Samsung recently teamed up with Oculus to launch the Gear VR headset, and just announced at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah that it has plans to open a virtual reality studio in New York City. The South Korean company has announced the production studio will be located in a Samsung marketing team's office in the Big Apple.
Samsung USA's chief marketing officer Marc Mathieu announced the news about the studio. A NYC marketing team would seemingly make it easier to get the word out about the company's new VR movies.
The company did not share what type of content it is working on, according to PC Mag. It certainly will be compatible with the Gear VR headset, but also might work on other VR devices.
Samsung also announced a one-year partnership with the Sundance Institute, which is the organization that plans the yearly Utah film festival. The goal is to support filmmaking and creativity.
The showcase also featured a free demo of the Gear VR headset. Samsung rolled out the $100 device in November 2015.
The price of Gear VR is much lower than Oculus Rift and Microsoft HoloLens. This makes it an excellent way to introduce consumers to virtual reality, which is quickly becoming the next big thing in the tech world.
Gear VR works on the newest Samsung phones, is relatively light, and is totally cordless.
Mathieu shared at a Sundance showcase that Samsung loves stories. It also enjoys helping people to tell them, according to CNET.
A new comedy sketch featuring comedians Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel was also launched by comedy website Funny or Die on January 22, Friday. The entertainers participated in a panel on virtual reality.
Companies are working to produce more content for headsets. Last year Facebook's Oculus VR company announced a program to produce more content for VR headsets.
It opened the production company Oculus Story Studio. In addition, the production company made a 5-minute VR film for last year's Sundance Film Festival titled "Lost."
Oculus has also started up its Unreal Engine project. The goal is to give tips and suggestions to VR content developers.