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Yes Steven Spielberg is Working on a Virtual Reality Project

Steven Spielberg has been hinting that he’s working on something VR-related since Sundance this year. With Spielberg also set to direct Ready Player One (2018), which has VR as a major theme in the film, we have all been eager to hear how the director would be dipping his toes into VR in the near future.

Now we know that he’s working on a project for The Virtual Reality Company (VRC), which announced today it has raised $23 million in funding for its VR studio. The new funding will be used for upcoming projects, including what VRC is describing as a “family-oriented” VR project with Spielberg. Spielberg is a VRC advisor and shareholder.

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Earlier this spring, Spielberg said that virtual reality could be “dangerous” to filmmakers, The Guardian reports. “I think we’re moving into a dangerous medium with virtual reality,” he said. “The only reason I say it is dangerous is because it gives the viewer a lot of latitude not to take direction from the storytellers but make their own choices of where to look.”

The $23 million round of investment was made by Hengxin Mobile Business Co., a Beijing-based mobile services and technology provider, and will help VRC create a platform for the distribution of its content in China. So we could very well see soon, an online portal for VR content that will include content like VRC’s Fox project The Martian VR Experience and whatever Spielberg’s upcoming VR project will be, which no release date has been set yet.

Whatever the case, please make sure Ready Player One has a VR experience too – this must happen.

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VRC has now raised a total of $25 million with other investors including Metallica lead singer James Hetfield, Rothenberg Ventures, and Elementum Ventures.

About the Scout

Jonathan Nafarrete

Jonathan Nafarrete is the co-founder of VRScout.

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