TIME-LIFE and HTC Launch 75th Anniversary ‘Remembering Pearl Harbor’ Experience for Vive

By
Ben Lang
-
11

Launching today for $10 on HTC’s VR app store, Viveport, Remembering Pearl Harbor commemorates the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the 1941 tragedy that led the US to join World War II. A collaboration between TIME’s LifeVR, HTC, and Deluxe VR, the experience is told through the eyes of Lt. Jim Downing, one of the oldest living survivors of the attack.

TIME-LIFE drew upon their publication’s historical archives during the time of the attack, as well as information from the National WWII Museum and the Library of Congress in an effort to create an authentic retelling of the events that unfolded on that “date which will live in infamy.”

“Drawing from the extensive holdings of the LIFE archive, we were able to feature original issues of LIFE magazine that would have been in the homes of Americans at the time along with photos by the staff photographers throughout the experience,” said Liz Ronk, photo editor, LIFE + TIME history.

remembering-pearl-harbor-htc-vive-7In the experience, exclusively available on the HTC Vive, you’ll see the world through the eyes of Lt. Jim Downing, one of the oldest living survivors of the attack, who narrates the journey which takes you from an American home of the era to sites of the tragedy.

A behind-the-scenes mini documentary video (above) details the creation and vision behind the experience.

In commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the attack, Remembering Pearl Harbor will be open to the public from December 6-7 at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City, and from December 5-11 at the Newseum in Washington DC.

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. See here for more information.


Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Get Schwifty!

    So, it’s out for Vive in Steam, are we saying by exclusivity it is only available in Steam and therefore not Oculus Home distribution, but in reality available to Rift users like all Steam content?

    • James Friedman

      Yeah I wonder that myself. I’m sure Rift will be able to play it. It looks amazing

  • Raphael

    Well having stated clearly in the video that it uses full room scale and also stating Vive is the only system capable it seems unlikely. This looks like a Vive funded project. Given that Palmer luckey featured in time magazine he had every opportunity to work with the magazine. You do realize oculus has a lot of exclusive content?

    • PrymeFactor

      I do also realize the Vive has a lot of fanboy owners who complain vocally and angrily here about Rift exclusivity.

      Also note that these guys become unusually quiet when the situation is the reverse and something is exclusive for the Vive.

      • Raphael

        Vive exclusives are pretty rare. many games on steam that were Vive only are now being updated to support touch and octopus. Financially it makes sense for a developer to publish across multiple VR platforms. VR is still a niche peripheral at this stage so locking to one platform ain’t a good idea. So I think it’s great that space pirate trainer and other games will now support both and perhaps that osvr thing.

        But I do find it hilarious that this Pearl Harbor is Vive only after Time did a feature on Palmey and his octopus many months ago.

        • DiGiCT Ltd

          I got a mail from OSVR stating already over 200 vr apps on steam work with osvr already.

      • J.C.

        I’m betting the majority of “Vive exclusives” will work on the Rift soon after Touch officially launches. Can you say the same for Oculus exclusives?

        If Oculus, within a few weeks of Touch launching, adds official Vive support to its store, I’ll happily install it and purchase games through it. I think a VR-exclusive store is a good idea. But a VR-exlusive store that is ALSO hardware-exclusive is an awful idea. It won’t get Vive owners to buy a Rift, it’ll kill their enthusiasm, which is literally THE thing pushing ANY VR sales right now. There’s no killer app, the hardware is a pain to set up, and the price of entry is high enough to drive away casual-interest people. Oculus doesn’t seem to understand that, and are HELLBENT on killing enthusiasm in anyone who didn’t buy their headset that didn’t have roomscale.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      yeah, but it’s the vive people that are bitching at Oculus even though Vive has it’s own exclusives…

      • Lau Pedersen

        The Vive has no exclusives that aren’t limited due to lacking hardware for the Rift, to my knowledge. The only thing coming close is Google Earth VR, which did have a head-set check, but which still needs tracked controllers to work.

        What exclusives are you talking about?

      • Raphael

        oculus is a closed system supporting only oculus and oculus pay/bribe for exclusive even if only for a certain period of time. Steamvr is open for oculus. Many games on steamvr that were Vive only were Vive only because oculus lacked VR controllers. Many of those games are opening up to include octopus now. So no…Vive doesn’t have a whole lot of exclusives and the Vive runs under steamvr which includes oculus.

  • CazCore

    in that recent Steam autumn sale, there were shitloads of games (mostly cheap, as in, under $5….actually i didn’t look at much of the rest) for Vive, with no Rift support.