OTOY • OTOY and Mattel Partner to Bring Holographic Content to View-Master®

The partnership will kick off with a virtual reality Batman experience, in collaboration with Warner Bros. Consumer Products, DC Entertainment and Blue Ribbon Content, launching this fall on View-Master platform worldwide

Los Angeles, CA – September 13, 2016 – OTOY Inc. and Mattel today announced its partnership that will bring original episodic content, powered by OTOY’s cinematic rendering technology, to be used with the View-Master® VR Viewer. Launching in collaboration with Warner Bros. Consumer Products, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros.’ digital studio Blue Ribbon Content, DC’s iconic Super Hero Batman will be paired up with View-Master’s rich 75-year legacy and OTOY’s groundbreaking holographic rendering ecosystem, bringing unprecedented fidelity to the evolving language of narrative virtual reality storytelling via an experience based on Warner Bros. Animation’s Batman: The Animated Series.

“OTOY is the perfect partner to create new VR content for View-Master,” said Mark Morse, Director Advanced Concepts at Mattel. “They’re light-years ahead of the curve when it comes to their rendering capabilities. The Batman experience we previewed at San Diego Comic-Con was just a glimpse into the incredible things to come from this collaboration.”

Launched at the 1939 World’s Fair only four years after the invention of color film, the stereoscopic View-Master viewer has transported generations of audiences into spectacular 3D worlds. Last year, the brand evolved into a best-selling virtual reality headset sold to retailers worldwide.

Today’s partnership with OTOY enables a newly redesigned View-Master to display ORBX media, a holographic content file and streaming format, which enables uncompromised cinematic quality with full immersion on mobile VR and AR device. OTOY developed an end-to-end toolchain and publishing platform for Mattel, Warner Bros. Consumer Products and Blue Ribbon Content in order to bring to life new virtual reality experiences for fans based on many of the fan-favorite episodes from Warner Bros. Animation’s beloved Batman: The Animated Series.

“The creative energy I put into OTOY goes all the way back to my childhood. Both Batman: The Animated Series and View-Master were fixtures during that part of my life. It’s a dream come true for me to have the chance to bring them together with Mattel and Warner Bros. Consumer Products and participate in the View-Master’s evolution to VR and beyond,” said Jules Urbach, Founder and CEO of OTOY.

Kelly Gilmore, Senior Vice President, Global Toys, Warner Bros. Consumer Products, said: “We’re thrilled to partner with Mattel and OTOY on this exciting collaboration with Warner Bros. Animation that will give Batman fans around the world a chance to watch the stories and adventures of their favorite Super Hero in this all-new format.”

Batman: The Animated Series producer/director Bruce Timm and writer/producer Paul Dini collaborated with OTOY’s artists and engineers to achieve an ideal balance of immersion and interactivity for this experience project. Original voice cast Kevin Conroy (Batman), Mark Hamill (The Joker) Loren Lester (Robin) and Tara Strong (Batgirl) all returned to reprise their legendary DC character roles, under the supervision of Batman: The Animated Series voice director Andrea Romano.

Sam Register, President, Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Digital Series, said: “We are extremely excited for our fans to be able to experience Batman: The Animated Series in a new and immersive way, through the innovation provided by OTOY, on Mattel’s View-Master platform.”

A sneak preview teased at San Diego Comic-Con 2016 delighted audiences at the Mattel booth, and gave fans the chance to experience stepping into an episode of Batman: The Animated Series for the first time. Consumers will be able to see firsthand what it’s like to save Gotham City when the experience pack is released this fall.

Mattel’s Batman™ View-Master content is created using OTOY’s OctaneRender 3 software, and displayed at peak fidelity on the View-Master using ORBX media library for the Unity Engine. The ORBX media library supports 18K HDR stereo cube map lighting layers and 60 fps video at peak quality. The stereo cube map image format was co-developed with Oculus CTO John Carmack for Oculus 360 photos. It was most recently adopted by Samsung’s GearVR Internet browser, with OTOY’s input, bringing peak quality VR content to the open web. The ORBX media framework can further leverage OctaneRender’s texture baking tools for Unity and glTF meshes. On devices with LTE support, the ORBX Media player supports live holographic portals for peak mixed reality and VR rendering over LTE.

“OTOY’s OctaneRender and ORBX technology brings hyper-photorealistic VR experiences to mass consumer devices,” said Urbach. Artists using OTOY software have the tools to conjure the spectacular immersive worlds and easily share them with the world on platforms like The View-Master VR. We are extremely excited to make holographic storytelling, a thing of the present, not the future, in partnership with Mattel.”

The Batman™ VR experience is the first release in a partnership with OTOY to bring next generation immersive and interactive narrative content to the View Master platform. To learn more about the Batman: The Animated Series VR Experience Pack as well as upcoming launches, please visit viewmaster.com.

About Mattel

Mattel is a creations company that inspires the wonder of childhood. Our mission is to be the recognized leader in play, learning and development worldwide. Mattel’s portfolio of global consumer brands includes American Girl®, Barbie®, Fisher-Price®, Hot Wheels®, Monster High® and Thomas & Friends®, among many others. Mattel also creates a wealth of lines and products made in collaboration with leading entertainment and technology companies. With a global workforce of approximately 31,000 people, Mattel operates in 40 countries and territories and sells products in more than 150 nations. Visit us online at www.mattel.com.

About OTOY Inc.

OTOY Inc. is the definitive cloud graphics company, pioneering technology that is redefining content creation and delivery for media and entertainment organizations around the world. OTOY’s Academy Award®-winning technology is used by leading visual effects studios, artists, animators, designers, architects, and engineers, providing unprecedented creative freedom, new levels of realism, and new economics in content creation and distribution powered by the cloud. For more information, visit www.otoy.com.

About Warner Bros. Consumer Products

Warner Bros. Consumer Products, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, is one of the leading licensing and retail merchandising organizations in the world.

About DC Entertainment

DC Entertainment, home to iconic brands DC (Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, The Flash, etc.), Vertigo (Sandman, Fables, etc.) and MAD, is the creative division charged with strategically integrating across Warner Bros. and Time Warner. DC Entertainment works in concert with many key Warner Bros. divisions to unleash its stories and characters across all media, including but not limited to film, television, consumer products, home entertainment, and interactive games. Publishing thousands of comic books, graphic novels and magazines each year, DC Entertainment is one of the largest English- language publishers of comics in the world.

About Blue Ribbon Content

Formed in 2014, Blue Ribbon Content (BRC) is Warner Bros.’ digital studio. BRC develops and produces live-action series for digital platforms, tapping the creative talent already working at the company while also identifying opportunities for collaboration with new writers and producers. In addition to live-action programming, BRC produces animated content and is also experimenting with emerging platforms such as virtual reality. BRC programs include the upcoming UNINTERRUPTED Original Series Now We’re Talking for go90; Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles for Machinima; Vixen and the upcoming Freedom Fighters: The Ray for CW Seed; and the Batman: The Animated Series virtual reality experience with OTOY Inc., among others.