Sony partners with Survios to expand Jumanji VR experience worldwide
January 19, 2018
On the heels of the global blockbuster Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle having taken in over $650M at the box office worldwide, including its #1 release in China this past weekend, Sony Pictures Virtual Reality (SPVR) today announced a deal with Survios, a global leader in virtual reality (VR), to bring Jumanji’s VR experience to new audiences in Asia and throughout the world.
Under the agreement, Survios will expand distribution of Jumanji: The VR Adventure to its global network of VR arcades reaching more than 36 countries on six continents. Known for its best-selling, breakthrough title Raw Data and upcoming adrenaline platformer Sprint Vector, Survios has quickly built the largest network of location-based VR arcade partners in the world. In addition to developing and publishing its own titles, Survios is distributing VR titles such as SPVR’s Jumanji: The VR Adventure to its VR arcade network.
Audiences will experience what it is like to enter a magical, fully interactive 3D jungle in Jumanji: The VR Adventure. In the VR experience, which was co-produced by MWM Immersive (formerly Madison Wells Media’s Reality One), fans control their favorite movie characters as they build a team and set out to lift the curse of Jumanji while outwitting evil henchmen and evading dangerous wildlife.
“SPVR is leading the way to build a new, multi-tiered distribution model for virtual reality. For the first time, with Jumanji: The VR Adventure, we are enabling audiences around the world to experience VR in locations and in-home on a variety of channels that are accessible to them,” said Jake Zim, senior vice president, virtual reality, Sony Pictures Entertainment.
“We found a great partner in Sony which shares our vision of expanding VR’s global reach through great content and experiences,” says Seth Gerson, Survios Chief Business Officer. “Jumanji is a beloved film that’s perfectly set in virtual reality, and we’re excited to bring the experience into our distribution network, that gives the franchise access to the largest location-based VR audience.”
“We’re thrilled the success of Jumanji is translating into more demand for the virtual reality experience around the world. We are in the business of taking great IP like Jumanji to attract more fans to immersive content and excited to expand the reach of our work to a wider audience and continue to grow the reach of this new storytelling medium,” said Executive Producer of MWM Immersive Ethan Stearns
Jumanji: The VR Adventure will also be available in-home on Steam and at the Oculus Store this month, followed by PlayStation®VR in February.
To coincide with the film’s US release last month, Jumanji: The VR Adventure debuted at 50 VRX Networks virtual reality kiosks in movie theaters and shopping malls across the United States and UK. This relationship with Survios is the latest in a series of deals to bring fully immersive content based on SPE’s unique intellectual property to new audiences. In 2016, SVPR announced their partnership with MWM Immersive (then Reality One) to develop VR experiences based off SPE’s slate of motion pictures and franchises leading with the release of Passengers: Awakening VR Experience. SPVR also teamed up with THE VOID in 2016 to launch Ghostbusters: Dimension in which fans got to battle against supernatural foes. In 2017, SPVR released Can You Walk The Walk through IMAX VR locations. In June, the studio unveiled Spider-Man: Homecoming VR, a multi-platform VR experience in which players don the superhero’s costume and test their web-slinging skills.
In the motion picture Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the game has changed as four teenagers in detention are sucked into the world of Jumanji. When they discover an old video game console with a game they’ve never heard of, they decide to play and are immediately thrust into the game’s jungle setting, in the bodies of the avatar characters they chose (Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan). What they discover is that you don’t just play Jumanji – Jumanji plays you. To win, they’ll have to go on the most dangerous adventure of their lives, or they’ll be stuck in the game forever… Directed by Jake Kasdan, the screenplay is by Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers and Scott Rosenberg & Jeff Pinkner with a screen story by Chris McKenna, based on the book Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg. The film is produced by Matt Tolmach and William Teitler.