HBO LAUNCHES "SILICON VALLEY: INSIDE THE HACKER HOSTEL" VIRTUAL REALITY ON HTC'S VIVEPORT, MARCH 25

With fans eagerly awaiting the premiere of Silicon Valley season five, HBO today announced Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel, a virtual reality experience inspired by the Emmy(R)-winning comedy series from Mike Judge and Alec Berg. Starting Sunday, March 25, 2018, fans can download the VR expierence via Viveport, HTC Vive's global platform and app store. For updates on where to download the VR experience visit SiliconValleyVR.com. Season five of Silicon Valley premieres on Sunday, March 25th at 10:00 PM EST. The series is also available on HBO NOW, HBO GO, HBO On Demand and partners' streaming platforms.

Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel will bring fans through the incubator where main characters Richard, Dinesh, Gilfoyle and Jared live and work in the hit HBO comedy series Silicon Valley. The captivating, interactive VR experience will provide one-on-one encounters with Richard (Thomas Middleditch), Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani), Gilfoyle (Martin Starr), Big Head (Josh Brener) and Jian-Yang (Jimmy O. Yang). In addition, visitors can see how many times they get "always blue," demo the Not Hot Dog app (and snack on the test food), find a secret message from Jared, and help Richard out of a coding crisis.

Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel was developed by immersive content studio REWIND in Unreal Engine 4, and is built to run on HTC Vive, the leading virtual reality (VR) platform. The real-time VR experience takes place inside an authentic recreation of the Hacker Hostel, a central part of the HBO show. REWIND used 3DS Max & Maya to faithfully recreate the Hacker Hostel environment from top-down blueprints of the actual set of the show and used photo reference to replicate the materials for all of the assets in Substance Designer and Substance Painter. REWIND also took HDR 360 captures of each of the rooms on set, to replicate the interior lighting as best as possible. There are over 750 interactive items within the experience, from a fully playable piano to a VR HMD. This phenomenal number was made possible using forward rendering; this technique improves the overall performance (frame rate) of the experience allowing REWIND to pack the experience with objects.

The Emmy(R)-winning and Golden Globe(R)-nominated Silicon Valley takes a comic look at the modern-day epicenter of the high-tech gold rush, where the people most qualified to succeed are the least capable of handling success. A collaboration between Mike Judge and Alec Berg. Series regulars include Thomas Middleditch, Zach Woods, Kumail Nanjiani, Martin Starr, Josh Brener, Amanda Crew, Matt Ross, Jimmy O. Yang and Suzanne Cryer.

ABOUT HBO

Home Box Office, Inc. is the premium television programming subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. and the world's most successful pay TV service, providing the two television services? - ?HBO(R) and Cinemax(R)? - ?to approximately 134 million subscribers worldwide. The services offer the popular subscription video-on-demand products HBO On Demand(R) and Cinemax On Demand(R), as well as HBO GO(R) and MAX GO(R), HD feeds and multiplex channels. HBO NOW(R), the network's internet-only premium streaming service, provides audiences with instant access to HBO's acclaimed programming in the U.S. Internationally, HBO branded television networks, along with the subscription video-on-demand products HBO On Demand and HBO GO, bring HBO services to over 60 countries. HBO and Cinemax programming is sold into over 150 countries worldwide.

About HTC VIVE

VIVE is a first-of-its-kind virtual reality platform, built and optimized for room-scale VR and true-to-life interactions. Delivering on the promise of VR with game-changing technology and best-in-class content, VIVE has created the strongest ecosystem for VR hardware and software, bringing VR to consumers, developers and enterprises alike. The VIVE ecosystem is built around the best VR hardware in market, supported by VIVE X, a $100 million accelerator for VR and related technology start-ups, Viveport, a global platform and app store with the world's first VR subscription model that operates in more than 60 countries, and VIVE Studios, its VR content development and publishing initiative. For more information on VIVE, please visit www.vive.com.