HTC’s VR app store and subscription service platform, Viveport, announced an alliance with Bandai Namco Pictures (BN Pictures), an animation studio and production company, to produce BN Pictures’ animated content to a new dimension in virtual reality.
Bandai Namco’s anime will arrive soon on Viveport with new immersive animation and virtual social interactions focusing on both hardcore gamers and casual users in the upcoming months.
Bandai Namco Pictures is a well-established Japanese animation studio with strong intellectual properties including Aikatsu, Battle Spirits, Tiger and Bunny, Gintama, and Sergeant Keroro.
This partnership with BN Pictures enables HTC to expand its IP portfolio, while for BN Pictures, this partnership vastly broadens access to its content for users around the world.
Viveport president Joseph Lin said, “The future of virtual reality is about delivering experiences and exploring infinite possibilities to be realized and we are honored to become BN Pictures’ first VR partner. Through this collaboration, we can bring animation content to a higher level and push the frontiers to unlock the full potential of virtual reality. In the next few months, anime content will be available on Viveport and more virtual experiences will be delivered to our audience. Please stay tuned – more exciting things are on the way!”
Bandai Namco Pictures president and CEO Ozaki Masayuki said, “We at Bandai Namco Pictures are an animation production company that has produced and owned numerous TV series, OVAs, Web animations, and theatrical films, and we continue to actively produce original works. 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. We are very much looking forward to evolving this newly born space together with our fans.”
With the collaboration with BN Pictures, Viveport will continue to enrich and diversify the content for mobile and social VR platforms – creating new and fun virtual entertainment.