During E3 2016, Razer revealed that it took the charge in launching the OSVR Developer Fund by putting $5 million on the table to help developers bring content to the OSVR ecosystem. Razer is now ready to reveal the first round of beneficiaries.
After “several hundred proposals” from prospective VR developers seeking aid to help bring their projects to the OSVR ecosystem, Razer revealed that it greenlit the first round of OSVR Developer Fund projects.
Selected projects include games that are already available on other platforms, such as Radial-G: Racing Revolved, CDF Starfighter, and Descent: Underground. Some of the other games aren’t out yet but will be soon, such as Alice VR, which will be out in October, and Redout, which launches in September. Razer even selected a handful of games that don’t have announced release dates, such as The Hum: Abduction, a first person horror game about alien abductions, and Infinite, an exploration game that takes place on another planet.
The most curious selections out of the bunch are the two first person shooters, A-10 VR from Futuretown and The Brookhaven Experiment from Phosphor Games. The OSVR ecosystem includes peripherals, but we've not yet seen a motion control system suitable for these games, unless you happen to have an older Razer Hydra lying around. If Sixense ever releases the STEM System, that could be a viable option, too.
“The large number of submissions for our OSVR Developer Fund are a great indicator of how important an open ecosystem is to VR developers,” said Christopher Mitchell, OSVR Lead, Razer. “We look forward to even more incredible innovations, inspired by the early-stage success we are fostering now.”
Razer selected a total of 15 titles for funding, but the company said that there are more coming. The company has plans reveal a larger round of greenlit projects towards the end of Q3. If you have a project that you would like to bring to OSVR, you can still sign up for for the OSVR Developer fund.
| Game | Developer | Availability | Website |
|---|---|---|---|
| Limb | Interdiction Studios | Q4, 2017 | www.patreon.com/InterdictionStudios |
| Abduction | Red Iron Labs | October 31st, 2016 | www.redironlabs.com/Abduction |
| PolyRunner | Lucid Sight | TBA | www.lucidsight.com |
| RC Soccer VR | Beatshapers | Q4, 2016 | Row 3 - Cell 3 |
| StarDrone VR | Beatshapers | Q4, 2016 | Row 4 - Cell 3 |
| Theme Park Studio | Pantera Game Studio | TBA | www.ThemeParkStudio.com |
| Alice VR | Carbon Studios | October, 2016 | www.alice-vr.com/ |
| Infinite | Gateway VR Studios GmbH | TBA | www.project-gateway.de/infinite/ |
| The Hum: Abduction | Totwise Studios | TBA | www.thehumuniverse.com/the-hum-abductions/ |
| Redout | 34BigThings | September, 2016 | www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OLVNDQfmCo |
| The Brookhaven Experiment | Phosphor Games | Q4, 2016 | www.phosphorgames.com/blog/games/the-brookhaven-experiment/ |
| A-10 | Futuretown | Q4, 2016 | www.futuretown.io/portfolio/a-10-vr/ |
| Descent: Underground | Descendent Studios | Now | www.descendentstudios.com/ |
| Radial-G : Racing Revolved | Tammeka Games | Now | www.radial-g.com |
| CDF Starfighter | Mad About Games Studios Ltd | September, 2016 | www.magstudios.co.uk |