Whilst all of geekdom simmers with hot anticipation awaiting a brand new entry in the Star Wars movie franchise, ILMxLabs and Google are about to drive the hype further with a new virtual reality experience, based on Star Wars:The Force Awakens – and it’s out soon!

It’s been a painful wait for many this year. Drip fed with well-judged, spine-tingling trailers and snippets of news, a new movie episode in the Star Wars saga is very nearly upon us.

Helmed by JJ Abrams, Star Wars:The Force Awakens, takes place after The Return of the Jedi (episode six in Lucas’ post Special Edition universe) and is hoped by many to restore faith in a franchise that very much seemed to lose its way during the era of Lucas’ three prequels, Episodes 1-3.

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Now, Disney, in partnership with Google, have officially announced a “stunning” interactive virtual reality experience to be launched on December 2nd to accompany the new movie’s imminent launch. The Star Wars app will be released for iOS and Android devices.

Coming on December 2 is a new virtual reality experience developed along with Google and Verizon. This will feature the first-of-its-kind serialized Google Cardboard Virtual Reality (VR) experience that combines a compelling story, which ties directly into the opening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with the very latest cutting-edge Virtual Reality technology. The Google Cardboard Virtual Reality experience will live in the official Star Wars app and is available on bothiOS and Android devices.

The Google Cardboard based VR experience is developed by ILMxLAB, Lucasfilm’s dedicated lab for developing virtual reality experiences. We reported some time ago of the studio’s creation and The Force Awakens virtual reality content was teased at Oculus’ recent Connect developer conference.

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It seems also that US Star Wars fans will be able to pick up 4 custom themed Google Cardboard viewers from Verizon stores, also beginning December 2nd – reflecting their choice to support the dark side or the light.

Meanwhile, I’m off to sedate myself in preparation for the arduous weeks wait until these new apps and finally the new movie arrives on December 17th and 18th worldwide.

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Paul James
Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.