HTC and Bandai Namco Team Up to Bring Anime to VR

HTC continues to explore new opportunities to provide its customers with new virtual reality experiences.

With this goal in mind, HTC Vive is teaming up with Bandai Namco Pictures (BN Pictures) to bring popular animated content into VR with a wide range of new virtual social interactions.

Bringing Animated Content to Viveport

BN Pictures is a popular Japanese animation production company best known for its Gintama series, Milpom! stop-motion animation, and Aikatsu! anime. Since HTC Vive is planning to expand its intellectual property portfolio, the cooperation with this animation studio should prove incredibly fruitful.

At the same time, BN Pictures will also benefit from this partnership since it should make its anime content easily accessible for more people and help the company take a step into the world of virtual reality.

According to a post on the Vive Blog, this cooperation will mainly be focused on "integration of animation content, development and distribution resources from both companies, ongoing collaborations on new animation and IP development, and robust exploration of new business opportunities."

As a result, there will soon be more fun and diverse content available on the Viveport virtual reality platform.

We're excited to announce our partnership with @BNPictures_info to bring its well-known #anime to a new dimension in #VR! New and fun virtual entertainment is on the way!😍
👁‍🗨https://t.co/CUcMx4d9Rw pic.twitter.com/ALr0oY0EGV
— Viveport (@Viveport) April 28, 2021

OZAKI Masayuki, the president and CEO of BN Pictures, claims that the partnership should result in creating a new way for anime enthusiasts to enjoy their favorite shows:

By combining the original animation planning and production know-how that we have cultivated over the years with HTC’s advanced technological capabilities and strength as a communications platform, we will be able to create an environment where fans can enjoy experiences together, transcending physical limitations, as if they were diving directly into the world of our creations from anywhere in the world.

This collaboration should result in exciting animation content and social interactions suitable for everyone. From young gamers to more experienced anime addicts.

The new content resulting from this partnership should become available on the Viveport storefront in the coming months.

We’ll Have to Wait for More Specifics

Currently, there are not many details about which of BN Pictures’ original animation series will be brought to VR through Viveport. So we'll all have to wait for the companies to reveal more detais.

However, whether it's Battle Spirits, Sergeant Keroro, or something completely new, we trust it will deliver an unforgettable virtual reality experience for all fans of anime.

source https://www.makeuseof.com/htc-vive-bandai-namco-virtual-reality-anime-content/