icons indicating what to expect on each day. And what’s that on day four, this Sunday 22nd, well that looks like an image for a VR headset.

Could it be that the long awaited release of Payday 2 VR – even in a beta form – could be happening in less than a weeks time? That would be the first assumption, and the one most fans of the series would want, as developer Overkill has previously stated that the beta would arrive this year – and it’ll be free. Hence why 5 million copies of Payday 2 were given away during the summer.

If it’s not the beta then it’ll most likely be an update, revealing more details on the VR mode.

Whatever happens, VRFocus will let you know.