Category: vive studios

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Prepare for a Fight as Knockout League Hits HTC Vive

During CES 2017 earlier this month the Vive Showcase featured a number of titles on demonstration, one of which was Knockout League from Grab Games. Today Vive Studios, which develops in-house as well as supporting other studios, has announced the launch of the boxing title for HTC Vive.

An early access videogame on Steam Knockout League is a single-player boxing game built specifically for virtual reality (VR). Players will stand toe-to-toe with a range of fighters, using their body to intuitively move, dodge and fight. For the the early access version, there will be four fighters to face, each with a different fighting style. There’s Tri-Tip – a Brazilian bruiser with tenderizing fists of fury; Crimson Fang – a warrior princess with an ancient mystical mask; Scurvy Jones – a scourge of the seven seas alongside his trusty parrot Petey; and Sir Octopunch – a prim and proper powerhouse with plenty of gloves to beware of.

Knockout League - Crimson Fang

Knockout League also includes a tutorial training mode to teach key game strategies along with mini-games such as speed bag to get players warmed up and ready to fight.

“We’re excited to be supporting great developers at Vive Studios, and partnering with Grab Games on Knockout League is another step forward in bringing high quality, super fun VR experiences to market,” said Joel Breton, Head of Vive Studios. “Knockout League is a fast-paced boxing game that will give you a real work out, combining the action of arcade-style fighting games with the thrill of physically fighting opponents in VR.”

The full version of Knockout League is expected in Q2 of 2017, with Vive Studios and Grab Games continuing to add content between now and then.

“As huge fans of the boxing genre, we’ve always wanted to build a unique action-based boxing game, and Vive gives us the perfect platform to realize that vision,” said Anthony Borquez, CEO of Grab Games. “We’re eager to see how gamers embrace this kind of VR experience and give us feedback on early access as we create future content. Our team has more than ten years of experience in game development – we’re passionate about games and we want to bring the same kind of memorable experiences to virtual reality.”

Knockout League can be downloaded via Steam with a limited time discount, dropping the price from £14.99 GBP to £13.49 until 31st January 2017. The Steam listing also includes support for Oculus Rift.

For further updates from Grab Games, keep reading VRFocus.

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Here Are 23 Of The 30+ Experiences Vive Is Showing At CES

Here Are 23 Of The 30+ Experiences Vive Is Showing At CES

We already know what HTC for Vive at CES: the next iteration of the VR headset. So, what is it showing?

Apps. And lots of them.

HTC revealed 23 of the more than 30 apps that the company is showing on the Vive in Las Vegas next week. We’ll see plenty of upcoming games like new Vive Studios projects in Arcade Saga, Front Defense and Knockout League, along with much anticipated projects like Star Trek: Bridge Crew. There’s also already available apps like ROM: Extraction and The Nest.

But it’s not just games; plenty of business, medical, and education apps will also be on display. Apps like YOUVR, Lifeliqe, and MakeVR will be there to show what VR can do beyond entertainment. The company will also showcase mixed reality filming with a green screen and host a handful of events throughout the show.

A handful of events are planned, too, including a VR and Fitness showcase on January 4th, and VR showcases for CES Showstoppers attendees on January 5th. HTC will also be livestreaming throughout the event. We’ve listed all that’s been confirmed to be on display below. Hopefully the unrevealed projects means there’s some announcements in store; HTC is certainly teasing some big projects for the months to come.

Games and Entertainment

  • Arcade Saga – 
  • Front Defense 
  • Knockout League
  • Mindshow 
  • The Music Room
  • The Nest
  • Racket
  • ROM: Extraction
  • Star Trek: Bridge Crew

Enterprise

  • 3DEXPERIENCE platform and “Virtual Garage”
  • GE Store VR Experience
  • IBM Speech Sandbox
  • Jaguar I-PACE Reveal
  • MakeVR
  • VR Museum Experience

Health & Medical

  • The Body VR
  • The Physiology of the Eye
  • OssoVR
  • YOUVR

Education

  • ENGAGE “The Life Project”
  • Lifeliqe
  • Remembering Pearl Harbor
  • Titanic VR

UploadVR is going to be at CES all week long to bring you the latest from the show, so expect hands-on impressions of these apps along with interviews and more.

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Field in View: Vive Studios Is HTC’s Best News Since Vive Launch

Field in View: Vive Studios Is HTC’s Best News Since Vive Launch

You have to hand it to HTC, they got their PR spot on this week. With the launch of the Oculus Touch taking place on Monday, I, like many, had been wondering what the Rift rival would do to fight back. Oculus closed the feature gap between the two headsets with the launch of its brilliant new controllers, meaning Vive needs to find new ways to differentiate itself.

In response, Vive honed in on one of the most crucial and criticized areas of its platform, software.

Over the past 7 or 8 months the Vive has accumulated a lot of great content. It’s launch line-up was incredibly strong, and we’ve since seen big releases like Serious Sam VR or, more recently, the amazing Google Earth. But there’s also been a concerning lack of direction in this area since launch. It can sometimes feel like there’s no software plan in place for Vive, and that HTC is simply hoping developers will decide to get on board with the headset.

Until now, Vive has felt a bit like if Sony had released its PlayStation 4 console to the masses and then let indie developers and third-party studios do all the work, without creating its own system-selling games from studios like Naughty Dog and deals with developers like From Software. Thanks to conversations with figureheads like Joel Breton and teases from both HTC and SteamVR creator Valve, we know this isn’t really the case. But HTC hasn’t done a great job making that work visible. We don’t see teases of what’s coming or demos of content that it’s really getting behind, we get weeks of middling games with the occasional surprise launch.

Steam has now amassed an enormous 1,000 pieces of VR content, many of which are on Vive, but it’s not curated in the slightest, and there’s more shovelware and tech demos there than there is anything else. Events like E3 come and go and Vive always has a booth but, outside of this year’s Fallout 4 surprise, rarely makes headline-grabbing announcements.

Enter Vive Studios, a solution to all our problems.

Both in name and mission, HTC’s latest initiative sounds a lot like Oculus Studios; working with developers to create better, bigger experiences for VR. Oculus might not have any Uncharted or Halo-level blockbusters in the works, but it’s teases of visually-stunning games like Lone Echo and work with big developers like Insomniac give fans more content to look forward to going forward and a bigger sense of an overall plan beyond hardware, which is certainly one area HTC isn’t failing to make us excited in.

Vive Studios isn’t quite the same thing, as it sounds like some content might not be entirely exclusive to the headset, but it gives players the promise that big things are on the way. Arcade Saga, the Studios game released alongside the announcement, was a fun way to get the ball rolling, but the knowledge that HTC is working on bigger things for release in the next few weeks and “dozens” more for 2017 makes me more excited about the future of my Vive than I have been before.

Platform holders can’t just release the hardware and then hope everything works out on the software front; they need to get heavily involved in the latter, otherwise consumers aren’t going to be compelled to purchase or keep their product. If Vive had gone another year without a more visible push on HTC on this front it could have started to lag well behind the competition. For me, this direct and clear announcement that they were working to combat that perception was exactly what I needed.

Vive is such an amazing platform, and the thought of giving developers the budgets, resources, and time to do incredible things with it is truly enticing.

This is where the race gets really interesting. Vive and Rift are now on equal footing on the hardware front, and it’s up to the content to separate the two. I have high hopes — and quite a bit of faith — that Vive Studios is the start of something special for HTC’s headset, and I can’t wait to see what the company’s got in store.

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HTC Launches ‘Vive Studios’ for First-party VR Game Development and Publishing

HTC today announced that they’ve spun up an internal development and publishing group called Vive Studios.

Mirroring Oculus’ own ‘Oculus Studios’ effort, HTC has formed an internal VR game studio and publishing group called Vive Studios. Like other first-party studios, Vive Studios plans to both create content internally and work with external studios on publishing, marketing, and funding support.

“We’re excited to formally unveil Vive Studios as a new pillar in HTC’s initiative to drive persistent growth for VR,” said Joel Breton, VP of content at HTC Vive. “Vive Studios’ aim is to nurture and discover development talent and help create content that will continually push the boundaries of the kinds of experiences VR can deliver. […] The VR ecosystem needs a persistent flow of exciting experiences and AAA content that can help grow our audience.”

While HTC’s VR partner, Valve, has formerly taken a lead on evangelizing VR content development for SteamVR, the company hasn’t publicly made the sort of major VR content investments that we’ve seen from Oculus and its parent company Facebook. Oculus has a smaller library of VR content on its platform, but most agree what what’s there has greater depth than what’s available on SteamVR (and by extension, the Vive).

Now it seems that HTC wants to change that. The company has supported VR content developers across several other initiatives, but its formal efforts—like the Vive X accelerator—seem focused more on startup & venture style investing than content publishing. Vive Studios is likely to function in a more familiar structure for established game and app developers looking to create top-notch VR content.

SEE ALSO
HTC Confirms Each Vive is Sold at Profit, "Much More" Than 140,000 Units in Sales

While Oculus Studios has primarily focused on gaming content, HTC says Vive Studios will be pursuing many content categories.

“Vive Studios is actively creating content across key categories for VR including games, education, cinematic, design, social, real-estate and sports, as well as tools and applications that can revolutionize areas such as media, retail, healthcare, and location-based entertainment centers and arcades,” the announcement reads.

That fits the broader scope of HTC’s own Viveport VR app platform which is less focused on gaming content than we’ve seen so far from Oculus Home and SteamVR.

The post HTC Launches ‘Vive Studios’ for First-party VR Game Development and Publishing appeared first on Road to VR.

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HTC Launches ‘Vive Studios’ for First-party VR Game Development and Publishing

HTC today announced that they’ve spun up an internal development and publishing group called Vive Studios.

Mirroring Oculus’ own ‘Oculus Studios’ effort, HTC has formed an internal VR game studio and publishing group called Vive Studios. Like other first-party studios, Vive Studios plans to both create content internally and work with external studios on publishing, marketing, and funding support.

“We’re excited to formally unveil Vive Studios as a new pillar in HTC’s initiative to drive persistent growth for VR,” said Joel Breton, VP of content at HTC Vive. “Vive Studios’ aim is to nurture and discover development talent and help create content that will continually push the boundaries of the kinds of experiences VR can deliver. […] The VR ecosystem needs a persistent flow of exciting experiences and AAA content that can help grow our audience.”

While HTC’s VR partner, Valve, has formerly taken a lead on evangelizing VR content development for SteamVR, the company hasn’t publicly made the sort of major VR content investments that we’ve seen from Oculus and its parent company Facebook. Oculus has a smaller library of VR content on its platform, but most agree what what’s there has greater depth than what’s available on SteamVR (and by extension, the Vive).

Now it seems that HTC wants to change that. The company has supported VR content developers across several other initiatives, but its formal efforts—like the Vive X accelerator—seem focused more on startup & venture style investing than content publishing. Vive Studios is likely to function in a more familiar structure for established game and app developers looking to create top-notch VR content.

SEE ALSO
HTC Confirms Each Vive is Sold at Profit, "Much More" Than 140,000 Units in Sales

While Oculus Studios has primarily focused on gaming content, HTC says Vive Studios will be pursuing many content categories.

“Vive Studios is actively creating content across key categories for VR including games, education, cinematic, design, social, real-estate and sports, as well as tools and applications that can revolutionize areas such as media, retail, healthcare, and location-based entertainment centers and arcades,” the announcement reads.

That fits the broader scope of HTC’s own Viveport VR app platform which is less focused on gaming content than we’ve seen so far from Oculus Home and SteamVR.

The post HTC Launches ‘Vive Studios’ for First-party VR Game Development and Publishing appeared first on Road to VR.

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HTC Unveils Vive Studios Along with Debut Title Arcade Saga

HTC has been continually striving to build its virtual reality (VR) business through various avenues since the launch of the Vive head-mounted display (HMD). Its launched initiatives such as Vive X, Viveport, the Viveport Developer Awards, Viveport M, Viveport Arcade and more. Today the company has revealed its latest venture, its own in-house software development team Vive Studios. Alongside the studio announcement, HTC has debuted its first title Arcade Saga. 

Vive Studios will produce first-party content through internal developers, such as 2 Bears, as well as partner with external developers. For third-party studios that do enter into a partnership can turn to Vive Studios for development funding as well as publishing and marketing support on VR content. The new studio will create content across key categories for VR including videogames, education, cinematic, design, social, real-estate and sports, as well as tools and applications that can empower other areas such as media, retail, healthcare, and location-based entertainment centres and arcades.

Arcade Saga image 1

“We’re excited to formally unveil Vive Studios as a new pillar in HTC’s initiative to drive persistent growth for VR,” said Joel Breton, VP of content at HTC Vive. “Vive Studios’ aim is to nurture and discover development talent and help create content that will continually push the boundaries of the kinds of experiences VR can deliver. The VR ecosystem needs a persistent flow of exciting experiences and AAA content that can help grow our audience. We’re excited to mark our launch with the debut of our first internally developed title ‘Arcade Saga’, a game that represents the kind of deeper and more challenging experience we believe VR enthusiasts are ready to embrace.”

Arcade Saga, the debut title from Vive Studios and 2 Bears Studio has been inspired by classic arcade games such as Breakout, Galaga and Arkanoid. Players find themselves taking on the role of an AI fighting threats developed by humans. Designed to enslave CPUs, these threats represent firewalls and viruses that manifest as three distinct challenges – Fracture, Smash, and Bowshot. Combining the physics and physicality of games such as pinball, table tennis and archery, Arcade Saga delivers more than 84 levels to master. Designed for all ages, with three difficulty modes that allow for family, casual and hardcore play, the title features an upgrade system to gain new weapons and abilities, and massive boss fights to overcome.

“Arcade Saga delivers exciting and deep VR game play painted with strokes from classic arcade games that people will instantly remember,” said J. Epps, Creative Director at 2 Bears Studios. “By combining an homage to familiar games with our backstory putting players in the role of a CPU fighting humans, Arcade Saga is the VR equivalent of not just walking through an arcade but getting inside the game.”

Arcade Saga launches on Steam for HTC Vive on 10th December, with Chinese customers able to access it through Viveport.

For all the latest news on HTC Vive, keep reading VRFocus.

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HTC Announces ‘Vive Studios’ to Publish “Deeper, Richer and Longer” Room-Scale VR Games

HTC Announces ‘Vive Studios’ to Publish “Deeper, Richer and Longer” Room-Scale VR Games

Today, HTC is announcing the launch of its newest subsidiary: Vive Studios. This brand new content publisher will work to facilitate and release new, high-quality content for the titular HTC Vive virtual reality headset. The company has appointed its VP of Content, Joel Breton, as head of this new operation. Vive Studios is launching its first game today as well: Arcade Saga.

According to HTC, “Vive Studios will bring to market VR content created by HTC’s internal studios as well as through publishing partnerships with external developers.”

This model is much more similar to a traditional console or video game publisher. The company clarified the exact nature of the Vive Studios process by stating that:

“Vive Studios will use a publishing model similar to console games, where the label will produce first-party content through internal developers, such as 2 Bears, as well as partner with external developers. For external developers, Vive Studios is now a partner they can turn to for development funding as well as publishing and marketing support on VR content. Vive Studios is actively creating content across key categories for VR including games, education, cinematic, design, social, real-estate and sports, as well as tools and applications that can revolutionize areas such as media, retail, healthcare and location-based entertainment centers and arcades.”

UploadVR had the chance to speak with Breton at the Vive X offices in San Francisco, California. Breton confirmed that the goal of Vive Studios is to partner with “both internal and external studios” in order to create “great showcases for room-scale VR.” Breton explained that, like any other publisher, Vive Studios will recieve a portion of the revenue generated by each of its partner games.

The closest faximale to Vive Studios in the VR world is the long-running Oculus Studios, which was founded and led into significance by Naughty Dog co-founder Jason Rubin. The Oculus Studios philosophy for games has been to invest millions of dollars in grants to developers in order to stimulate the early days of VR with titles that would not otherwise have been able to exist. When asked if Vive Studios would be operating on a similar financial scope or overall mindset Breton’s response was direct:

“I  don’t want to put any restrictions on numbers when it comes to the amounts we’re going to offer these studios. It will be a very flexible model. This is a response to the opportunity we feel currently exists around VR. The VR ecosystem needs support and we want to come in and throw our muscle around where it can do the most good.”

The 3D platformer “Lucky’s Tale” was one of the first Oculus Studios titles.

Games and experiences produced by Oculus Studios are also notable in that they only work on Oculus Hardware. When asked if Vive Studios games would also work on Oculus hardware Breton responded by saying, “We aren’t announcing support for the other platforms today. Each piece of content will be released where it makes the most sense.”

Breton did explain that there will be no direct “blocks” built into Vive Studios games keeping them tethered to the Vive and that, “we believe content should be open and go wherever consumers want to access it…we don’t feel that they [Oculus] need to lose for us to win.”

As far as the type of content Vive Studios is producing, Breton revealed that the focus will be on more than just games. Areas like education, architecture and virtual commerce will be explored as well. All of the experiences, however, according to Breton, will be released on either Steam or Viveport.

It’s no secret that the Vive has been accused of housing too many shallow pieces of content, blithely referred to by the VR community as “tech demos” and Breton explained that Vive Studios is meant, at least in part, to address this problem.

“As far as games are concerned we feel like the Vive already has a good amount of smaller, snackable-sized experiences,” Breton said. “Through Vive studios we want to create games that are deeper, richer and longer.”

When it comes to rollout, Breton stated that users can enjoy Vive Studios’ first game, Arcade Saga, today with “more coming in the next several weeks” and “dozens being released next year.”

Arcade Saga itself is a collection of three smaller games that each provide a futuristic spin on classic arcade games like Pong and Breakout. The title was developed by Vive Studios first partner developer known as Two Bears. The game was fun, fast and, of course, highly focused on hand controllers and room-scale capabilities.

Arcade Saga is available now on Steam. We will be bringing a full hands on review in the coming days.

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