Adding to the long list of projects Fox Innovation Studio is currently working on, a new VR experience based on the Planet of the Apes franchise is coming.
The historic franchise, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2018, returns to cinemas with War for the Planet of the Apes later this year, and Fox isn’t letting the chance for another high-profile VR tie-in slip through its fingers. Little is known about the piece right now, though Fox did confirm its existence to UploadVR after Variety reported on it from an event at CES last week.
Only a short look at the experience was given, in which the viewer reportedly found themselves face-to-face with an ape. The demo was running on an Oculus Rift though, interestingly, wasn’t based on the upcoming movie, either. Could it perhaps differ from the story of the film, which completes the reboot trilogy that began back in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes? It is apparently being produced by Imaginati Studios, a UK-based game developer which, from the looks of it, is making its debut with this project.
Fox declined to provide more details, but there’s a good chance that this is another videogame-esque VR experience rather than a simple 360 degree video. While the studio is working in that field, last year saw it release a brief, playable piece based on Ridley Scott’s The Martian, which had players using position-tracked controls to play out scenes from the Matt Damon sci-fi blockbuster.
The same approach is being taken for the recently-announced Alien: Covenant VR experience, the existence of which might suggest Fox is keeping on with making these types of experiences, despite coming under criticism for charging so much for The Martian experience. We certainly hope that’s the case; with some adjustments to pricing this is one group that could build out a very interesting and high-profile portfolio of VR experiences. Logan VR, anyone?
