HTC are launching a fresh initiative to help foster a healthy developer community on VR with the newly founded Vive Studios. It will act as a new publishing arm for the company, both for internally developed games and with publishing partnerships for third party developers.
Joel Breton, VP of content at HTC Vive said, “We’re excited to formally unveil Vive Studios as a new pillar in HTC’s initiative to drive persistent growth for VR. 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.”
They’re kicking things off almost immediately with Arcade Saga from internal developer 2 Bears Studios set to release on Saturday 10th December. It features three game modes – Fracture, Smash and Bowshot – which take inspiration from arcade classics such as Breakout, Galaga and Arkanoid, while blending these with new VR gameplay ideas.
The best thing about this, to my mind, is how open HTC are being. Where Oculus and PlayStation have been chasing exclusive titles, HTC and Steam have championed a more open and inviting platform that’s so important if VR is to become as successful as they hope. When it launches, Arcade Saga will be compatible with both HTC Vive and Oculus Rift because of this.
Source: press release
