Words With Friends creators form new studio, debut virtual reality game at E3

MCKINNEY, Texas, June 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Paul Bettner, best known as the co-creator of "Words With Friends", today announced his new company Playful Corp. will debut their first virtual reality game, "Lucky's Tale", at the upcoming E3 video game convention in Los Angeles, California. "Lucky's Tale" is being developed exclusively for the Oculus Rift platform under a newly announced partnership between Playful Corp. and Oculus VR Inc. Playful is one of the first studios to officially partner with Oculus to create content exclusively for the Rift.

"Virtual reality -- I mean truly accurate, comfortable virtual reality -- is the most important thing to happen to interactive entertainment in decades," said Bettner, who serves as Playful's CEO. "I know it sounds like exaggeration, but it's impossible to explain what this is like to someone who hasn't experienced it for themselves. Your brain is convinced that you are somewhere else, that you are in another world. I have worked my entire career to get to this moment, to create something like this."

Founded in January 2013 (under the original name Verse Inc.), Playful Corp. is an independent studio comprised of the core team of developers that created the highly successful game "Words With Friends" and launched the "With Friends" brand in 2009. In addition to "Words With Friends", this veteran team's credits span multiple hit PC and console franchises, including "Age of Empires", "Halo Wars", and "Starcraft".

"Oculus is committed to bringing the best and most innovative content from developers large and small to our new platform. We are delighted with our new partnership with Playful," said David De Martini, Head of Worldwide Publishing at Oculus.

Playful has two games in development, "Lucky's Tale" created in partnership with Oculus, and "Creativerse", an open-world sandbox game which Playful plans to bring to the Rift after initially launching on the Steam digital distribution platform later this year.

Lucky's Tale is a platforming adventure game experienced in the 3rd person perspective -- unconventional for a VR title. Playful and Oculus have confirmed a fully playable demo will be showcased at the Oculus booth #5222 West Hall.

"This is not a port. We've made something new, from scratch -- a made-only-for-VR game," Bettner said. "The result is unexpected and surprisingly delightful. A platformer in VR? It's a totally new experience, not what typically comes to mind when you think of what a VR game can be. I can't wait to see how people react when they get to play it for the first time at E3."

Anyone interested in following Playful's progress can join them online:

• Facebook: http://facebook.com/playfulcorp
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/playfulcorp

About Playful Corp.
Playful Corp. is an independent game studio on a mission to bring joy to the world, one game at a time. Located just north of Dallas in McKinney, TX, and originally known as Verse Inc., Playful was founded in January 2013 by the team that brought you "Words With Friends" and the "With Friends" franchise. Visit Playful online at: http://playfulcorp.com.

About Oculus VR, Inc.
Oculus VR, Inc. is revolutionizing the way people experience video games. The company's first product, the highly anticipated Oculus Rift, is a virtual reality headset that allows players to step inside the game. It provides an immersive, stereoscopic 3D experience with an ultra-wide field of view and super low latency head tracking. For more information, visit: www.oculusvr.com.

Contact:
David Calkins
[email protected]

SOURCE Playful Corp.