What does it take to convince one of the most important IP owners in the world to green-light a big-ticket game for a nascent consumer platform?
You might think that when you strap on an Oculus Rift headset in the privacy of your garage to play a game in virtual reality, you’re anonymous enough to do whatever you want, with no worries about being judged.
That’s not always the case, says Jason Rubin, vice president for content at Facebook-owned Oculus, the maker of the high-end Rift VR system.
With “multiplayer gaming in VR, you get some of the social anxiety you get in real life,” Rubin told me last month during a demo event for the forthcoming Marvel Powers United VR. “If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like social interaction, [with multiplayer VR titles like] Echo Arena, you’re staring someone in the eye, or waving at them, and we notice that people who are shy get that shyness feeling.”
On the other hand, lots of people have no social awkwardness, and love interacting with others in real life, or in a virtual world. And that’s why it’s vital for the future of VR, and for the potential of big franchises like the Echo series or Marvel Powers United VR, that players be able to choose whether they strike out alone, or in a group.
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I had been human-sized, and the Hulk had towered above me. It was inescapable. “When you play as Rocket Racoon,” Rubin enthused, “and you look up at the Hulk, you feel like an ant. You feel tiny.”
Similarly, he said, comparing playing a VR game to a standard, console game, “when you’re sitting doing this, very passively [with a console game], you’re not moving much. But when you slash a sword with Deadpool [in VR], you slash a sword. It’s an entirely different feeling, and I think Marvel reacted to that, and thought that this is something that their fanbase would like.”
OCULUS’S ROLE
Despite its July unveiling, Marvel Powers United VR won’t be available until next year. Until then, Oculus will play the role of producer, stepping in when necessary, but mainly taking a backseat as Marvel and Sanzaru work closely on the game’s development.
Marvel’s heavy involvement in production is mainly due to how much it cares about its characters being properly represented.
And in that sense, the production of Marvel Powers United VR is quite different than that of other games for the Rift, Rubin explained.
With the Echo franchise–Lone Echo and Echo Arena–Oculus’s role is much more hands-on, working with the game’s developer, Ready at Dawn Studios. In addition to funding the games, Rubin said, Oculus is talking to the developers daily, bringing them best practices and helping out when needed.
“There’s times, not with that team, but with other teams, where we’ve said, ‘Okay, you’re going astray,’ and we’ve pushed them back in,” Rubin said. “We have a very active production role, in the same way a producer produces a movie. The director is ultimately responsible for what you see on the screen, but there are many times when the director or the production go off track, and it’s the producer . . . who comes in and pulls it back onto the schedule.”
And, of course, there’s another production model. An example is Ubisoft’s Star Trek Bridge Crew. “We had no hand in building that product,” Rubin said. “We were aware of it. We helped them with technical issues . . . But that was Ubisoft and the [Star Trek] rights holder working on their own.”
Added Rubin, “That game has been an incredible success story for our platform.”
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Source: Fast Company