Samsung will open a studio dedicated to creating content for virtual reality devices:
Lights, camera, Samsung! The company behind the Gear VR virtual reality headset is opening a New York studio to produce new immersive experiences. Samsung announced the news here at the Sundance film festival in Park City, Utah, where virtual reality is emerging as a prominent theme.
[...] Festival-goers thronged Samsung's showcase during the day, with queues forming to try the Gear VR headset. Friday also saw the premiere of a new virtual-reality sketch from comedy website Funny or Die starring Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer of TV's "The League" and "Childrens Hospital". The comedians then enthused about VR at a boisterous panel discussing the making of the sketch, during which Huebel described VR as "the most fun way to blow people's minds." If people are really going to embrace virtual reality, they need stuff to actually watch on their headsets. Last year's Sundance saw the Facebook-owned Oculus VR company announce an initiative to create more content, and this year Oculus has recruited actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt to help promote its wares.
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How do you profit from virtual reality without the need for customers or products? You sue! Fresh from winning a $500 million judgment against Facebook/Oculus, ZeniMax Media is now suing Samsung:
Carmack, whose company id Software was acquired by ZeniMax in 2009, was one of the driving forces behind the Gear VR. While the headset was released by Samsung, it's described as "powered by Oculus," with heavy software optimizations developed by Carmack. But the lawsuit alleges that Carmack owed much of his success at Oculus to software he developed as part of a team at ZeniMax.
Among other things, the Texas court filing claims that Carmack secretly brought Oculus (and former ZeniMax) employee Matt Hooper into id Software's offices to develop an "attack plan" for mobile VR, which Oculus would later take to Samsung. The Samsung Gear VR was also built on some of the same code as the Oculus Rift, which was the subject of ZeniMax's earlier lawsuit.
Also at Ars Technica and PC Gamer. Zenimax v Samsung lawsuit. Gear VR.
Previously: Zenimax Sues Oculus on Trade Secrets
Mark Zuckerberg Will Testify in Oculus VR Trade Secrets Trial
Facebook/Oculus Ordered to pay $500 Million to ZeniMax
John Carmack Sues ZeniMax for $22.5 Million
Founder of Oculus VR, Palmer Luckey, Departs Facebook
Related: Samsung to Open VR Movie Studio in New York
Goodbye Cardboard: Google to Create VR Headset to Compete with Samsung's Gear VR
Samsung Gear VR Adds a Tracked Controller
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 25 2016, @11:10PM
"If people are really going to embrace virtual reality, they need stuff to actually watch on their headsets"
Fuck that. If people are going to embrace virtual reality, you should go all in, Star Trek holodeck style!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday January 25 2016, @11:16PM
Hologram tech has always been 5-10 years away.
And good luck making an immersive scene that covers your entire field of vision with 1st/2nd/3rd generation consumer holography.
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday January 26 2016, @05:39AM
IM360, Sundance Institute Launch Sundance VR Mobile App [tomshardware.com]
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