As Extended Reality (XR) technology moves from individual combat to group sharing, HTC (HTC), the global leader in smartphones and virtual reality platforms, officially announced today the launch of a new Location-Based Entertainment (LBE) immersive experience work: “Return to Osaka Castle ー Sengoku Samurai”. This is not only a demonstration of technology, but also the in-depth layout of VIVERSE, HTC’s 3D content creation platform, in the field of large-scale immersive cultural entertainment.
This work brings together Japanese public media NHK, professional video production company NHK Promotions, and communications and entertainment leader NTT DOCOMO Studio & Live to launch a cross-border co-production with HTC VIVERSE. By combining Japan’s deep historical research capabilities with HTC’s Free Roam XR (Free Roam XR) technology, the two parties are trying to redefine the cultural landmark “Osaka Castle” that has long disappeared in the long history of history, and transform it into an immersive asset that can be collectively explored by global audiences.
VIVERSE GEM platform-driven multi-person shared experience
In past VR experiences, “loneliness” was often one of the thresholds that limited its popularity. Lin Junwu, general manager of HTC VIVERSE, said: “The immersive entertainment experience is gradually moving from ‘watching content’ to ‘walking into the story’, and has developed from a single-person experience to a new form that can be shared by multiple people and can interact freely in physical venues.”
In order to realize this vision, “Dream Return to Osaka Castle – Sengoku Samurai” adopts VIVERSE’s “immersive entertainment solution” specially created for the LBE field. Its core technologies include:
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VIVERSE GEM (Group Experience Management) Platform: As the central system of the LBE solution, GEM supports multiple users to accurately position in the same large physical field. This means that viewers are no longer tethered to cables, but can move freely in a physical space.
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Free Roam XR Technology: Combined with the VIVE high-resolution VR head-mounted display, it ensures that participants have immediate and smooth visual feedback during movement and can interact instantly with other audiences in the same venue.
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High-efficiency scene optimization: The production team optimized the original extremely detailed CG scene with up to 20 million polygons so that it can run instantly in the XR environment while retaining movie-level light and shadow effects.
Through the integration of these technologies, VIVERSE has successfully transformed the original personal experience into a “collective immersion” commercial model that is scalable and capable of global deployment.
Content and background: the combination of NHK’s historical assets and “mysterious” aesthetics
If technology is the backbone, history and culture are the soul of this experience. This work is deeply connected to the NHK historical program “Historical Detective Immersive ~VR!” The research results of “Recreating the Fantasy of Toyotomi Osaka Castle~”.
It is understood that the overall content contains more than 90% of scenes and assets come directly from NHK’s historical image database. These databases bring together NHK’s long-term expertise in Taiga dramas and historical documentaries, ensuring that every detail of the experience is extremely historically authentic, from the architectural specifications of the Warring States Period in the 15th to 16th centuries to the splendid palaces of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s heyday.
In terms of artistic expression, the work incorporates the traditional Japanese aesthetic concept “Yūgen”. The audience will transform into time travelers, following a wisp of light blue flame, traveling through floating architectural structures, legendary golden teahouses and majestic ancient battlefields. This design aims to present a mysterious, deep and vague beauty through the interlacing of light, shadow and space, allowing the audience to not only watch history, but also feel the glory, ambition and destiny of the Warring States warriors.
Digital transformation and globalization of cultural assets
The launch of “Dream Return to Osaka Castle – The Warring States Period of the Samurai” marks a major change in the narrative model of cultural content. Traditional cultural preservation is mostly limited to documentaries or static exhibitions, and this cooperation between HTC and NHK demonstrates a standard path for “XRization of cultural assets”:
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Academic textual research: Utilize the deep research base of public media such as NHK to ensure content accuracy.
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Technology empowerment: Convert static data into interactive 3D space through XR platforms (such as VIVERSE).
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Business implementation: Combine with live entertainment operators (such as NTT DOCOMO Studio & Live) to realize commercial operation of LBE.
This tripartite cooperation model has set a new milestone for immersive cultural entertainment, and also allows cultural assets with a high degree of local characteristics to have “replicability” and “scale” potential for the global market.
Future Outlook: From Tokyo to Global
This experience has been March 20, 2026Officially premiered in Tokyo. According to the plan, this experience that combines history and cutting-edge technology will not be limited to Japan, but will be launched in various parts of Japan and international markets in the future.
For HTC, this is not only a content release, but also a re-verification of the practical capabilities of its XR ecosystem (including hardware, VIVERSE platform, and LBE solutions). Today, as immersive technology becomes increasingly mature, how to transform hard-based technology into warm narratives may be the best inspiration for the industry from this “Dream Back to Osaka Castle” journey.
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Source: KOCPC Chinese