Google Just Earned One of The Most Thriving VR Game Studios

Google declared these days that it’s acquiring Owlchemy Labs, the VR-focused studio that created Job simulator and Rick and Morty, Virtual Rick-ality. Owlchemy will keep publishing VR games for multiple platforms, however with backing from Google  just like Tilt Brush studio Skillman & Hackett, which Google acquired in 2015. “We have a slate of original games that we’ve in the production and prototyping part, and we are going to still try this,” says Owlchemy co-founder Alex Schwartz. “We are very excited to still try this with the support of Google behind U.S..”
Owlchemy is known for developing games that closely mimic using real hands, and a journal post assures readers that it is “unalterable to focus on hand interactions and top quality user experiences, like with Job simulator.” Schwartz says that full-motion hand tracking is “kind of our key issue.” That stands in contrast to Google’s current VR platform, Daydream  which uses a remote with limited motion controls. “We have a pretty big vision” for virtual and augmented reality, says Google VR and AR engineering director Relja Markovic. “Daydream’s a good product i really like my Daydream. however there’ll be many, many things that come afterward.”

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It’s troublesome to read too much into what this implies, and Markovic points out that Google has announce products purely for non-Google headsets, like Tilt Brush and Google Earth. however the acquisition does desire it is pointing toward one thing beyond the present version of Daydream. “If you think concerning where VR and AR are going, particularly AR and Tango, and different ways of interacting along with your environments, i do not assume we are done exploring however you interact with controls in your hand. that is not saying ‘Oh, and so we are going to bring Job Sim to Daydream,’” he says. “But there is a lot of learning to still be done in that space likewise.”

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Markovic and Schwartz say Owlchemy will keep engaging with the larger VR development community, sharing information and best practices likewise as potentially contributing to Google’s experimental Daydream Labs program.

Owlchemy did not begin as a VR studio in the 2011, it announce the controversial satirical game smuggle Truck, followed by the fluffy-animal-themed update Snuggle Truck. however it was one of the 1st studios to work with the initial oculus Rift development kit in 2013, and Job simulator was a originate title for the PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, and oculus touch motion controllers. in the fairly little and new world of VR gaming, it’s one of the industry’s major success stories; Job simulator passed $3 million in sales at the beginning of 2017.

Google will probably say additional concerning virtual reality at its I/O developer conference next week, although there are some rumors concerning what we’d see, and Schwartz says Owlchemy is not imminently saying any new projects. however the acquisition suggests that at the very least, Google is still working on its push to develop additional VR content, and that in contrast to Facebook-owned firm oculus which recently closed its VR film studio in order to fund external projects it is comfortable keeping talent in-house.