Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine may be the game that convinces you to buy the HTC Vive virtual reality headset. Except it’s only a rumor, and all we know comes from a tantalizingly and all-too-briefly leaked trailer on Industrial Light & Magic’s YouTube channel. The few screen grabs that were captured before the video was set to private viewing only give us a glimpse of ILM’s plans for Star Wars in VR. Referred to as a ‘cinematic virtual reality experiment,’ Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine is likely to contain both gaming and storytelling aspects, and one of the screens shows the player wielding a lightsaber — probably the one thing fans have been dreaming of since HTC showed off the wireless controllers that are central to the Vive experience. Related: Hands-on with the HTC Vive Pre The other screens show the surface of Tatooine with Storm Troopers, an Imperial Shuttle, and R2-D2 all hanging around, plus another of the Millennium Falcon cruising through-space. There’s no hint of what the game is all about, who you play, or just how many lightsaber battles will be featured (we’re hoping for a lot). It’s not a surprise ILM has a Star Wars VR project in the works. Last year, it formed the ILM Experience Lab, where virtual and augmented reality projects surrounding ILM movies would be created. In the launch video, Star Wars was repeatedly featured, and like the new leaked video, the HTC Vive VR headset was seen several times. There’s nothing else to go on at the moment, but we may not have that much longer to wait until all is officially revealed. The HTC Vive is available for pre-order now, with a launch date at the beginning of April, just a month before May 4 — a date that would be fitting for any Star Wars VR content to be released. Official news could potentially come at any time, and we’ll keep you updated.



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