E3 2016 has come to a wrap. The usual suspects were there in force, but this year’s E3 also set the stage for significant announcements from major gaming industry players who have committed to joining the VR industry.
1. Microsoft / Xbox
The cat’s out of the bag. Microsoft is bringing VR to Xbox. They may be late following Sony’s forward-looking entrance all the way back in 2014, but Microsoft’s announcement that the more powerful ‘Project Scorpio’ Xbox will feature “high fidelity VR” is one of the biggest validations the VR industry has seen. Granted, the console won’t launch until holiday 2017 and the company hasn’t said which headsets the console will support or even shown what it might look like.
Read More: VR Comes to Xbox with ‘Project Scorpio’ Console, Launching in 2017
2. Bethesda / Fallout 4 / Doom
Ongoing court cases aside, Bethesda surprised the industry during their E3 press conference by announcing a Doom VR tech demo as well as a full port of Fallout 4 to VR, with the latter coming in 2017 to HTC Vive and Xbox Project Scorpio. Even more importantly, the company said this was just a “glimpse” of VR that’s to come, and that onlookers could expect ‘expect [Bethesda] to remain a leader in VR’.
Read More:
- ‘Fallout 4′ and ‘Doom’ Are “just the beginning of Bethesda’s future in virtual reality”
- Hands-on: ‘Fallout 4′ on Vive Offers a Peek at the Future of ‘AAA’ VR
- Hands-on: Doom VR is a Curious But Experimental Tech Demo
3. Square Enix / Final Fantasy XV
Although they have done a modicum of work in the VR space with the VR port of the mobile title Hitman Go for Oculus Rift and Gear VR, Square Enix is now bringing their biggest franchise to virtual reality with Final Fantasy XV. While the entire game wasn’t made for VR, the company as committed to releasing a VR experience as DLC for PlayStation VR.
Read More: ‘Final Fantasy XV’ Trailer Released, “VR Experience” Coming to PlayStation VR
4. Capcom / Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Like Square Enix, Capcom is bringing its biggest franchise to VR. At E3 2016, the company has committed to full VR support for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard on PlayStation VR. While not made exclusively for virtual reality, the company says the game will be playable from start to finish with Sony’s VR headset for players who want to feel the game’s spine-tingling horror up close and personal. Capcom had formerly shown an unbranded VR horror experiment on PSVR, but this is the first real VR product they’ve committed to shipping.
Read More: Resident Evil 7 Will be Playable to the End With PlayStation VR, First Trailer Here
5. Rocksteady Studios / Batman Arkham VR
Rocksteady Studios, the developer behind the successful Batman Arkham franchise has been pulled back to Batman thanks to PlayStation VR. Rocksteady Principal Designer Bill Green writes at the PlayStation Blog, “Now I know we said Batman: Arkham Knight was our last-ever Batman game, but the arrival of the PlayStation VR devkits changed that! The opportunity to create a completely new kind of Batman experience, to take the ‘Be the Batman’ experience to an even deeper level on this exciting new platform, was too good to resist.”
Read More: ‘Batman: Arkham VR’ Announced for PlayStation VR, Teaser Trailer Here
