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HTC's Peter Chou takes another job at a visual effects company

HTC's Peter Chou takes another job at a visual effects company

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HTC's former CEO is still staying with the beleaguered phone company, but he's taking on another role at another firm: executive director for Digital Domain. It's the visual effects company behind Iron Man 3, Furious 7, Transformers, and Tron Legacy, among other movies. Chou will serve on the executive committee, but his precise role isn't yet clear beyond the board's belief that " he will contribute his valuable insights in the Group’s business development, and bring satisfactory benefits to the stakeholder."

The move makes sense for both Chou and HTC, actually, as the HTC is ramping up to make its Vive VR headset a serious contender. Some kind of partnership between HTC and Digital Domain would make sense too, as Digital Domain has been doing more VR work lately. It formed a partnership with Immersive Media called IM360, which led to projects like Conan O'Brien in VR at ComicCon.

But HTC (and, one assumes, Digital Domain) clearly has higher aspirations for VR than brand activations. Although the rollout of the Vive is moving along a little more slowly than hoped, it does seem like it's going to have a real shot at setting itself apart from its competitors thanks to its ability to track your position in a room. If HTC can pull it off, we might stop referring to it as a beleaguered phone company and start referring to it as a VR company.