Zombies and Video Games at the House of Blues
On June 13th Starbreeze Studios and OVERKILL Software hosted their Pre-E3 party at the House of Blues in LA for a night filled with food, drinks, and video game excitement. The exclusive event wasn’t just a celebration of the companies’ hard work but also a way to unite industry movers and 100 lucky fans for a big announcement. Particle Arts Entertainment wasn’t just along to experience the event, but had a pivotal role in its production!
Starbreeze Studios is the developer of the series Payday and Brother: A Tale of Two Sons. During the event, Almir Listo, the Global Brand Director at Starbreeze Studios, revealed that they are in the process of creating their very own virtual reality (VR) headset, to be used with their upcoming game OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead. Starbreeze has officially entered the very competitive VR market, branding their new product Star VR to be available to consumers in the near future.
On the big day, attendees started lining up at the door as early as 7:00pm, excited to see what Starbreeze had in store. Only a couple hours later, all three floors of the House of Blues were filled to the brim. After the event really kicked off and spirits were high, people gathered at the main stage for the VR reveal.
Eyes glued to the screen as they watched The Walking Dead’s trailer, over 1,000 fans in the crowd anticipated the mysterious reveal. As teased, fans knew the Starbreeze team was going to release some big news, but had virtually no clue what to expect. Only the special guests at the event were able to get in on the secret that night while everybody else had to wait until the announcement made its way across social media and news outlets the next day. When it did, Starbreeze caused quite a stir in this feat of video game history.
Upon announcement, Demian Lichtenstein, the studio head at Starbreeze, brought their very own VR headset to the stage to demo. He gave the crowd just a taste that evening of the revolutionary product that they officially launched at E3 in the week after the event. Later at night, he took the headset up to the third floor Foundation Room, where the VIP fans enjoyed a sneak peek of what Starbreeze and OVERKILL are about to make happen on a widespread scale.
After the big reveal, the energetic and charismatic Dash Mihok with his band Diz & the Fam played live on stage. The band kept the house bumping from about 9:30 until 11:00 when DJ Hess took over as main entertainer, keeping things alive until the event’s end at 1:00.
Live music and free food and drinks at the House of Blues is more than enough to make for an amazing night, but the attractions didn’t stop there. TVs and game consoles were laid out on the second floor for anyone to enjoy some gaming that night. While the new Walking Dead VR was limited to only a few select guests, Starbreeze made their wildly popular Payday 2 game available to everyone. It was only a matter of minutes before big lines formed behind the game consoles and fans waited anxiously to get a hold of a controller to play the game.
Finally, a Walking Dead party wouldn’t be so without some walkers. Makeup artists from The Walking Dead TV series came early to prepare 20 actors with full-body zombie makeup for the event. With the music, food, the awesome venue, celebrity guests, and thrilled fans, everyone in attendance was pleased with the night and buzzing with excitement over the new product.
The Starbreeze team couldn’t be happier with the event’s outcome as well. They were such an awesome company to work with and the special night was a fantastic way to kick off E3 week. Almir Listo was heard saying that history was made on Saturday for Starbreeze, and Particle Arts Entertainment is proud to have made it happen!
-Miranda Mazariegos and Edward Heinrich