Using Windows Mixed Reality, we created 3 custom VR games for British rock band Muse, bringing their new album, Simulation Theory, to life for fans. Microsoft tech empowered the band’s vision; each game was inspired by a music video off the album, and featured a track from the record. ‘80s influences abound in their latest release, and we captured that aesthetic across the games (and with retro game cabinets): driving game Retrograde Racer, beat-matching game Simulation Striker, and space shoot-em-up Spaceship Defender. The games accompanied the band on their world tour, available as part of the Enhanced Experience pre-show.

Muse sought to create a whole world around their latest album, Simulation Theory, through their music videos, live show, album art, and the songs themselves. VR was the perfect tool to extend that vision and connect fans to this world in an immersive way. Building something that could travel with the band on their world tour was vital, ensuring that the most fans possible could experience the games. The three games we created all feature songs from Simulation Theory, as well as design elements and aesthetic cues from the music videos. After demoing Windows Mixed Reality capabilities, the band decided that virtual reality was the ultimate way to build this world.

We worked closely with Muse to develop 3 custom VR games inspired by the band’s latest album and music videos. Each was built using the Windows Mixed Reality platform: Retrograde Race is a driving game, featuring the track “The Dark Side.” Simulation Striker is a beat-match game, using the song “Algorithm.” And shoot-em-up game Spaceship Defender features the track “Algorithm.” It was important to tap into the ‘80s aesthetic of the album art and videos in order to create a cohesive world across media that fans could understand and experience. The games are housed in retro-inspired arcade cabinets, expanding on the aesthetic. These traveled with the band on their world tour, as part of Muse’s Enhanced Experience pre-show for superfans.

As a band, Muse are extremely engaged with new technologies and very forward-thinking; they bring this interest in tech into their songs, performances, and wider creative. Thus, we primarily targeted Muse fans with our gaming experience, as they are similarly curious and open to new technologies. Using Microsoft channels, Muse’s channels, as well as PR, we also targeted a wider audience of those interested in tech, music, and pop culture, sharing our story of tech pushing the boundaries of creative possibilities, and offering a new connection to and experience for fans.

The Enhanced Experience traveled to 49 tour stops with 14K people estimated to attend. Working with Microsoft and two independent VR game developers (and with creative oversight by Muse), we built three different VR games in Unity, running on Windows Mixed Reality, and communicating to a locally networked scoreboard. There is one custom scoreboard per game that tracks the highest scorers. Each game is the length of one of Muse’s songs: Retrograde Racer utilizes a Thrustmaster TMX Pro Force Feedback Racing Wheel to control the car; Simulation Striker uses both hand controllers provided by the Samsung Headset; Spaceship Defender uses only one of the hand controllers from the Samsung set. We built 9 retro-style arcade cabinets (3 per game), plus 1 unifying high scoreboard cabinet to tour with the band. Each cabinet consists of 1 55” 4k teelvision, 1 custom-built gaming computer running Windows 10, one Samsung HMD Odyssey+ Headset.

The campaign ran across Microsoft social channels, Microsoft owned and operated placements, and Muse channels from February 23rd – April 13th 2019. The campaign around our project saw incredible reach across social media and online outlets. We garnered more than 20 million social impressions, with paid media and organic posts rolling out across both Muse’s and Microsoft channels. The campaign’s social assets gave fans a look into the world that Muse had created through the collaboration with Microsoft and resonated well, generating over 3 million video views and resulting in 85,000+ link clicks to the project page on Microsoft’s In Culture site. Earned media was a great success, with over 150 million earned media impressions. Coverage was spread across major online publications, including an exclusive with Billboard, as well as articles on NME, Alt Press, Broadway World, Louder Sound, and many more.