Category: VR Awards 2018

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VR Awards 2018: The Winners Speak

There are all kinds of awards out there – mainly because most everything has some organisation quantifying who are the best in what they do. Now we’re in the fourth quarter of the year it’s only natural that we end up seeing more awards ceremonies to reveal the high achievers of 2018.

Earlier this week VRFocus hit the red carpet for the VR Awards 2018, which once again celebrated the field of virtual reality (VR).

VRAwards 2018 logo“The VR Awards is at the centre of recognition and celebration of outstanding achievement in VR.”  Says the organisation, “Combined with year-round international initiatives, the VR Awards brings together a night of red carpet highlights, the celebration of excellence and unique access to the world’s most influential names in immersive technology.”

A media partner for the event, Nina Salomons and Kevin Joyce were both in attendance and even helped dish out the awards during the evening. You can find a list of the winners below, as well as some footage of the event and interviews with several of the victors.

VR Awards 2018 Winners

VR Headset of the Year:
HTC Vive Pro

VR Game of the Year:
Episode 2: Heart of the Emberstone (Cloudhead Games Ltd.)

VR Experience of the Year:
Manifest 99 (Flight School)

VR Film of the Year:
CARNE y ARENA (ILMxLAB)

VR Marketing of the Year:
Coco VR (Magnopus)

Rising VR Company of the Year:
Neurogaming Limited

Innovative VR Company of the Year:
Ultrahaptics

VR Education of the Year:
HoloLAB Champions (Schell Games)

VR Healthcare of the Year:
Virti

Out-of-home VR Entertainment of the Year:
Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire (ILMxLAB and The VOID)

VR Social Impact Award:
Window to our World (VISYON & The Cornerstone Partnership)

VR Architecture and Real Estate of the Year:
Bostoen – Creating your dream house before it’s even built (Nanopixel)

VRFocus will bring you more news and videos very soon.

 

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‘The Gallery: Heart of the Emberstone’ Wins VR Awards’ 2018 Game of the Year

The VR Awards’ second annual award show was held last night, and the winners are in. Taking the award for VR Game of the Year was Cloudhead’s room-scale adventure The Gallery – Episode 2: Heart of the Emberstone (2017).

As the sequel to The Gallery – Episode 1: Call of the Starseed (2016), episode two picks up where we left off last; you’ve received a magical Gauntlet that gives you a mysterious new power. You travel to Ember, a desiccated and long-forgotten world, where you search for your sister Elsie, uncover the history of Ember, and reveal the true intentions of the dark figure seed in Starseed.

We gave Heart of the Emberstone a very solid [9/10] rating in our spoiler-free review. You can check out it out here.

Although the game was launched in October 2017, the VR Awards’ cutoff date for consideration was in August, with the event taking place on October 9th of last year— leaving it in the running for this year’s VR Awards. Last year’s GOTY was awarded to Raw Data (2017) by Survios, which was still in Steam Early Access at the time of award consideration.

The VR Awards is a London-based ceremony and dinner that saw some 300 delegates attend last year from industry players such as Google, Epic Games, Oculus, HTC, AMD, Universal and Framestore.

Competition to take the show’s GOTY wasn’t light this year either, as the shortlist included games such as Beat Saber, Lone Echo, and both Skyrim VR and Fallout 4 VR.

VR Awards GOTY 2018 Nominees

  • Bethesda Softworks – Fallout 4 VR
  • Bethesda Softworks – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR
  • Beat Games – Beat Saber
  • Survios Inc. – Sprint Vector
  • Ready At Dawn – Lone Echo / Echo Arena
  • Hidden Path Entertainment – Brass Tactics
  • Vertical Robot – Red Matter
  • VRWERX – Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul
  • ARVORE Immersive Experiences – Pixel Ripped 1989
  • inXile Entertainment – The Mage’s Tale
  • Cloudhead Games Ltd. – The Gallery – Episode 2: Heart of the Emberstone
  • Electric Hat Games – TO THE TOP
  • nDreams – Shooty Fruity

Other award winners included HTC Vive Pro for Best VR Headset, Ultrahaptics for Most Innovative VR Company, Manifest 99 for Best VR Experience, Carne Y Arena for Best VR Film, Coco VR for Best VR Marketing, and Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire for Best Out-of-Home Experience.

Check out the full list on the VR Awards website.

The post ‘The Gallery: Heart of the Emberstone’ Wins VR Awards’ 2018 Game of the Year appeared first on Road to VR.

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VR Awards Announces First Annual Investors Lunch

The VR Awards are one of the most prestigious awards in the immersive technology space, dedicated to achievement in virtual reality (VR). Now the organisers of the VR Awards are working with companies and brands including AWE, Super Ventures and Digital Catapult to launch the inaugural VR Awards Investors Lunch which will precede the Awards ceremony.

The VR Awards is recognised as one of the largest events celebrating achievement in VR, and combines the awards ceremony and dinner with year-round initiatives to promote VR and immersive technology.

The Investors Lunch will take place at 12:30pm on Tuesday 16th October and will be an exclusive event for international technology investors. The lunch will provide an opportunity for guests to meet with other investors and discuss investment funds and strategies as well as broker new deals. After the lunch, investors are invited to the VR Awards ceremony.

Executive producer of the VR Awards, Daniel Colaianni: “At the VR Awards, we endeavour to push the boundaries of what we can achieve, both in Virtual Reality and in reality. This is the logical next step in evolving our brand further and creating a greater conversation about what is possible in the world of XR.”

Tom Emrich of Super Ventures commented: “Events like the VR Awards and the Investors’ Lunch are critical to the overall success of the XR (AR/VR/MR) industry, especially at such an early stage. We are proud to support an event that brings startups and investors together to encourage investment in this next wave of computing.”

Rebecca Gregory-Clarke, Lead Technologist, Immersive Technology, at Digital Catapult added: “We’re pleased to support the Investors Lunch, bringing together international investors to encourage and stimulate investment into leading-edge immersive technology. This builds on our work, through our Augmentor programme, of helping innovative and commercially-focused immersive companies with technical and business mentorship, access to state-of-the-art facilities and support to pitch their ideas to investors.”

VR Awards 2017 press-photo-winners

Further information on the VR Awards can be found on the official website. For future coverage on the VR Awards and other VR-related events, keep checking back with VRFocus.

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VR Awards To Host Simultaneous VR and Real World Award Ceremony

The VR Awards is an event which the organisers say is dedicated towards celebrating outstanding achievement in the virtual reality (VR) industry. Like many smaller awards ceremonies, it has previously been restricted to only those in attendance who witness the events as they unfold. Now thanks to a partnership with AltspaceVR, anyone with a VR headset will be able to participate.

The partnership will see the awards presented both in the real world at the ceremony in London as well as inside the AltspaceVR environment at the same time.

AltspaceVR highrise2

AltspaceVR will be hosting the free-to-join event, which will be held in a customised virtual room that VR users will be able to join. All major VR headsets are supported, including Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Go, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality. For those without access to a VR headset, proceedings can also be witnessed in 2D from an Android smartphone or PC.

Joining the event live in AltspaceVR is Product owner, Katie Kelly, “AltspaceVR is excited to invite the VR universe to come together in one place to celebrate this amazing industry,” says Katie Kelly, Program Owner of AltspaceVR, “The VR Awards are trendsetters in every way and we’re excited to host them for this rare VR event.”

Marking this unique partnership, Executive producer of the VR Awards, Daniel Colaianni will be on stage on the night to welcome both physical and virtual attendees to the celebrations: “For the VR Awards this is a momentous occasion we’ve looked to implement since day one, as an international award show recognising innovation in all sectors of the immersive industry, this was by far the most logical step in further pushing the boundaries of VR.”

Further information on the VR Awards Altspace event can be found on the AltspaceVR event page. Alternatively, information on the VR Awards can be found on the official website. For future coverage on the VR Awards and other VR-related events, keep checking back with VRFocus.

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Official Shortlist Selection for the 2018 VR Awards Unveiled

In March the VR Awards opened up its annual nominations looking to fill 12 categories with the latest and greatest from the world of virtual reality (VR). Of course there was plenty to choose from and now the category shortlists have been revealed.

VR Awards 2017 press-photo-winners

While some categories don’t hold too many surprises – reading like a greatest library selection – others do have a few interesting choices. Here are the 12 categories once again, this time with their shortlists:

  • VR Headset of the Year
    • HTC – Vive Pro
    • Oculus – Go
    • VRgineers Inc. – VRHero 5K Plus
    • HTC – Vive Focus
  • VR Game of the Year
  • VR Experience of the Year
    • REWIND – Silicon Valley: Inside The Hacker Hostel
    • Framestore – A Moon For All Mankind
    • Magnopus – Coco VR
    • Magnopus – Blade Runner 2049: Memory Lab
    • Preloaded and BBC Worldwide – BBC Earth: Life in VR – California Coast
    • Tomorrow Never Knows – The Day The World Changed
    • Flight School – Manifest 99
    • Framestore – Sky4DVR
    • Human Interact – Starship Commander
    • Interactive Media Foundation gGmbHl – Ulm Stories – The Dream of Flying
    • NextVR – NBA League Pass in NextVR: 2017-2018 Regular Season
  • VR Film of the Year
    • Baobab Studios – Asteroids!
    • ILMxLAB – CARNE y ARENA
    • Pink Kong Studios – Aurora Room
    • One Films – The Committee
    • Lucid Dreams Productions – The Sun Ladies
    • Olympic Channel & Jaunt – Trending Gold
    • Vision3 – My Africa
    • NSC Creative – Vestige
    • Cohn & Wolfe – Isle of Dogs Behind the Scenes (in Virtual Reality)
    • TopDogVR – Speed Kills VR
  • VR Marketing of the Year
    • ILMxLAB – Star Wars: Droid Repair Bay
    • Flight School – GMC Rangeland Derby VR
    • BackLight – L’Oreal / Diesel Only the Brave
    • Pebble Studios – Pebble Studios: DuckTales | 360° Adventure: The Lost Key of Tralla La
    • Magnopus – Coco VR
    • Somewhere Else – Delicatessen
    • GrandPano – SPP – SMART HOME
    • Magnopus – Blade Runner 2049: Memory Lab
    • Welcomm (working together with Bravo!/Plato Reality) – Melbourne, meet your new train
    • TAKELEAP – IKEA Virtual Reality Store
    • Audi and ZeroLIght – Audi VR Experience
  • Rising VR Company of the Year Innovative VR Company of the Year
    • Flight School
    • SpringboardVR
    • VRgineers Inc.
    • Fast Travel Games AB
    • Neurogaming Limited
    • Cooperative Innovations
    • Anzu.io
  • VR Social Impact Award
    • Striker VR
    • Ultrahaptics
    • Pixvana
    • Spinview
    • AiSolve
    • TAKELEAP
    • Human Interact
    • Visbit Inc.
    • Flipside
    • Gravity Sketch
  • VR Architecture & Real Estate of the Year VR Education & Training of the Year
    • Schell Games – HoloLAB Champions
    • MEL Science – MEL Chemistry VR
    • Elara Systems – Alcon Virtual Eye Experience
    • ITI, United Rentals, & Serious Labs – VR Crane & Equipment Operator Training Simulator Suite
    • Alliander – Alliander Virtual Platform
    • VR Factory – Bartender VR Simulator
    • MEDIASQUAD Medienentwicklungs- und Vertriebs-GmbH – Pharmaceutical Line Clearance VR Training
    • FarBridge, Inc. – MasterWorks: Journey Through History
  • VR Healthcare of the Year
    • Elara Systems – Alcon Virtual Eye Experience
    • Medis Media – 3D Organon VR Anatomy – Enterprise edition
    • VRHealth – First Certified VR Medical Device Company in the world
    • Rescape Innovation Ltd – DR.VR
    • Infinite MR – Cigna Peak Challenge
    • INFINITE MIXED REALITY – INFINITY HOUSE
    • Virti – Virti
    • appliedVR – EaseVR
    • NUMENA Virtual Reality Architects – B. Braun Spine Days
  • Out-of-Home VR Entertainment of the Year
    • ILMxLAB – Star Wars™: Secrets of the Empire
    • Figment Productions – Kraken Unleashed, SeaWorld Orlando
    • Framestore – A Moon For All Mankind
    • BackLight – Eclipse
    • Neurogaming Limited – World of Tanks VR
    • HOLOGATE – HOLOGATE
    • Kynoa – Koliseum Soccer VR
    • Neurogaming Limited – PolygonVR
    • Frontgrid – ParadropVR
  • VR Social Impact Award
    • ILMxLAB – CARNE y ARENA
    • The Distillery – What Will Your Day Bring?
    • Flight School – Evolution of Testicles
    • The Guardian Media Group – The Party – A virtual experience of autism
    • Virtual Dream Foundation – Virtual Dream
    • CNN – Global Warning – Arctic Melt
    • VISYON – Window to our World
    • VR CITY – Malaria: Life on the frontline
    • Animal Equality – The Dairy Industry in 360 Degrees
  • VR Architecture and Real Estate of the Year
    • GrandPano – ALL in ONE VR for architecture
    • Virtual Worlds – Virtual Worlds 4D Theatre
    • Overstruct – Overstruct
    • Nanopixel – Bostoen – Creating your dream house before it’s even built

VRAwards 2017 01

The VR Awards 2018 take place in London, UK, on 16th October. Tickets are still available with standard early bird prices per person going for £155 + VAT until 14th August. For any further updates from the VR Awards, keep reading VRFocus.

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VR Awards 2018 Nominations Are Now Open

After the success of the virtual reality (VR) Awards 2017, VR Bound have announced it will be returning for 2018 and the nominations are now open.

VRawards 2017 Hero

Last year the VR Awards saw a number of big names attend the event including AMD Studios, Oculus, HTC, Google, Framestone, Rebellion, Leapmotion, Epic Games and many, many more. These companies went on to win big as well with the 2017 winners praising some of the best VR experiences of the year. Now with the VR Awards 2018, the event is set to be bigger and better than before.

VRAwards 2017 01

This year there are 12 categories once again for the VR Awards including:

  • VR Headset of the Year
  • VR Game of the Year
  • VR Experience of the Year
  • VR Film of the Year
  • VR Marketing of the Year
  • Rising VR Company of the Year Innovative VR Company of the Year
  • VR Social Impact Award
  • VR Architecture & Real Estate of the Year VR Education & Training of the Year
  • VR Healthcare of the Year
  • Out-of-Home VR Entertainment of the Year

Those wanting to put forward a nomination will be able to do so from now until 1st May, 2018. This includes a product or service that is unreleased so long as it is released and public by the 1st July, 2018. Prospective nominees may be contacted by the award team and, if shortlisted, entered into the judging process. A panel of 38 expert judges will then review applications in preparation for the announcement of the winners on the night of the VR Awards 2018.

Those who attend the event will be treated to a three course dinner, live entertainment and a VIP after party in the heart of London. There are currently over 400 pre-registered interests so the competition is already heating up. To get more information and to nominate head over to the official website. An entry fee is required to be paid to complete the nomination process. Tickets to attend the event are also on sale right now which can be picked up from the VR Awards website.

VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest on the VR Awards 2018 to stay tuned for more in the future.