Perhaps one of the most surprising aspects of the birth of virtual reality (VR) isn’t the number of big names being attracted to the tech, but instead how those names are willing to cross media to work in it. Another such example of this has arisen today. Skydance Media, a Paramount Pictures-based film and television production company who have had a hand in the latest Star Trek movie and the most recent Mission: Impossible films, has bought indie videogame developer The Workshop Entertainment to work in the tech.
You might know that studio for giving a helping hand to a number of projects over the past few years, the most notable being Tango Gameworks’ The Evil Within and Starbreeze Studios’ Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. The studio hasn’t actually worked with VR before, but there’s little doubt it will get there with Skydance Media. According to Variety, the developer will become a part of a new team named Skydance Interactive, and will work on projects for head-mounted displays (HMDs) like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR.
“We believe that virtual reality is the perfect medium by which to create an interactive platform where immersive storytelling intersects with active gameplay, which has long been a goal of ours at Skydance Media,” said Skydance Media CEO David Ellison. “We are making a significant investment in virtual reality with the launch of Skydance Interactive, which allows us not only to develop and publish original games, but also to extend the reach of our existing franchises. I am proud that we have found our ideal partners in The Workshop and am thrilled to welcome Peter [Akemann, CEO], Chris [Busse, GM] and the rest of the team into the Skydance family.”
There is no talk yet of the first project the studio will work on, but there is hope that it may work on some of its previously mentioned major titles.
For the latest news in VR check back with VRFocus.
