E3 Expo’s VR diversity was loads of fun, and today we have our interview with Emmanuel Marquez, CTO of Starbreeze Studios. Starbreeze Studios earned a lot of press for their Walking Dead VR experience which was loads of fun on their StarVR HMD prototype.
The other day, Gizmodo ran a story to the effect that VR could be perceived as a fad based on how StarVR performed relative to the other solutions in the market. There is merit to their concerns because the HMD is experimental compared to the more polished options. However, there is a much deeper story here that speaks to the hopeful future of these new options, and that story is about the people making it happen.
Just looking at Starbreeze Studios, in addition to acquiring the InfiniteEye HMD and team (that also got their start on MTBS), they’ve also taken on additional employees that are very reputable in this industry. For example, Bernard Mendiburu is an accomplished author and speaker for stereoscopic 3D film making and was formerly CTO of Volfoni (Volfoni is core tech for countless VR CAVEs around the world). Starbreeze Studios’ CTO helped design Nvidia’s PhysX, Intrinisic Graphics (the core of Google Earth), and worked with AMD to make the first PC demo of Sony’s Morpheus possible at SIGGRAPH 2014.
Everybody knows what the other solutions look like and are capable of, and judging by the sheer size of the Starbreeze Studios exhibit, people involved, and available resources – as long as they keep a comparative eye on what’s out there, the fundamentals are there to be a worthy competitor. This doesn’t make sense as a comparison to the 2D/3D conversion scenario for chasing the quick buck.
As it stands, there is very little magic involved with any of this hardware, and it’s much too early to rule products out based on a single hardware revision because it’s a continual process. What’s key is that the process is followed through by qualified people that are pursuing a top quality experience. From an outsider looking in, Starbreeze Studios is making a significant investment – hopefully for the long haul. We shall see!