Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation
What Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality developers are talking about
Chinese game publishing giant Tencent is bringing back the Command and Conquer: Red Alert series with Red Alert Online. The game will be available on iOS and Android, though it isn’t clear if it will come to the West.
The post ‘Red Alert Online’ is coming to mobile devices, and people are not happy appeared first on Digital Trends.
PUBG Mobile, a port of the PC version of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, is now available on iOS and Android devices in the United States. An iPhone 6 or higher will let you get the most out of the game.
The post ‘PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ comes to mobile worldwide as ‘PUBG Mobile’ appeared first on Digital Trends.
Two mobile versions of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds are currently in the testing phase on both iOS and Android in China, and they look great. There are currently no plans to bring the games overseas.
The post Mobile ‘PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ games for China market look impressive appeared first on Digital Trends.
The rapid growth of China into an economic powerhouse has changed the landscape for many businesses over the past few years, particularly in the entertainment and technology sectors. The importance of the Chinese market for virtual reality (VR) and associated products and technologies has only grown, and ABI Research forecasts that trend will continue.
The report by ABI Research indicates that the Chinese VR market will reach over 20.5 million VR head-mounted display (HMD) units sold by 2022, a growth driven by entertainment, retail and the ready availability of low-cost VR hardware.
With an increasing number of Chinese firms entering the technology and internet sector, areas such as streaming video have become increasingly competitive. Companies such as iQIY, Tencent and Youku are using their VR-based services to keep one step ahead of the competition, such as iQIY’s videogaming and VR video service, Tencent’s 360-degree concert live streams and Youku’s VR content library.
Also influencing the development of the VR consumer market in China is the development of VR-based online shopping apps that allow users to more carefully try out items such as clothing or furniture before making a purchase. In addition, a number of Chinese schools are considering implementing VR technologies for both academic and extracurricular use.
“China’s huge e-commerce market also creates a large opportunity for VR in the Retail & Marketing segment. Online shopping is a preferred way of shopping for Chinese tech savvy millennials,” says Khin Sandi Lynn, Industry Analyst at ABI Research.
“The Chinese VR market is mainly driven by consumer applications at present with limited applications available for segments such as healthcare, manufacturing or utilities & energy. Development of high quality hardware and software is required for the high-accuracy and content-specific needs of these markets,” Lynn concludes.
The full report from ABI Research is titled VR in China: Platforms and Content. Further information can be found on the ABI Research official website.
For other news on industry trends and new reports on in immersive technology sector, keep watching VRFocus.
Skydance Media is a company that has its fingers in plenty of pies. Not content with specialising simply on traditional or interactive entertainment, Skydance produces content for television, cinema, interactive media platforms and of course, virtual reality (VR). Skydance’s success hasn’t gone unnoticed either, as Tencent Holdings, a leading provider of online services in China and Asia, have now made a strategic investment in Skydance Media, hoping the expertise of the two companies will result in better visibility for Skydance products in Asia, as well as some healthy returns for Tencent too, naturally.
Tencent have been busy investing in a variety of media companies, including videogame development studios. Last year we saw Tencent make a bold investment in Milky Tea, a UK studio. Before even that Tencent decided to put their faith in yet another UK developer, when Cambridge based Frontier Developments received £17.7 million (GBP).
The new partnership between Tencent and Skydance will give Tencent the opportunity to co-dinance Skydance productions, as well as market and distribute the content and merchandise in China. Right now the focus is on upcoming Skydance films, including Mission: Impossible, Gemini Man, Terminator and two animated movies, Luck and Split. The productions have big names such as Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Ang Lee and James Cameron attached, so it’s already a promising start to the partnership.
David Ellison is founder and chief executive officer of Skydance Media, and speaks about the company’s expansion since 2010, and their bright future; “We are thrilled and honored to be entering into a strategic partnership with Tencent, whose global reach and position within the Chinese marketplace is truly unmatched. Skydance has experienced a tremendous amount of growth since our inception in 2010, and we’re excited that our next phase of expansion will be in partnership with a company that shares our vision for where entertainment is heading.”
Tencent’s own James Mitchell, chief strategy officer, also feels like the new partnership will mean great things in the Chinese market; “Skydance is nurturing successful entertainment franchises, especially in the action and science fiction genres, which are particularly popular in China. We believe this partnership will support Skydance’s expansion internationally, across media and into television production, and provide Tencent with attractive content that we can share with China consumers.”
Skydance also develop VR videogames and software, which no doubt was yet another factor which led Tencent to invest in the company. We interviewed Skydance on their ambitious Archangel project.
The future looks bright for Skydance as it seems a much wider audience will have access to their content in the future, and Tencent are surely pleased with the rights to publishing a variety of content for strong, recognisable licenses. For all of the latest business developments happening with VR studios on a global scale, make sure to keep reading VRFocus.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds will soon come to mobile devices with the help of Chinese company Tencent, initially as a Chinese exclusive. The game is currently available for PC and will soon head to Xbox One.
The post ‘PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ is coming to mobile, but there’s a catch appeared first on Digital Trends.
DC Comics and Warner Bros. have recently released Justice League in cinemas. While the film has received a mixed response from critics the film itself hasn’t done too bad at the box office, especially overseas. Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent Holdings Limited, has announced that due to the film partnering with its QQ-AR technology, this has seen the release achieve box office sales over RMB 400 Million (approximately $60.3 million USD) in China.
Using the augmented reality (AR) technology of QQ-AR, fans can enter the virtual world of Justice League by simply using the scanning feature on thier mobile devices to capture immersive content. In addition, the QQ doll (seen below), a custom image that was created for the film using QQ-AR technology, has become a popular cartoon figure on Chinese social networks.
Justice League isn’t the only film to utilise QQ-AR’s unique publicity value. Spider Man: Homecoming also supported the technology, with Tencent claiming 11 million users had been gained because of the AR scanning feature.
QQ-AR has been designed as an open platform allowing anyone, including those without any experience in AR development, to create their own AR experience.
During the course of 2017 Tencent has been making ever bigger strides into the field of AR and virtual reality (VR). In July Elite Dangerous creator, Cambridge-based UK developer Frontier Developments announced that it had sold a nine percent stake in the company for £17.7 million GBP. Then a month later Tencent invested in another UK studio, Liverpool-based independent developer Milky Tea, the team behind Coffin Dodgers VR.
As for the Justice League on western shores, Warner Bros. will be bringing Justice League VR: The Complete Experience to customers in December, supporting HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, Google Daydream and PlayStation VR. You’ll be able to play through missions a one of five characters, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Justice League, reporting back with any further VR/AR updates.
WeChat, known in China as the app that offers everything from messaging to a ubiquitous payment service, is getting its own augmented reality framework; at over 963 million active users, the popular Chinese app could put AR in the hands (and minds) in more than just the mobile tech savvy.
Tech in Asia recently caught wind of WeChat parent company Tencent’s plans to bring AR to the app’s gargantuan feature list, which includes payments, entertainment, shopping, and transportation. In some Chinese cities, it even has a ‘City Service’ that even lets you book doctors appointments, pay electricity bills and traffic fines.
Called QAR, WeChat’s AR framework is touted to be an open platform for third-party developers looking to get in on the coming tide of AR apps.
And why does China need another AR app marketplace when both Apple and Google have their own in the works, thanks to Apple ARKit and Google ARCore? Well, China’s government regularly blocks popular Western apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the entire Google Play Store, and also levies heavy restrictions on Apple’s App Store, so it’s not a surprise the largest ‘everything app’ is looking to capture the coming AR app boom.
More importantly, Tencent has been building out its own digital marketplace for some time now. Back in April, the company teased a sort of in-app app store (via China Channel), populated with something called “WeChat Mini Programs,” or light apps built on top of WeChat that are both quick to download and integrate into the WeChat payment ecosystem. These Mini Programs would also include AR, and considering Tencent is the largest gaming company in the world, it means the app wields considerable influence in China.
According to Tech in Asia, WeChat’s AI team is also building its own 3D rendering engine and their own simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology to boot. A few tech demos captured with a screen recording app show the possibilities of the platform’s casual, smartphone-based AR.
While there’s no release date in sight, you can bet when WeChat finally launches its AR framework, it’ll command more than a few curious glances from the West hoping to understand how China’s ‘everything app’ fares.
The post China’s Largest Messaging App ‘WeChat’ is Creating its Own AR Platform appeared first on Road to VR.
Tencent Holding Ltd, one of the largest providers of internet-based services in China, are branching out and have just announced that the company have invested in Liverpool-based independent developer Milky Tea.
Milky Tea have previously worked on virtual reality (VR) title, Coffin Dodgers VR, a tongue-in-cheek first-person racing title in the Mario Kart vein where the players taken control of an elderly person driving a racing cart trying to literally outrun the Grim Reaper. The VR version of the title is available on Steam for Oculus Rift, with non-VR versions available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Milky Tea’s Founder and Managing Director, Jonathan Holmes said in a statement: “This partnership marks a turning-point in Milky Tea’s history. The scale of it really hasn’t hit home just yet, but we are all really proud to be part of the Tencent family and we couldn’t ask for better partners. Everyone at Tencent has gone above and beyond our expectations to make this happen and from a personal point of view, it’s a dream come true. It allows us as a team to focus on making the kind of high quality games that we’ve always dreamed of making. My ambition is to turn Milky Tea into a mini MTV meets Pixar of the Video Gaming World. The hard work starts now, as we take the studio onto the next level – our best work is definitely yet to come. With Tencent supporting us, it’s like the studio just got some rocket fuel!”
Tencent Holdings have been investing in other UK-based videogame companies, as last month Tencent announced that it had acquired a stake in Elite: Dangerous developer Frontier Developments, with Tencent purchasing a 9% state in the company.
VRFocus will bring you further news on developments within the VR industry as it becomes available.
Investment happens in videogames all the time. One studio buys out another, takes possession of another’s assets, etc. We also see it a lot in virtual reality (VR) across the board, with companies actively seeking financing, through injections from investment groups, share schemes and various classes of funding rounds. Money makes the wheels go round and the lights stay on, and it’s not always a story with a happy ending as AltSpaceVR sadly found out today.
The latest news story relating to such funding features two companies both of whom have featured a number of times on VRFocus in the past but never previously with each other. The first, and receiver of funds is Cambridge-based UK developer Frontier Developments who are the recipients of £17.7 million (GBP). The studio, best known for its outer space adventure title Elite Dangerous, have sold what amounts to a nine percent stake to Tencent.
The Chinese company provides social networks, e-commerce and mobile and online videogames for the Chinese market and recently acquired Supercell (developers of Clash of Clans) as well as announced that they would be looking to launch a new VR head-mounted display (HMD) for the Chinese market.
According to Frontier, the investment will be used in conjunction with other company funds to push forward with operational projects relating to company growth and a goal to move into self-publishing its titles moving forwards. As well as open further doors to the Chinese and Asian markets.
“Frontier’s teams utilise highly scalable game engine technology, decades of development experience, and increasingly sophisticated live operations skills to provide highly-engaged players with complex and beautiful game worlds.” Said Tencent’s James Mitchell, “We believe that gamers in China will become increasingly interested in game genres such as space exploration, theme park management and other segments well-suited to Frontier’s strengths, and look forward to helping Frontier reach those future users.”
“Tencent is the market leader in the online games industry in China and operating a premium PC games distribution platform, WeGame. This strategic investment will both help drive our scale up, and improve access and accelerate our growth into the key Chinese market.” Explained Frontier Development’s Chief Executive David Braben in a statement. “Tencent will be a powerful partner for Frontier, in what will soon be the world’s largest market for entertainment.”
VRFocus will bring you more news on the changes at both Frontier and Tencent as we get them.