There are a lot of sides to Disney beyond the movies and merchandising. Every year, for example, it selects a handful of companies to join its Disney Accelerator program. This annual initiative sees Disney open its doors to other businesses working on innovative products and services. This year’s participants have just been announced, and they include two big names in the VR industry.
One of these companies is The Void, a group well known in the VR industry for its impressive location-based VR experiences. The company has a handful of facilities across the world in which people can experience incredible VR tailor-made to that location. We recently went hands-on with its latest offering in Utah and came away extremely impressed, but we’ve also seen The Void offer a Ghostbusters experience too.
The other company on the list is Epic Games, the creators of the Unreal Engine platform that many developers use to build both VR and traditional games. Epic itself has also developed several VR apps including this year’s Robo Recall for the Oculus Rift and is working with augmented reality tech too.
As part of the Disney Accelerator, both The Void and Epic will have access to support and mentorship from the Disney leadership team, and may even end up releasing products or services that tie into the company’s vast stable of IP. Previous accelerator member Sphero, for example, went on to release the remote controlled Star Wars BB-8 toy the year The Force Awakens was released.
In other words, we could see a Void experience or Epic VR game based on Disney animation, Star Wars, or Marvel properties in the future. Nothing’s been confirmed yet, but a new Void location in which you storm the Death Star certainly sounds appealing, doesn’t it? And maybe that Robo Recall lightsaber mod could become a real thing.
“Over the past few years, we’ve had great collaborations with The Walt Disney Company, contributing Unreal Engine technology to everything from theme park rides to Star Wars movies, and we look forward to participating in the Disney Accelerator,” Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney told UploadVR in a statement.
Other companies in this year’s selection include Ambidio, aXiomatic, Brit + Co, Hoodline, Kahoot, ProductionPro, ReplyYes, Samba TV, and Savioke.
