A series of alien invasion short films is coming to Steam — courtesy of District 9 director Neill Blomkamp. The trailer for the first film, Oats Volume 1 is now available.
The new film the product of Blomkamp’s experimental studio, Oats Studios. As the name implies, it’s the first in a series of short films to be released on Valve’s digital platform.
We are making experimental short films for @steam_games , question is weather to charge. Free is way better, but then – alas studio is gone pic.twitter.com/Ad6g8QArBQ
— Neill Blomkamp (@NeillBlomkamp) April 10, 2017
Blomkamp first floated the idea of his movies on Steam in April. According to Blomkamp, the reason he turned to Steam — as opposed to more film-friendly platforms like YouTube or Vimeo — is to release both the movie and its assets in one place.
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While he plans to turn the short films into a big-budget release eventually, he doesn’t plan to charge for Volume 1 and might subsidize the film’s production via the sale of these extras.
Idea with steam is that we can have everything under one roof. Concept art If people want 3D assets or maya scene files they can have them.
— Neill Blomkamp (@NeillBlomkamp) May 22, 2017
Steam’s movie rental platform has not exactly been met with acclaim. As my colleague Abhimanyu Ghoshal pointed out when the movie section opened, the princely prices Steam asked for a 48-hour rental can’t compete with the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime. But maybe exclusive rights to films from a popular director will attract more positive attention.
According to the trailer, the film will be “streaming soon.”
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