As the Facebook-owned, virtual reality headset Oculus Rift continues to expand its offerings (including its first feature-length horror movie), it’s now helping fans of The Who join in on the disorienting fun. The release of the band’s new compilation The Who Hits 50! will see The Who looking to the future—not just through its Daft Punk-referencing new song “Be Lucky,” but through the best virtual reality graphics 1998 has to offer.
The companion app to The Who Hits 50! can currently be downloaded on both tablets and smartphones, though The Guardian says the release of its 3-D Oculus Rift version won’t come until early 2015. In the meantime, the app has a trailer showing off plenty of classic Who music and iconography, while Immersive’s Michael Fenna, creative director of the company behind the app, says there are plans for it to expand as the band embarks on its 50th anniversary tour next year, adding in live performances and more. “We’ve built it as an evolving thing: there’s a real chance to tell a narrative in a more engaging way than in a book or a film,” Fenna says. That “narrative” may or may not involve a glitchy, endlessly guitar-windmilling Pete Townsend moving from one side of the screen to the other, defying gravity and confusing users as he searches for relevance to his new, 3-D environment.