New VR First Labs coming to the US and Canada as AMD, Leap Motion, OSVR, and Razer sign up as partners for Crytek-led initiative

Frankfurt am Main (Germany) March 14, 2016 – Following the launch of its VR First initiative in January, Crytek has announced the addition of four high-profile partners and plans for seven new VR First Labs at universities in the US and Canada.

VR First seeks to promote grassroots research and development in VR by providing state-of-the-art hardware and facilities at academic institutions around the world. Today, Crytek confirmed that the list of partners supporting the program in 2016 now includes AMD as exclusive partner for GPUs, Leap Motion, OSVR, and Razer.

Carleton University, California State University Monterey Bay, Purdue University, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Florida, University of Southern California – School of Cinematic Arts, and Vancouver Film School will pioneer VR First in the US and Canada, and follow on from the successful launch of the first such facility at Istanbul’s Bahçeşehir University earlier this year.

Crytek’s Senior Business Development Manager Partnerships & Alliances, Ferhan Özkan, said: “It has been exciting to see the level of interest VR First has attracted from technology leaders and universities around the world since the initiative launched less than two months ago. Now we are much closer to our goal of forming a global VR community and we’re grateful to everyone who has committed to coming on board so far. We believe this speaks volumes about the shared vision our partners have for investing in the transformative potential of VR.”

For more information on VR First, visit http://vrfirst.cryengine.com.

About VR First

VR First is an academic initiative designed to provide state-of-the-art facilities to anyone interested in exploring the power and potential of virtual reality development. The program encourages educational institutions around the world to establish dedicated VR labs on their campuses by partnering with Crytek and leading VR hardware innovators. VR First participants have full access to Crytek’s CRYENGINE software alongside the latest technology required for VR development. The overarching goal of VR First is to nurture new talent in VR development and create a global community equipped to embrace this exciting field of technology.