2017 Disney Accelerator company The VOID to work with Lucasfilm’s Immersive Entertainment division to create Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire hyper-reality experience.

Lucasfilm, ILMxLAB and The VOID today announced the new Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire hyper-reality experience. This ground-breaking experience will open to the public at two new VOID Experience Centers at Downtown Disney at Disneyland Resort and Disney Springs at Walt Disney World Resort beginning this holiday season, giving Star Wars fans the opportunity to step beyond reality and into a galaxy far, far away.

“At The VOID, we combine the magic of illusions, advanced technology and virtual reality to create fully immersive social experiences that take guests to new worlds,” said Curtis Hickman, co-founder and chief creative officer at The VOID. “A truly transformative experience is so much more than what you see with your eyes; it's what you hear, feel, touch, and even smell. Through the power of The VOID, guests who step into Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire won’t just see this world, they’ll know that they are part of this amazing story.”

ILMxLAB, Lucasfilm’s Immersive Entertainment division, created this first of its kind experience, in collaboration with The VOID. Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire will plunge guests directly into the iconic Star Wars galaxy. Guests will move freely throughout the untethered, social, and multi-sensory experience as they interact and engage with friends, family and Star Wars characters.

“At ILMxLAB, we want people to step inside the worlds of our stories,” explained Vicki Dobbs Beck, executive in charge of the division. “Through our collaboration with The VOID, we can make this happen as guests become active participants in an unfolding Star Wars adventure. By combining Lucasfilm's storytelling expertise with cutting-edge imagery, and immersive sound from the team at Skywalker Sound, while invoking all the senses, we hope to truly transport all those who experience Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire to a galaxy far, far away.”

Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire marks an important milestone in the continued expansion of The VOID, which also joined the 2017 Disney Accelerator earlier this year.

About The VOID

The VOID is a destination that inspires the exploration of fully immersive worlds with friends and family, creating memorable experiences together. By combining physical sets with real-time interactive effects, The VOID allows you to step beyond reality, engaging all your senses, transporting you to new and unimaginable worlds. In July 2016, The VOID opened its first public experience at Madame Tussauds New York. In 2017, The VOID expanded with locations at The Rec Room in Toronto and the company’s headquarters in the greater Salt Lake City area with additional locations planned for the second half of the year. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.thevoid.com and join @VOIDVR on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

About ILMxLAB

Founded in 2015, ILMxLAB, Lucasfilm’s Immersive Entertainment division, combines compelling storytelling, technological innovation and world-class production to create truly impactful, immersive entertainment experiences. ILMxLAB develops experiences for virtual reality, augmented/mixed reality, real-time cinema, theme park entertainment and narrative-based experiences for future platforms. For more information visit ilmxlab.com or follow @ILMxLAB on Twitter.

Disney fans can now experience a tale as old as time in a new medium with this Beauty and The Beast VR experience.

Disney fans can now experience a tale as old as time in a new medium. The Beauty and The Beast VR tie in Lumiere’s Dress Rehearsal is now available for Rift and Touch on the Disney Movies VR app as a an interactive VR experience. 

Lumiere’s Dress Rehearsal puts you into the dining room of Beast’s enchanted castle, as Lumiere voiced by Ewan McGregor prepares for a special feast in Belle’s honor.  

The interactive experience is currently available to Oculus Rift and the full interactive experience will be available for Gear VR next month. For now Gear VR users will have to settle for a 360 Video experience. 

https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1437254706307136/

CatsAndVR.com/blog

Capcom is making me feel like a kid again with the launch of The Disney Afternoon Collection ft my all time fav NES game Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers.

Funny story this one time at science camp I told the teacher I love video games. She asked me which one, I said Chip And Dale. She lost her mind, I would not realize that she thought I meant Chippendales till later on in life. At the time I thought she was just a Disney hating commie. Well any way. WOW! Capcom you just made my day.

Capcom, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, today announced  The   Disney Afternoon Collection, a compilation of six games that feature beloved Disney TV characters from the 80s and 90s in fun-filled adventures. The beautifully restored classic games feature crisp 1080p HD support and include all-new modes that can be enjoyed by first-time players and long-time fans.  The   Disney Afternoon Collection will be available as a digital download across North America and Europe for $19.99 / £15.99/ €19.99 starting on April 18, 2017 on PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One and Windows PC.

Players will be able to relive their childhood afternoons with Disney and explore these pieces of gaming history with classics including:

Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers  – This classic lets players team up with a friend in co-op play as they assume the roles of the mischievous Chip and Dale as they take on memorable villain Fat Cat and attempt to solve the mystery of a missing kitten.
Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers 2  – Fat Cat has escaped and his plans are even more dastardly this time. The titular heroes and supporting cast Monterey Jack, Gadget, and Zipper must stop Fat Cat from his evil dream of world domination!

Darkwing Duck  – Play as the original caped crusader and fight a city full of criminals from the infamous F.O.W.L. organization in this action-packed platforming epic.

DuckTales  – In this iconic platforming adventure, players help Scrooge McDuck fill his feathery pockets with vast riches from across the world.
DuckTales 2  – The sequel to the original game comes jam-packed with more action and an even bigger caper set in new locations like the Bermuda Triangle and Niagara Falls!

TaleSpin  – Take to the skies as Baloo the bear navigates his plane through exotic and dangerous locations in this side-scrolling shoot-em-up.
 

All six games are new and improved HD versions of the originals and feature a number of filtering options that replicate a classic retro look and feel. This collection also offers new ways to play with Boss Rush and Time Attack modes for each game. In Boss Rush mode, players battle through challenging boss encounters consecutively, while Time Attack mode encourages time-based gameplay and provides online leaderboards that track the fastest times for each game. A new “Rewind” feature makes these challenging titles more accessible for newcomers, with the option to rewind time and enjoy a swift recovery from blunders. Additionally, the in-game Disney Museum will provide history buffs with a wealth of content to celebrate the era of the original releases, such as concept art, advertisements, character art, and music – all preserved in their original glory.

Thanks Capcom for making me feel like a kid again.

2016 Disney Accelerator Participants include eSports & VR companies.

Today The Walt Disney Company announced participants in the 2016 Disney Accelerator, a program that provides entrepreneurs with mentorship and immersion into the media and entertainment industry. The three-month program connects participants from around the world with Disney’s creative expertise and resources to help them develop their products and consumer experiences.

Past participants in the Disney Accelerator have continued to work with The Walt Disney Company after completing the program, such as, Sphero, which created the BB-8 droid toy, the number one Star Wars toy in 2015. Additionally, Statmuse, an interactive sports stats platform powered by natural language search, is currently providing ESPN with statistical content; Israel-based imperson launched The Muppets’ Miss Piggy and Disney’s Zootopia chat experiences on Facebook using their artificial intelligence technology and EMOTIV’s Insight wearable for the brain was featured on ABC Television’s The Bachelor.

This year’s program includes nine startups and one internal project, and builds on Disney Accelerator’s success since its initial launch.

“We are evolving this year’s Disney Accelerator to include many later-stage start-ups, and for the first time, an internal project,” said Michael Abrams, senior vice president, Innovation, The Walt Disney Company. “This year’s Disney Accelerator program is designed to advance a broader spectrum of the strategic investments we make in innovation across all of our businesses.”

The companies selected for the 2016 Disney Accelerator include:

Ader is a marketplace connecting brands with eSports and gaming influencers. The company’s network of influencers reaches more than 50 million monthly viewers.

Atom Tickets is a new mobile movie-ticketing app where customers can buy movie tickets, pre-order concessions, invite friends without having to pay for them, easily discover new movies, browse trailers, read reviews and plan their next night out at the movies. Atom Tickets is movie-going for the 21st century.

Hanson Robotics is a leader in creating human-like robots with a full range of facial expressions. Based in Hong Kong, Hanson Robotics is building a range of robots for the business and consumer markets. The videos of its robot “Sophia” have been viewed more than 1 billion times.

Jaunt is pioneering end-to-end solutions for creating and publishing immersive cinematic virtual reality and a leading developer of the hardware, software, tools and applications that put the power of virtual reality in the hands of some of today’s best content creators. Jaunt has raised more than $100 million, and has launched Jaunt China, a virtual reality joint venture with China Media Capital and Shanghai Media Group in May.

littleBits is a platform of easy-to-use electronic building blocks that empowers kids to invent anything, from a remote-controlled car to a dancing robotto a smart home device. littleBits was founded by Ayah Bdeir, co-founder of the Open Hardware Summit, a TED Senior Fellow and a graduate of the MIT Media Lab. On a mission to unleash the inventor in everyone and get kids excited about STEM, littleBits has raised more than $60 million in funding.

Nom, an online live-streaming video community for chefs and food lovers, allows its users to create, share, watch and participate in live videos while chatting and interacting with each other. Nom was founded by Vijay Karunamurthy, former YouTube engineering lead, and Steve Chen, co-founder and CTO of YouTube.

OTOY is a “holographic content” platform bringing the power of light field rendering and network streaming to virtual reality and augmented reality experiences. OTOY’s investors include Autodesk and its advisers include Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet (formerly Google) and Ariel Emanuel, Co-CEO of WME|IMG.

Playbuzz is a content-creation and audience-engagement platform that empowers tens of thousands of publishers, marketers, bloggers and brands to easily create engaging content using mobile-friendly formats that are optimized for social sharing. With headquarters in New York and Tel Aviv, Playbuzz has raised $31 million in funding.

Pley is a leading toy subscription company that is pioneering the next generation in e-commerce for toys. For a monthly fee, members receive their preferred toys from a catalog of 500+ toys shipped directly to their door and can play with, keep or return each toy whenever they wish. Pley has raised more than $16 million in funding.

For more information go to www.DisneyAccelerator.com.