Skip to main content

AR/VR Weekly: Can Transformers spark China’s AR/VR interest?

Optimus Prime fights ... well, considering it's a Bayformer, I'm not sure who Prime's fighting.
Image Credit: Kabam

Transform and roll out … and into your neighborhood virtual reality arcade. That’s what Transformers fan will soon be doing in China.

This week, Hasbro and DMG Entertainment announced they were launching augmented and virtual reality experiences around Transformers, the robots that turn into cars, warplanes, and dinosaurs. They’ve been a phenomenon in toy stores and on TV for decades, and Hollywood gave them more worldwide appeal with a new set of blockbuster films about 10 years ago (with Transformers: The Last Knight coming this summer).

In these AR and VR experiences, you’ll see Transformers engage in battle and sit in driving or flying simulators. I imagine this means jumping behind the wheel of Autobot leader (and all-around swell bot) Optimus Prime as a big rig or Decepticon suck-up Starscream as a jet.

But why is this in China? One could look at box office receipts from 2014’s Transformers: Age of Extinction. It made $1.2 billion worldwide, with nearly one-fifth of that coming from China … in the first two weeks it was in that nation’s theaters. And market watchers think China is going to be the land of VR.

GB Event

GamesBeat Summit Call for Speakers

We’re thrilled to open our call for speakers to our flagship event, GamesBeat Summit 2024 hosted in Los Angeles, where we will explore the theme of “Resilience and Adaption”.

Apply to speak here

But not yet. As we reported today, China may be becoming increasingly indifferent to VR, with accounting for 11 percent of the market (the U.S. was first at 40 percent, followed by Japan). Most concerning is the Chinese viewpoint on buying VR games and apps: In a free-to-play nation rife with piracy, consumers in China aren’t ready to shell out for VR yet.

And with people concerned about making money in VR, this could be worse than trusting Lucy to hold the football for Charlie Brown.

For AR/VR coverage, send news tips to Dean Takahashi and Jeff Grubb (for those that cross over into PC gaming). Please send guest post submissions to Rowan Kaiser. Please be sure to visit our AR/VR Channel.

—Jason Wilson, GamesBeat managing editor

P.S. The future of the game show is going to be mixed … reality, that is.

From GamesBeat

Transformers roll out into VR in China

Bumblebee jumps into VR.Hasbro and Dan Mintz’s Hollywood film studio DMG Entertainment are launching interactive Transformers virtual reality and augmented reality centers in China — a nation where the robots in disguise films have thrived in recent years. The centers will treat guests to “digital simulation experiences” based on the Transformers universe in both VR and AR. The first […]

How Hidden Path designed real-time strategy game Brass Tactics for VR

Brass Tactics looks to set the standard for strategy games in VR. Mark Terrano cut his teeth as a game designer on real-time strategy (RTS) titles such as Age of Empires II. Now at Hidden Path Entertainment, he is using that experience to take RTS games into virtual reality. The company is making its next VR RTS title, Brass Tactics, as an exclusive for the Oculus Rift […]

Ready At Dawn leader hopes multiplayer VR game Echo Arena will be an esport

Echo Arena wants to be one of VR's first esports hits. Ready At Dawn Studios broke a lot of “rules” about virtual reality with its Lone Echo game and its multiplayer companion Echo Arena. For one, it’s a high movement game, where you are constantly going from one place to another, like soccer players running up and down a field. Most VR experiences don’t do this because it […]

Lone Echo’s VR multiplayer Echo Arena is like playing Ultimate Frisbee in zero gravity

Throwing Frisbees in VRReady At Dawn Studios looks like it has a real winner in the virtual reality game Lone Echo and its multiplayer companion Echo Arena. It is a wonderfully creative mix of experiences in VR, reminiscent of science fiction films like Tron and Ender’s Game, real-world sports like soccer, and fantasy sports like Quidditch in the […]

Real-time strategy game Brass Tactics places you in the middle of a VR battlefield

Stand in the battlefield in Brass Tactics VR strategy game.PREVIEW: Brass Tactics is a real-time strategy game in virtual reality. Coming soon for the Oculus Rift and Touch, it makes you feel like you’re in the middle of a virtual tabletop game with castles and fantasy armies. The art style is pretty, but it’s not super realistic. The hills are stacks of blocks layered on […]

U.S. dominates world’s VR market as Chinese consumers yawn

China seems to be souring on VRThe virtual reality industry, such as it is, continues to have a hard time selling itself to much of the world. According to a new report from Canalys, U.S. consumers accounted for 40 percent of the global VR market in the first quarter of 2017. Japan moved up to the number two spot with 14 percent. […]

Beyond GamesBeat

Untethered: That Dragon, Cancer Developer’s New VR Game Series Is A Quirky Mystery Adventure

Google has quietly become a big supporter of VR. One of the largest tech companies in the world is currently attracting top talent for its Daydream platform and recently purchased Owlchemy Labs, one of VR’s biggest new developers. Though you won’t find triple-A titles like PlayStation VR’s Resident Evil 7 or Farpoint on Daydream yet, there’s still a slew of wholly original and engaging VR experiences on the headset. One of the those titles is Untethered – a fascinating VR mystery game from the makers of That Dragon, Cancer. (via UploadVR)

VR Dev Uses Vive Trackers For Full Body Step-Based Locomotion

With HTC’s Vive Trackers now finally in the hands of developers, many are coming up with new types of experiences that bring us closer to virtual worlds. We’ve already seen full body tracking enabled with the concept, but developer RealityRig is now building on that concept. (via UploadVR)

Major League Baseball Unveils VR Game Experience

In what just may be the biggest marriage between virtual reality and a professional sports franchise to date, Major League Baseball has officially lifted the curtain on its new immersive viewing experience, At Bat VR. Developed by the MLB’s gaming and VR team at MLB Advanced Media, the intuitive virtual reality experience gives owners of any Daydream-ready smartphone the chance to view live games, playback highlights, check the scores of past, current and future games, listen to live play-by-play radio broadcasts, check current team standings and a whole lot more. (via VR Scout)

Oculus Research’s focal surface display could make VR much more comfortable for our eyeballs

The current generation of VR is great, but it’s far from perfect. One way VR falls short of the real world is the fixed focus distance. Despite the illusion of depth from the stereo images you’re looking at, each image is essentially flat, at a fixed perceived distance from your face, and with a focus selected by the game engine instead of your eyeballs. This can lead to fatigue or worse kinds of discomfort, and also puts limits on developers who need to strive to keep content in a visual sweet spot and a constant focus distance or risk discomfort for their users. (via The Verge)

Subscribe to AR/VR Weekly

and receive this newsletter every Wednesday

VB Daily - get the latest in your inbox

Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here.

An error occured.