Will Smiths FOO Show seeking support via Kickstarter

Just launched today, it seems like after investors cooled off on VR because it wasn't the smash hit they had hoped for, Will Smith is going to KS in order to run the FOO Show. They're looking for 50k to film a first season.

Link

I sort of saw this coming after it being so quiet for so long and then his most recent appearance on the bombcast. It really sounds like they missed the boat on that lovely VC money.

Personally, I've no real interest in this. I don't own a headset. I won't for years, not just because of financial reasons but primarily because I live in a shoe box apartment (I want to live in that world that Nintendo think people my age live in). I think the idea of the show is interesting and I hope they do well.

Sort of surprised they didn't go for Paetron instead.

I guess the difference is that if you're going for Kickstarter, you hope that maybe that's the only time you'll ever need it and if the first Kickstarted season does well enough, actual investors will see the positive reaction to the first season and bankroll further seasons. If you go with Patreon, you're kind of admitting that you're just going to subsist off of fan money for a good long while, since I can't think of hearing about a lot of projects that were on Patreon for a while and switched off of it later.

RIP VC money. We hardly knew ye.

Even though I don't own a headset, and probably never will, I could see throwing him $30. Thanks for the link, I hope he gets what he needs.

This sucks because I don't own VR, I have no interest in what The Foo Show wants to do, and its Christmas season. I might be inclined to throw him some money to support him in his endeavor but family and friends come first; its fatalistic and hindsight but since this thing was announced I figured it would go this way. Best of luck to him and the others trying to do this. VR is niche and for richer consumers (or people with bad spending habits) and this is for an even more niche crowd, so...I'm not really sure how popular they expected it to be (especially given it was not available on all VR platforms).

I also think it might have helped had they not named it "The Foo Show"...because it is a really, really stupid name.

I hope Will finds success and while I have a GearVR, I need to see how well it works there before I can justify backing the project

Looks interesting, i think this would be a pretty cool way to experience your favorite personalities talk about stuff that you're interested in. I'm not sure what the fan base on tested is or how big it was, but i think this will hinge on that fan bases support for the personalities involved more so than the tech involved. I only know will smith from the few times he's been on here as i missed most of the whiskey days.

Like personally, i'd probably be down for seeing something like this involving the bomb crew in some way.

ill probably kick in a few bucks cause it's fucking will, but i dont know when/if i'll get a headset. i appear to be one of the few that would rather experience existing games through it rather than something tailor made.

i do chuckle at the spitefulness towards vr round these parts, though...

wish will and co. all the best!

Kicked in for the season. I like supporting the platform, especially for something unique from the Will Smith.

Yikes, As much as I like Will FOO always seemed like a very niche product. The time they showed it on the VR stream was hilarious because of how broken it was but left me with zero desire to ever use that product myself. It seems that VR has not really taken off yet the way some people where predicting and FOO just seems like a very niche idea reliant on hardware without popular appeal.

I hope things work our for Will wether this kickstarter succeeds or not, because I like that dude a lot. But I can't in good conscience put money into that.

@ripelivejam: Well, the duders got "spiteful" after they experienced and saw what it is currently (not even spiteful, just disappointed). I think they all are excited to see what could become of VR but are in a "I'll see it when it happens" sort of situation. As for the community I think its people who see a massive investment with no payoff whatsoever. The average consumer, which would be most of the community, doesn't have the "**** money" to just throw at VR and say, "Well that was fun for 15 minutes. I'll check back in every 6 months and see what new demo has been put out for $40." I haven't seen anyone say, "VR is stupid and shouldn't exist"...

I really hope this works out for him. Will is awesome.

I always wondered what there business model was...

I really liked the Firewatch episode they put out a while ago, it was really neat being able to walk around a previously existing game space and look at all the assets up close and stuff. $20 for 5 of those seems like a pretty good price. I might end up kicking in for it.

Not even a little interested, but hope it works out for Will. Kinda seems like he could go back to Tested if he had to. Though, frankly, I stopped subscribing to that site since it turned into the Adam Savage Movie Props show.

I agree that Patreon seems like a better solution here, but I have a feeling the Foo Shows has some bigger up-front costs than your standard web series so they need a big chunk of dough to get running. Hopefully it works out for them, there's a potential for some fun stuff.

This is slightly tangential to the topic, but I don't get how VCs were expecting VR to be a smash hit out of the gate. It's a niche product with a high cost of entry and high potential for rapid iteration, with a target market that's often old enough to remember the last time VR crashed and burned.

I am a big fan of Will and to me is in my heart an always honorary member of giant bomb even if he is no longer here [but to be fair I say that about all except one "on air personality", which I won't name to be polite]. But I am not sure if this is something I would put my money behind.... The thing seems so niche, and as much as I would love VR, and think it is a cool idea it serves little value for me as someone who prob won't buy VR for a number of years, and am not sure it adds enough to the experience of an interview... But if you guys like it I think you should feel free to support it, as that is what these kickstarter things are best at, the niche things like this. I could see a version of this down the line where it would be interesting, but honestly I just am not seeing enough in it to put money into it right now or the near future.

Side note: Man I always hated that name. As a programmer I always thought it was one of the worst programming educational conventions that ever existed, Foo was. I remember my professors at school went out of their way to never mention it as well, but instead used USEFUL names in examples, even in examples where it didn't directly say what what the function or something was doing [as wasn't the point, where foo would be used]. Heck, even just make it simple and call the method/variable x, y, z, or a, b, c. It gets the same point across and foo doesn't enhance that in any way. Anyway end of my little rant.

Sounds like a gimmick, added onto an interview talk show. KISS keep it simple stupid.

No, psvr support is a head scratcher, too.

If the deliver date is next month, the season is probably already done or almost so. So this is really a preorder.

Good luck Will Smith, seems a bit too out there for me.

@whitegreyblack: Facebook buying Oculus is what exploded VC's projections. Instead of investing in just a new technology space. It became we might be investing in the next big thing. This could be smart phones and tablets big.

Big fan of Will, but this looks dumb.

I think Will Smith just got so excited about the possibilities of VR that he just wanted to go with the flow. Considering how tech oriented Will is it isnt a big surprise that he got excited about the possibilities of VR and decided to leave tested to found the company with 2 of his friends.

In hindsight Will should have probably stayed at tested and kinda be a part time member of his new company. That way he could have maybe taken a bit less stressful approach to VR. I think the major obstacles for Vr are still the high price (for pc´s), the akward platform exclusivity between rift and oculus games and the games themselves (most of them are minigames made by indie developers with limited resources).

In this environment where even a successful VR game only sells about 100k copies it is probably very difficult to get a VR based show off the ground.

I have no opinion about the project but the kickstarter seems to go well, already 21% ($10,610 of 50k) pledged.

I love Will and hope that this project gets funded and all goes well, but ever since he announced FOO I found the notion of a VR talk show really crazy, especially in the very specific way this is trying to go about it.

Hopefully if this gets funded it can expand and become a lot bigger. I'll say that I'm interested to see where it goes.

I hope they make their goal. =)

I liked the Firewatch thing but it's probably not something I would pay for. Good luck to Will though I hope he finds an audience.

Also have they ever said why the fuck it's called FOO? I continue to dislike that name.

I thought Kickstarter was for people developing an idea, not one that is already created. That's what kickstarter means. Just because he missed out on actual investors doesn't mean he should fall back on Kickstarter.

I still don't fully understand what Foo is used for

Good luck to Will, but yeah, pass.

Some day, something like it will be huge and make a lot of money, but that time is waaaaay in the future, and ten+ further iterations from what VR is currently.

We'll all be too old to want to even bother with it by then too!

Kickstarter is not about developing an idea. These funding websites are about funding a prototype to a finish product. The biggest mistake people make on Kickstarter is pitching "this is what we would like to do, please fund us" when they should say "this is what we are doing, fund us if you think this is a good idea"

Theres a "2d" version controlled by mouse + keyboard for those who dont have vr.

I think a lot of people are missing a big factor when speaking of VR profitability.

Those that own Vives want to spend money getting more and more VR content. It's fair to say the early adopters like myself have some money to use for quality content when it arrives. So while the install base for the Vive and Rift might not be huge, there's more people just looking to spend some money than a lot of other platforms.

I believe this is meant to be coming to GearVR, so with Oculus, Vive and the 2D version, that's a lot of people who might be interested in this innovative idea.

@sethshandor said:

VR is now what it will be in the future, only in the future it'll be running at a higher resolution with better lenses and larger field of views for improved immersion and clarity (and no doubt more complex input devices).

Kind of weird how dismissive some people are about VR. It highlights who has had a lot of time with the headsets and who has not. Many people dislike the teleporting (me too), but as Onward shows us you can do away with teleporting and play games more traditionally.

I thought he was going to take the "tech" of the show. And sell it to others. Who could produce their own shows. Or at least license it out.
I honestly thought this show was a concept, a sales pitch for the tech. Now he's going to go all the way with this awful show idea.....

I like Will Smith and hope the project does well, even though I have zero interest in it. $18,604 has already been raised, so it will most likely do fine.

I believe that is still the plan for the company. Will is still a content first guy. The show seems like a natural expansion of his work at post-whiskey Tested. The major focus of new Tested was to show off builders and their creations. VR definitely adds to that mission in which the actual physicality of the work is a large part of the appeal of the piece that is lost just through video. With a VR show you get a much more of that physicality.

Basically what from what I can tell he is basically pulling a James Cameron with the company. He had the vision for a show he wanted to make but the technology to make it didn't exist. So he's going to make it believing that others will follow suit with content they want to make. And he will have easy to use tools to sell them.

I just backed it, because Will is awesome and I hope to eventually see this in PSVR.

However, here's my backer number. Welp.

@alwaysbebombing: its a novelty for a novelty for richer people.

While this thread is mostly "why this?," "I don't care," and "good luck, I guess," I'll support this KS (only the second one I will have ever supported) because I would rather have original, weird ideas (even if it is an original idea based on a combination of old ideas) in VR than stuff like the FFXV add-on, which is basically an insult to the intelligence of anyone who buys a headset.

Also, I like behind-the-scenes content a whole bunch, and FOO has appealed to me right from the start.

He has plenty of money. Why go to Kickstarter there?!

I always liked the idea behind the FOO show, but i wonder if it's just too soon to have a talkshow about games in VR. Especially as the 'main dish' of VR, the games, haven't convinced the majority of gamers that it's worthwhile to purchase a headset. And i imagine that that small set of VR users mostly bought the headset to experience VR games. I wonder how many of those people will keep their headset on for an extra hour to experience a VR talkshow. It seems like targeting such a select group is really tricky.

Now if VR was booming, prices were lower and the games were there, i could see this being very successful. After all, on TV a talkshow can offer a nice change of pace compared to watching a movie. Eventually that demand for diverse products will also be there in VR.

VR is only really for rich tech guys at the moment. I'm sure there are more than enough of them willing to shake out some of their spare change and fund this.

Please tell us more about Will Smith's financials.

I think that the announcement of a 2D player for us non-vr types to still be able to enjoy the episodes is a great idea, and honestly will probably draw people over to consider getting some VR form to watch if the shows have the right guests/games etc.

If they could get this going on a smartphone/cardboard type deal it would be a great excuse to watch, and maybe PSVR support too would be a boon.

I'm happy that Will is pushing this kind of content forward. Right now we need more VR experiences other than the first person shooter and in this year of NoClip, Waypoint and now FOO pushing game coverage forward (still non of which would be here without GBomb!) , it's good to know we'll have more avenues than ever to experience more about the making of the sausage!

@wynnduff:

True, but a similar analogy can be made about the Atari 2600 and an XBox One. Model T and a Smart Car. ENIAC and an iPad. I can't fault people for not wanting to engage in the early, rough, scrambling to find its way days of an emerging technology. Usually it sucks. Most people are just honestly realizing "yeah, this thing just isn't there yet."

I believe Will's idea is a good one, but I also think in 10+ years he'll be watching the first 'VR immersion feed star' going: "I had that idea first... grumble... grumble..."

I thought that first episode of Foo was pretty neat. I was able to experience it myself with my Rift, and came away impressed. It was so cool being there with them. I even felt like they'd start talking to me a few times. I might throw some green their way. I wish him the best going forward.

Two things:

1) You don't need a VR headset top see he show, you can watch it on a screen with an app in plain old 2D. Moreover, the show in 2D still should be fun if the interviews are good. I mean Giant Bombs content is all 2D, but we don't say they suck because its is only rendered in 2D, right? When they did that demo on Giant Bomb after the show nobody said, "That was garbage". And, if you did say that...man you need to lighten-up.

2) I have a funny feeling that anyone else in this situation might have failed. But, Will Smith has connections that are someone widespread and very varied for someone in his position. If I say "Will Smith" in this forum, nobody thinks, "Welcome to Earth! [punch]", they think of a beard-guy who taught us how to make coffee. Between here, tested, and his other connections I think there is every possibility that a lot of people will be bending over to give him a hand-up if he needs it.


The tech seems cool and the idea of a interview show in VR idea has a lot of merit. I'm not sure if Will's companies have patents, but I assume they must have a few for teh technique they are using....and those patents seemingly are the ground floor of VR interviews. An interview on the fly that in rendered in that "Dire Straits 2.0" quality is very cool, but imagine a show where you could post-process render and cut together a show in a higher resolution. If (I said if) Will Smith's company own patents on some aspects of that technique, they own something very important.

...Now look at them yo-yo's that's the way you do it / You play the guitar on the MTV / That ain't workin' that's the way you do it / Money for nothin' and chicks for free...

Just thought I'd bump this in case anyone wanted to still back it, but forgot. They have about a 2 and a half days to go. I just threw in 20 bucks to get the first season. They're almost 10k over their goal at this point, so it looks like it was a success. Now that I have my touch controllers, I'll probably go back and try that pilot episode again. What will is doing is different, cool, and something we really haven't seen people try yet in this fledgling market of Vr. I thoroughly encourage it, as someone who has invested early in it all.

Yo guys, the second stretch goal is apparently Danny B as the bandleader. I don't know what that means but that sounds DUMB as hell so please, help make this happen if you can. I think it's only $2000 away from the Danny B Stretch goal ($63k, I think).

I probably should go check this out considering that I own a Vive but it seems like Will set up a steep mountain to climb for himself. The FOO Show is a terrible name and gives you no sense of what it's about and honestly I think this whole concept, although cool, is way ahead of its time.

You'll need 1 or 2 headset revisions to get the kind of immersion you'd want when exploring other game worlds in the form of a "show". The current headsets out there still feel experimental.

The name could be a nod to how foo is a commonly used placeholder method/variable name in programming.

Yeah as really needs to change the name. Foo show is terrible.