Facebook's Oculus is getting out of the business of creating VR content.
The company on Thursday announced it is shutting down Story Studio, its in-house VR film production arm. That's the studio behind hits like Henry, which won an Emmy last year; Lost; and Dear Angelica.
Oculus' VP of Content Jason Rubin in a blog post said the company is shifting its focus "away from internal content creation to support more external production" now that more traditional filmmakers are investing in VR.
"Now that a large community of filmmakers and developers are committed to the narrative VR art form, we're going to focus on funding and supporting their content," Rubin wrote. "This helps us turn our internal research, development, and attention towards exciting but unsolved problems in AR and VR hardware and software."
He added that Oculus is "still absolutely committed to growing the VR film and creative content ecosystem." The company last year committed $250 million to fund VR content for the Rift, including games like Robo Recall, Rock Band VR, and Wilson's Heart, plus non-gaming VR experiences like Follow My Lead featuring the 2016 NBA finals.
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"We're going to carve out $50M from that financial commitment to exclusively fund non-gaming, experiential VR content," Rubin wrote. "This money will go directly to artists to help jumpstart the most innovative and groundbreaking VR ideas."
Oculus also promised to offer programs and resources to help VR content creators get started, including "video tutorials, production and distribution tips, best practices for VR development, and chances to connect with leaders in the community."
The studio's short film Dear Angelica, which Oculus said was the first animated experience created entirely in VR, made a splash at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The film tells the story of Angelica and her daughter using Quill, a VR animation tool developed for motion picture and still artists that replaces a colored pencil with the Oculus Touch controllers.
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