Here’s our roundup of news from ‘day 4’ of E3 2017. New The Walking Dead games were revealed, Bethesda clarifies VR platform exclusivity stance, we go hands-on with Ace Combat 7, and try out DisplayLink’s XR wireless solution for the HTC Vive.
Multiple The Walking Dead VR Games in Development:
A new partnership to develop multiple original VR titles within the extended The Walking Dead universe was announced at E3 2017. In an interview with IGN, Skybound Entertainment and Skydance Interactive Presidents of Interactive Dan Murray and Peter Ackermann discussed details of a new series of “immersive narrative storytelling” titles currently in the works, promising new characters and a new storyline. The games run on Unreal Engine, and are targeting all three major VR platforms.
Bethesda Plans to Support “as many platforms as we can”:
A recent tweet from Bethesda looked to quell fears in the community about VR platform exclusivity. Having showcased Doom VFR for PSVR and HTC Vive and Fallout VR for Vive at the Bethesda keynote, followed by the reveal of Skyrim VR for PSVR during Sony’s presentation, the VR community have reacted to the obvious omission of the Oculus Rift. The missing association is understandable, as Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax was engaged in a legal battle with Oculus/Facebook earlier this year. However, the products due to launch on SteamVR should automatically work with the Rift, unless Bethesda take extra steps to lock out the hardware.
Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown PSVR mode hands-on:
Showcased at the Bandai Namco booth on the E3 show floor, we got some hands-on time with Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown using PSVR. The game has been pushed to 2018, and unfortunately won’t be entirely playable in VR. However, the team promises to deliver ‘several hours’ of gameplay in a separate VR mode, which features ‘100 percent the same mobility’ as the non-VR campaign.
DisplayLink XR wireless tech hands-on:
We tried DisplayLink’s ‘XR’ wireless VR headset solution, a reference device demonstrated with the HTC Vive that aims to arrive on the market as an adapter for existing wired VR headsets or to be built into future headset designs. The 60GHz-based wireless technology and custom compression techniques can handle “up to 24 Gbps” of video throughput, which DisplayLink Executive Chairman Graham O’Keefe claims is enough overhead for next-gen headsets with even higher reslution displays.
