Oculus Story Studio still ‘had more to explore’ prior to closure

Back in May, Facebook announced that it would be closing down its Oculus Story Studio this year, after just two years. During those two years, the Oculus Story Studio released three short films and even won an Emmy for ‘Henry’ its Pixar-esque VR short. It was unfortunate to see the studio close and it seems one of the team’s founders is equally as disappointed, explaining that there was still “more to explore”.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter this week, Maxwell Planck, one of the founders of Oculus Story Studio, said that the closure was “too bad” and that he felt the team “had more to explore”. From there, he added that the team is “continues to believe in the potential of VR”, with many former Oculus Story Studio members still working within Oculus, albeit on different projects.

 

During its time, Oculus Story Studio produced Henry, Dear Angelica and Lost. Henry won an Emmy, while Dear Angelica was also nominated for one. Unfortunately, we don’t know what ideas the studio was playing with prior to its closure but hopefully the team’s work will have inspired other film makers to pick up the torch and produce VR content.

The Story Studio closure was announced back in May. At the time, Oculus Vice President of Content, Jason Rubin, explained that the company is moving away from internal content creation and instead wants to focus on helping third-parties bring their ideas to VR.

KitGuru Says: I enjoyed all three of the short films released by Oculus Story Studio, so it was disappointing to see it come to an end so quickly. That said, virtual reality is still expanding and even big movie studios like Disney and Sony are playing with the technology at this point. With that in mind, it seems unlikely that film won’t still find its place in VR.

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