It still feels bizarre that The Darkness developer Starbreeze has its own VR HMD, StarVR, but the company is still trying to get us all to take it seriously.
To that end, Starbreeze has today announced its first cinematic experience for its HMD, named Cockatoo Spritz. Little about the experience has been revealed so far but director Stephane Barbato says that it “tells the story of the effervescence.” Shot in France, the piece takes inspiration from some of the finest film and photography pioneers such as the Lumiere brothers and Lubistch and Billy Wilder. Starbreeze Chairman Michael Hjorth notes that the team hopes to “fully realize the potential” of VR film with the piece.
Starbreeze also hopes to showcase the StarVR’s tech specs with the experience. To that end, the company is heading to the Cannes Film Festival from May 11th – 20th to exhibit it along with the first title to be revealed for the device, Overkill’s The Walking Dead VR Experience. In certain areas, StarVR beats both the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive on paper with a 210 degree FOV with a 5K resolution. The company is clearly keen to highlight this before they look to monetize the device later down the line.
That monetization will include a full scale VR arcade located in Los Angeles, California that’s due to open during spring or summer this year. The facility will only be using StarVR HMDs and will also showcase The Walking Dead, though it certainly sounds as if this new experience could also help turn it into a VR cinema of sorts. That’s not the only work it’s doing in VR; the company also recently invested $750,000 in ElemenTerra VR developer, Freeform Studios.
Starbreeze certainly deserves points for the sheer amount of effort it’s putting into StarVR, no matter how strange it may seem. We’re still unclear on any potential consumer release plans for the kit, but if that is on the table then the team has its work cut out for it in raising awareness and convincing people that its device is the one to go for.
