Survios Turns 10! Reflections on Our Past, Present, and Future
To our team, our partners, and everyone who believes in the future of immersive play,
Join us in celebrating Survios’ 10 year anniversary! That’s one decade of challenging the way people engage with technology, entertainment, and play, while achieving incredible milestones as a studio (and as an industry) along the way! We are so fortunate to cultivate a space filled with the industry’s best innovators, dreamers, and storytellers, and a strong, supportive and enthusiastic community, where we are able to continue crafting new experiences in service of pushing the status quo.
Today, we look back on our journey, where we are today, and what lies ahead in the future for Survios, and for you!
Early Beginnings: One Step at a Time
From the zealous and venerable hands of our four co-founders, then USC students, Alexander Silkin, Nathan Burba, James Iliff and Graham Matuszewski, Survios was created. Inside the MxR Labs at USC, they sought to tackle fundamental VR challenges inhibiting immersion with Project Holodeck, a full room-scale VR hardware prototype. The team’s technical prowess and passion for innovation were unparalleled, and secured early seed funding to continue development, as well as marking the official inception of Survios.
“When we started Project Holodeck, our ambitions were driven by the desire to fulfill our own fantasies of virtual reality and experience a sliver of what we were promised by science fiction. The positive response we received with such an early, rudimentary prototype confirmed VR was ready for the world, marking the birth of Survios and a clear mission to explore the unknown potential of virtual reality.”
Alex Silkin, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer
It was at this juncture several manufacturers were carving a space in the VR headset market, including HTC Vive. Leveraging the room-scale accessibility provided by the newly released HTC Vive, Survios shifted from hardware development to designing an experience that would embody our driving philosophy and modus operandi: the Six Elements of Active VR.
Enter Bullettime Apex, the predecessor to Raw Data!
Expanding the VR Frontier
Slick and instantaneous controls left first-time players breathless and eager for more, as Raw Data was shared across major game conferences such as GDC and E3, earning awards and acclaim from critics and players. Raw Data’s Steam Early Access release leapt onto the Global Top Sellers charts, becoming an early defining title of the medium.
Following the success of our first launch, we continued to experiment and explore innovative use cases complementing the technology, building state-of-the-art playspaces, and even opening up our own flagship virtual reality arcade to use as a proving ground to test early concepts.
We believe it is because of our willingness to try, despite the unknown and potential to fail, we’ve fostered an intimate relationship with virtual reality in very few ways many have had the chance to.
Ten years later, our games span across multiple genres, platforms and IPs. From infiltrating Eden Tower in Raw Data, navigating the walker-infested wastelands in The Walking Dead: Onslaught, or taking the champion belt in Creed: Rise to Glory – Championship Edition, we have never stopped pushing the boundaries of VR. And we don’t plan to stop anytime soon!
Through thick and thin, we’ve always been driven by your ongoing support, feedback, and shared content to help make Survios what it is today. We want to give back to players like yourself who have driven us to challenge what’s possible, time and time again.
With that being said, we’re kicking off a few new things for our community. Read on to learn more.
Building New Realities Together
Ten years in VR time is a long time. To honor our seasoned tenure and inspire the next generation of virtual reality creators, we’re inviting Survios veterans to join us for a ten-episode series covering a range of creative, technical, and business considerations when making a virtual reality game (or ten). Our podcast opens the archives to share a ten-year collective worth of learnings, experiences, and trend casts in an exploration of: “What’s next for virtual reality?” We hope you walk away with a little insight and discovery, as we bring to light all our challenges (and solutions) through the years as a studio working in the virtual reality space.
Sign up for our Survios newsletter to be notified when our first episode hits – you won’t want to miss it!
Love VR and Survios? We’ve kicked off a new Playtesting initiative for friends and family located in the Greater Los Angeles Area to test out our in-the-works Survios projects. Come hang out with the devs over free food and swag, while getting the chance to test out early prototypes and help us craft remarkable player experiences. NOTE: We may introduce remote opportunities in the future so it never hurts to sign up just in case!
Playtesting Sign-Ups: https://survios.com/studio/playtesting/
Finally, we’re about to embark on some serious Survios Discord housekeeping! In service of creating a more active and inclusive hub centered around our shared love of immersive play. We already have a whole laundry list of things from social events to reorganization, but we need YOUR help to make it great!
Interested in getting involved a bit further? Moderator applications are OPEN! Our moderators will receive priority registration for all playtests, exclusive Survios swag, and a Discord Nitro subscription to spice up your profile.
Help us improve our Discord, take this survey: https://forms.gle/kYAdasZGRJB572Qu8
Apply to be a Survios Discord mod: https://forms.gle/PraSKRsB43yYDUoy8
Note: You must be 18 years old or older to apply.
A New Era of Immersive Play
Several iterations of hardware, business models, and a robust generation of game experiences later, we can agree a lot has changed in this industry over the past decade. However, the most important thing remains the same. We’re all collectively solving problems nobody has solved before. To our team, our partners, and you, our community, we want to extend the biggest THANKS for being a part of our journey to make virtual reality…a reality!
We’re so excited for what’s on the horizon at Survios, including our latest venture with 20th Century Games to develop an intense single-player, action horror game set in the iconic Aliens universe. We can’t wait to share more about this project in addition to [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] and look forward to sharing more news when we’re able. Make sure to follow Survios on social media, Discord, or sign up for our newsletter to make sure you’re among the first to find out about our latest news.
To wrap things up, a word from our CEO, Seth Gerson:
“We have created a strong and supportive community of fans, and we have built a culture of collaboration, innovation, and excellence that sets us apart from the rest. I am grateful to work alongside such an amazing team of individuals who continually push the boundaries of what’s possible in game development to make VR dreams come to life.
Let’s continue to challenge ourselves, embrace new technologies, and create unforgettable experiences for players everywhere.”
Cheers!
The Survios Team