In an interview with the Gaming Business Review, an online site ran by M2 Publishing, Tim Sweeney detailed recent developments in Epic Games, as well as his visions of the future.

The interview obviously took place during Game Developer’s Conference 2015, which is traditionally held in San Francisco, CA. We highly recommend that you head there and read the whole interview, but we could not miss out on a question that is shaping the industry right now:

GBR: How big do you see virtual reality becoming over the next five to ten years as a business?

TS: Virtual reality and Augmented Reality will literally change the world. They will be the next computing platform.  There’s a market for billions of these devices because everybody who has a smartphone today will — perhaps in as much as decade from now — much prefer entertainment in a completely immersive experience that takes advantage of your entire field of view and has full body input through miniaturized cameras and other technologies.  But we’re in the early days of it now.  Let’s be clear, everything is in the development kit stage.  It is for early adopters and what we’re seeing now is really just the Palm Pilot to the platform that will evolve into something iPhone-like in its quality.

There’s no point in denying it, after seeing billions of dollars earned by 3D movies which rely on ‘cheap tricks’ to achieve depth (try finding animated feature movies without 3D being the ‘default’ option), next step will bring us technologies such as Microsoft Hololens, production versions of Facebook-owned Oculus VR (John Carmack keynote) and second-generation Google Glass, which is developed in near-secrecy by the search giant and a practical monopoly in glasses, Italian giant Luxottica.

After operating for almost 20 years as an independent studio, Epic Games made waves across the gaming and development community when they accepted an investment from Tencent Holdings (HKG:0700) last June (2014). The Chinese powerhouse paid up $330 million for 48.4% of the company, setting the valuation just a bit below $680 million.

Tim Sweeney continued to be the CEO, while his lifelong business partner Mark Rein still continues as in his role of Vice President.  Not selling themselves outright like idSoftware did with ZeniMax Media, Epic Games continues to be independent studio, consisting out of product (games) and technology development units. Their recent announcement about making Unreal Engine ‘free’ opens a path for even more ‘premium freemium’ titles which base their revenue model on microtransactions.

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At the WinHEC event in Shenzhen, China, Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) head of operating systems Terry Myerson announced that Windows 10 will be launching this summer in 190 countries. Several new features were demoed as well, along with the announcement that a country-specific version of Cortana would be available in Mandarin.

Microsoft also revealed that it is partnering with several Chinese tech companies to increase its presence in the country. Lenovo (HKG:0992), the world’s largest PC maker, has announced that it will make Windows 10 upgrade services available at more than 2,500 locations in China. Lenovo also said that it would be launching its first Windows Phone mid-2015. Specific details about the hardware were not revealed, but considering that the device will be sold through China Mobile, it is likely Lenovo will target the masses with an entry-level or mid-tier offering.

Chinese internet portal Tencent (HKG:0700) is also collaborating with Microsoft in making Windows 10 available to as many of its customers as soon as possible. The vendor stated that it would be launching the highly popular League of Legends on the Windows 10 store, and that it would make several of its apps universal for Windows 10.

In terms of features, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 would get a new biometric authentication system dubbed Windows Hello. Through the feature, you can use your face, iris or fingerprint to unlock your Windows 10 computer. As is the case when implementing biometric authentication, the feature will require specialised hardware, with Microsoft stating that it is working with OEMs to include Intel’s RealSense F200 sensor in their Windows 10-based hardware.

Windows 10 for IoT devices was also highlighted, with Microsoft stating that it will give away the upcoming version of the operating system for free to the maker community. There will be specialised versions of Windows 10 based on the hardware use-case, with products tailored for powerful devices like ATMs and ultrasound machines, to low-energy consuming machines like gateways. Microsoft is also collaborating with Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) and Raspberry to launch tools and developer kits for the IoT platform. Qualcomm’s DragonBoard 410C was selected as the first dev board for Windows 10 in this segment, with the kit offering integrated Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS, single-channel LPDDR2/3 memory and a Snapdragon 410 SoC.

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Makalot to expand its business in Vietnam

Makalot Industrial Co (TPE: 1477), a Taiwanese diversified garment manufacturer for brand names and major clothing retailers, announced on Dec. 16 a three-year plan of an investment between US$10 million and US$15 million per year in Vietnam, where the company is planning to build new textile plants.

Frank Chou (周理平), chairman for Makalot, said during an investors’ conference that the company has its eye on the potential zero-tariff benefits brought by Vietnam’s free-trade talks with the EU and its involvement in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“As of November, Vietnam has surpassed Indonesia to become Makalot’s largest production area, accounting for 32% of the company’s total capacity,” he said.

Indonesia accounted for 30% of the firm’s total capacity, while Cambodia accounted for 24% and China and The Philippines accounted for 6% each, Chou said.

Between January and last month, Makalot posted a revenue of US$615.4 million, up 15.9% from a year earlier. With full-year sales expected to top US$666 million, Chou said that its employees can be expecting an annual bonus of more than 12 months.

V Air to launch eight to 10 new routes next year

V Air, TransAsia Airways Group’s budget carrier, said that another eight to 10 new flights will be launched in 2015, while it launched its maiden flight from Taipei to Bangkok on Dec. 16.

In addition, V Air is also planning to launch a chartered flight service to Siem Reap in Cambodia since Jan. 6, and begin to operate its second regular route to Thailand on Jan. 7, which will fly from Taipei to Chiang Mai.

“Aside from our service network, we also plan to expand our fleet. We aim to have five aircraft covering eight to 10 routes by the end of next year,” said Vincent Lin (林明昇), chairman for V Air.

He said that flights to Northeast Asia, such as major cities in Japan and South Korea, are V Air’s next potential market, with the company seeking to launch flights to destinations in that area in the first half of 2015.

Lin said that the expansion plan is aimed at helping V Air reach economies of scale and allow the airline to break even and start generating profit in 2016.

Tencent to stream Sony Music artists in China

Tencent (HKG: 0700) signed an agreement with Sony Music Entertainment on Dec. 16 to exclusively manage online distribution of Sony’s music library in China.

The alliance came on the heels of Tencent’s announcing other distribution deals with Warner Music Group and HBO, as Tencent sought to build up its entertainment portfolio to compete with online rivals Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) in using entertainment as a hook to attract more than 600 million internet users in China.

Honda to recall more than half million vehicles in China due to air bag malfunction

Honda (TYO: 7267) said on Dec. 16 that it will recall 569,769 cars it sold in China due to potentially defective air bags that were made by Japan’s Takata Corp (TYO: 7312).

China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement that the damaged airbags could cause “shell fragments to fly” that may hurt passengers.

Almost 20 million vehicles have been recalled globally since 2008 due to defective Takata inflators, which have been linked to five deaths.

A Beijing-based Honda spokesman said that there had been no injuries or malfunctions reported in China so far.

Taiwan’s Academia Sinica raises GDP growth forecast to 3.42%

The Academia Sinica raised its GDP growth forecast for this year to 3.42% on Dec. 16, from the 3.31% estimated in July.

“The pace might decelerate to 3.38% next year, as China’s economic slowdown could dampen external demand and government spending is set to contract further from this year,” said Ray Chou (周雨田), a Academia Sinica research fellow.

China, however, may not see aggressive economic growth in the future because of an increasingly large base and continued economic reform, although it accounts for approximately 40% of Taiwan’s exports, Chou said.

“The trend, together with disappointing showings in Europe and Japan, is unfavorable for Taiwan’s export-reliant economy,” Chou said.

Uncertainty emerged last quarter and has become more evident this quarter, with GDP growth likely ebbing to 2.83%, weaker than the 3.64% expansion in the first three quarters of the year, the research institute’s semiannual report said.

The post Cross-strait News Daily Round-up for Dec. 17 appeared first on VR World.

Here’s a brief roundup of the top business stories in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China for Nov. 25, 2014.

TSMC is the winner of the battle with Samsung regarding Apple’s A9 processor: source

Quoting an anonymous source, Taiwan’s Economic Daily News reported on Nov. 24 that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)(TPE: 2330) has won the competition against Samsung to secure 80% of contract manufacturing order volumes for Apple’s A9 processors.

The source said that Apple favored the stability of TSMC’s 16-nanometer FinFET fabrication technology more than Samsung’s 14-nanometer offering and chose TSMC to supply most of its A9 chips.

The source said that he is expecting 16-nanometer FinFET+ production capacity to reach 50,000 units monthly before the end of June 2015. About 17,000 will be fabricated by retrofitted 20-nanometer production lines, and 33,000 units will be made using new machinery funded by the US$5.6 billion in capital expenditure, which was recently approved by TSMC’s board of directors.

The source said that TSMC is poised to rally its partners in the company’s upcoming supplier conference and forum on Dec. 4, when TSMC Co-CEO Mark Liu (劉德音) is expected to announce the company’s resolve in overtaking the formidable Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC), fresh off its victory over the Korean competitor – Samsung.

Foxconn plans more plants for manufacturing iPhone 7’s touch-screen

State-run China Daily reported on Nov. 25 that Foxconn (TPE: 2354) is planning to launch a new factory in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, and will use it for manufacturing touch-screens for new iPhones.

Foxconn’s new plan was speculated that the new factory in Henan will also become the base to manufacture transparent body and sapphire screen for the new smartphones. Foxconn produced a total of 96.45 million iPhones and exported 84.46 millions of them in 2013.

Tencent to stream HBO in China

Tencent Holdings (HKG: 0700) said on Nov. 25 that the company has signed a contract with HBO to stream the network’s content in China.

Chinese Internet TV companies have spent more than US$1 billion on foreign content over the last two years in an attempt to draw more viewers but it has been met with increasingly stringent government regulations. The Chinese authorities ordered streaming services in May to take down the popular American shows “The Big Bang Theory,” “The Good Wife,” “NCIS” and “The Practice.” Tencent will not be the exclusive online provider in China for shows featuring much more gore and nudity, such as “Game of Thrones.”

Korea does not trust FTA with China: economist

Taiwan Institute of Economic Research’s Macroeconomic Forecasting Center Director Gordon Sun (孫明德) said on Nov. 25 that Korea may not be as happy as expected as the nation just recently signed its FTA with China.

During a press conference, Sun said that while Taiwan is “quite nervous” about being marginalized by the agreement between China and Korea, Korea, however, also appears to be “not as happy as we imagined” with the agreement because lower duties may not address the challenges Korea’s business is experiencing in China.

Sun said that Korean exports to China recorded zero growth in 2012 and negative growth last year, due to the rise of China’s domestic supply chain, a trend that has hurt sales of Korean producers of components or semi-finished goods, just as it has hurt Taiwanese steel and petrochemical suppliers. The rise of Chinese brand names also adversely affected sales of Korean consumer products, such as smartphones.

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