Neil Schneider

“At Starbreeze we strongly believe VR will transform the entertainment industry and the key to this is to deliver the best possible VR experiences to the consumer. With Project StarVR, we are focused on developing the best immersive experiences and technologies in an integrated way. Being an independent publisher, we feel deeply aligned with ITA’s mission to advance the commercialization of VR to consumers by promoting the entire VR industry and its content, hardware, and software providers. We want to contribute to this industry effort, and that’s why we are joining the Immersive Technology Alliance and its VR Council.” – Emmanuel Marquez, CTO, Starbreeze Studios

Starbreeze is an independent creator, publisher and distributor of high quality entertainment products. Starbreeze’s most recent games include PAYDAY 2, the adrenaline fueled bank robbing co-op game and the upcoming survival co-op FPS OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead based on the hit comic series. Starbreeze is also developing digital self-publishing and is inviting developers to leverage its self publishing know-how on Steam, having one of the largest communities on the digital distribution platform. Read More

As part of the Virtual Reality Festival during CES 2016, The Immersive Technology Alliance is holding a full afternoon of sessions about virtual and augmented reality.  Everyone participating is a top executive, and we wanted this to be so good and so densely packed, people wouldn’t have an excuse to go back to the Las Vegas Convention Centre!

Just some of the names speaking include Samsung Electronics, HTC, AMD, Nvidia, Intel, Basemark, Futuremark, Starbreeze Studios, ImmersiON-VRelia, IM360, Jaunt Studios, Next Galaxy Corp, and more.  This is arguably the biggest immersive tech happening at CES – don’t miss it.

Here is the public registration link.  LINK FIXED!!

The event takes place at the Palms Las Vegas Resort January 7, 2016. Entry begins at 12:00PM and sessions start at 1:00PM sharp.

“Robert Kirkman and Skybound have brought The Walking Dead franchise to comic books, television, and video games. Now we are excited about bringing the Undead ‘to life’ in virtual reality along with exploring this new medium for all of our other IP. Joining The Immersive Technology Alliance and its ITA VR Council makes a lot of sense for us as a way to meet new creators and collaborators in this exciting new space.” – Jon Goldman, Managing Partner, Skybound Entertainment

Skybound is the home of Robert Kirkman’s creator-owned work including his Eisner Award-winning comic book series, The Walking Dead, long-running Invincible, all-ages Super Dinosaur,Thief of Thieves and Clone as well as Witch Doctor, Guarding the Globe and The Astounding Wolf-Man. Since its inception, Skybound has created television shows, merchandise and a wide spectrum of platforms, games and entertainment events (The Walking Dead Escape). Skybound’s successes include the comic behind the hit Emmy®-winning television show, AMC’s The Walking Dead.

Welcome to the alliance!

“Joining the ITA was an easy decision for us. Like the ITA, Futuremark believes that open cooperation is the best way to drive the success of new technologies. Since 1997, we’ve worked with industry partners to create the world’s most widely used benchmark tests. Now we’re developing VRMark, a benchmark for virtual reality systems. ITA membership provides us with an excellent forum for sharing our insights while learning from other experts in the field.” – Jukka Mäkinen, Managing Director, Futuremark

Futuremark is easily one of the most influential hardware benchmarking tools for PC and graphics hardware used by gamers, manufacturers, and media alike. Their most recent development is VRMark, a software package designed to measure how VR capable a mix of hardware is by checking such details as measured latency, accuracy, and performance.

The ITA is honored to welcome Futuremark to the fold!

Dominic Eskofier, CEO, Realities.IO at Immersed Europe

“We’re a young VR studio that transports real places 1:1 into Virtual Reality by utilizing cutting-edge photogrammetry software, so joining the ITA was an easy decision for us – besides being able to put us in contact with some of the industry’s biggest software companies and hardware manufacturers, the ITA also offers great networking opportunities as well as the chance to set the bar for engaging Virtual Reality content together. We’re really looking forward to being part of this innovative group of immersive technology enthusiasts!” – Dominic Eskofier, CEO & Co-Founder of Realities.IO

Their photogrammetry demo running on the HTC Vive was a hit at Immersed Europe, and was easily one of the most impressive VR demos we have seen. Dominic Eskofier also serves as one of the moderators for the Reddit /r/oculus community. Read More

Dr. Michael Capps, Former President, Epic Games

“I’m excited about an open, ubiquitous social metaverse. Getting there means solving a whole lot of interesting problems through long-term cooperative efforts. I’m delighted to help an organization like The ITA that’s focused not on a single company’s success, but on the success of the entire industry and ecosystem.” – Dr. Michael Capps

The Immersive Technology Alliance is both honored and excited to welcome Dr. Michael Capps to its influential Advisory Board. Dr. Capps was President of Epic Games during development of legendary video game franchises Gears of War, Unreal, and Infinity Blade. He has a Ph.D. in Virtual Reality, and has been a lead game designer and writer, a comic author, and currently features in Discovery and Science Channel series NASA’s Unexplained Files, What on Earth, and Combat Countdown. He serves on the board of a number of innovative companies and tech organizations.

The Immersive Technology Alliance is proud to announce that Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has joined The ITA.  AMD is one of the top GPU and CPU manufacturers in the world, and their technology is the core of consoles such as the Sony PlayStation 4, XBOX One, and Nintendo Wii-U.  In the PC world, their commitments to virtual reality and immersive technology have been demonstrated by the development of powerful APIs like LiquidVR and Mantle.

Daryl Sartain, Director of VR for AMD and the new ITA VR Council Chair

“AMD founded the VR Council to bring together the leading authorities on virtual reality to cultivate the industry and create a cohesive vision for its future. We’ve tracked the ITA and its leadership in immersive technologies for years, and we’re thrilled to be joining forces on this initiative to help drive the evolution of VR.” – Daryl Sartain, Director of VR for AMD Read More