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Bandai Namco Offers Summer Lesson VR Demo as Product in October

Bandai Namco Entertainment confirmed before this year's E3 event on Monday that it will offer its "Summer Lesson" VR technology demonstration as a product slated for October 13, the same day the PlayStation VR headset launches. The "Summer Lesson" title remains tentative, and its price will be announced later.

Bandai Namco Entertainment also opened a website for the game.

The demo uses Sony's PlayStation VR virtual reality headset to simulate interactions with a girl. (The demo featured a Japanese-speaking high school girl in 2014, and a different, blonde girl in a demo last year)

Tekken series director Katsuhiro Harada explained the interactions in another video in 2014:

As producer and chief director, he explains in the video that the goal behind Summer Lesson was to make the game's character recognize the player's existence. This is because in normal games, even if the player recognizes the character, the character will never do the same for the player. He adds that within the game, if you look away from the character too much, the character will get upset, or if you get too close to her, she will be surprised. Harada also explains that he wanted to create an interactive and realistic enviornment, in which actual nervousness may arise from the player.

When asked why he and his team created the game, he explains that he wanted the news of game to create a large buzz, due to it making virtual reality available to a wide audience. He also added that he wanted the amusement of the game to be spread by verbal communication. Also, Harada and his team worked to create a system that would connect to the future.

As a message to players, Harada commented that the game and its use of the head-mounting display is only the first step of this technology. Harada added that the team is currently developing new contents using the same technology, and that in ten or fifteen years, the technology will have progressed to an amazing level.

[Via CNet Japan]