Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Independent VR studio Owlchemy Labs has been acquired by Google

Steven Petite
By

google acquires owlchemy labs job simulator the 2050 archives
In a move that shows the impact that VR games are already making, Google has acquired the independent studio Owlchemy Labs.

In a post addressing the acquisition, Owlchemy Labs said, “Owlchemy Labs makes things that are absurd, highly polished, and filled to the brim with terrible puns & jokes that we love making. We both believe that VR is the most accessible computing platform and that there’s a ton of work to be done, especially with regard to natural and intuitive interactions. Together with Google, with which we share an incredible overlap in vision, we’re free to pursue raw creation and sprint toward interesting problems in these early days of VR.”

Recommended Videos

Owlchemy Labs is best known for its 2016 VR title Job Simulator, which was given the nod as the best VR/AR game at the 2017 Game Developers Conference. Most recently, in April, Owlchemy Labs released Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Based on the popular animated show Rick and Morty, Virtual Rick-ality employed mechanics similar to Job Simulator, in that players can interact with a large portion of the environment and objects.

Today, Owlchemy Labs is a small, 23-person studio dedicated exclusively to creating innovative VR experiences. But before Owlchemy crashed onto the VR scene in a big way with Job Simulator, the studio had a bit of a different identity.

Founded in 2010, its first game, an iOS title called Super Ramen BROTHers, was created in just 24 hours. Over the next five years, the studio released five more traditional games, each one more complex and ambitious than the last. When Owlchemy started tinkering with VR, it concluded that there was no turning back.

“VR acted as an electromagnet for our science-focused brains as it presented us with the most expansive field of untapped potential and tough unsolved problems,” Owlchemy said.

In a separate statement addressing the acquisition, Google said, “Together, we’ll be working to create engaging, immersive games and developing new interaction models across many different platforms to continue bringing the best VR experiences to life.”

Owlchemy hasn’t announced what it is working on next, but now that the studio is under the Google umbrella, we wouldn’t be surprised if the scope of its next project is much broader.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Steven Petite
Steven Petite
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…
The battle of the entry-level headsets: Google’s Daydream View vs. Samsung’s Gear VR
google daydream view vs samsung gear vr comparison header

For as much as tech writers talk about the VR revolution, virtual reality still remains purely theoretical for most consumers. Headsets such as the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift are expensive, as are the high-end computers required to run them. There are plenty of entry-level VR headsets that run off of smartphones, but many are too weak to deliver a truly engaging experience.

Of the smartphone-powered VR headsets on the market, only Google's Daydream View, a headset designed to be used in conjunction with Daydream VR, and Samsung's Gear VR, a VR accessory compatible with Samsung's Galaxy phones, have impressed us so far. But how do the two compare? Here, we take an in-depth look at both to find out.

Read more
Google adds WebVR support to Cardboard and Chrome, and debuts WebVR Experiments
now you can try street view in vr using google cardboard new 2 970x647 c

Virtual reality is, generally speaking, an expensive proposition -- at least it is if you want the best VR experience. There are less expensive options, however, including Google's Cardboard that lets you experience more limited VR using just an Android smartphone.

On Wednesday, Google announced it is working even harder to bring better VR to entry-level price points. Specifically, the company is adding WebVR support to Google Cardboard and it is launching its WebVR Experiments showcase for anyone to access and experience VR.

Read more
Google has shipped 10 million Cardboard VR headsets since launch in 2014
ny times daily 360 google cardboard

Google Cardboard was first launched three years ago, and it seems to have done pretty well for itself. At Mobile World Congress on Tuesday, Google's vice president of VR gave audience members an update on Google's first foray into the virtual reality space. The super affordable headset is one of the least intimidating and most accessible ways of entering the world of VR, and it looks like plenty of people have done so. In fact, Google has shipped 10 million Cardboard VR sets and has seen 160 million downloads of Cardboard apps.

Even as Google pushes forward in the virtual reality space with Daydream, it's clear that the company hasn't forgotten its roots (and neither have users). Certain Cardboard apps have proven quite popular themselves -- in fact, 30 of them have been downloaded one million or more times each. Much of Cardboard and its associated apps' growth has only happened in the last year or so -- in July of 2016, Google said it had sold 5 million headsets. Now, less than a year later, it has doubled that figure. To be fair, however, Google practically gives away these headsets, so this number isn't all that baffling.

Read more