Google’s new Android VR platform is called ‘Daydream’

Google might be making waves with its low-cost Cardboard virtual reality system, but that was 2014. Daydream is now. Daydream is hardware and software baked into Android N: a headset that looks an awful lot like Samsung and Oculus’ Gear VR and Rift headsets, and a controller that looks pretty similar to an Apple TV remote. From the sounds of it, this won’t usurp other hardware makers that are doing VR on their own handsets because Samsung is a partner for Google here. Same goes for Alcatel, HTC and LG among others.

But hardware only gets you so far. Google says that there are some 50 million Cardboard apps out in the wild, and that some of them are making their way to Daydream. New York Times, CNN and even HBO and IMAX are getting in the game here. And speaking of games, expect to see offerings from the likes of Electronic Arts and Ubisoft.

All of the apps shown off onstage lived in VR. The hub world shown was a stylized, polygonal forest setting, with apps floating in a grid in front of the user. Google even went so far as to rebuild YouTube from the ground up for VR, much like the Google Play store. Daydream doesn’t launch until this fall, but a developer preview will be available soon.

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