The Virtual Arena: Defining the Next Phase of Immersive LBE (Part 1.)

Covering the immersive location-based entertainment (LBE) scene for VRFocus as part of his latest Virtual Arena column, industry specialist Kevin Williams returns with the first of a two-part series of observations made while many of the LBE VR venues remain in lockdown. He examines how the commercial entertainment VR scene is still at work, charting new developments in the rental of VR tech, the licensing of VR arcade content for consumer deployment, and new partnerships.

While the whole of the business sector has been on enforced lockdown globally for over nine weeks, developments both to adapt to the situation, as well as prepare for the new normal have been underway, as this considerable business adapts and evolves for life #AfterLockdown.

LBE Venue — One of the many furloughed LBE facilities during May. Image credit: KWP

While some cynics attempted to paint the demise of the enterprise entertainment industry in the face of the global pandemic, the reality has been far more positive. While the industry has been bowed (as all) by the enforced voluntary closure of their operations, the interest to re-open and revigorate what has been one of the few burgeoning aspects of this latest phase of VR adoption, has not diminished.

There has even been an interest to attempt to capture in a bottle, those aspects of the location-based entertainment VR scene and recreate them for consumer adaptation – hoping that the success of LBE VR content can be made to work for the encumbered consumer userbase. One such example of this was revealed from studio Golf Scope; the AR and VR entertainment developers, in partnership with Topgolf Entertainment Group, which is widely known for its technology-driven golf entertainment venues. Together the operation launched Pro Putt by Topgolf on Oculus Quest – offering simple VR golfing action, that including a branded recreation of the popular putting action – encapsulating the venue action in one of a series of digital games. While many of the facilities may still be temporarily closed, VR allows the brand to continue.

Pro Putt by Top Golf experience — The virtual recreation of the Topgolf experience. Image credit: Topgolf Entertainment

Another such example of capturing the Out-of-Home entertainment has seen the launch from start-up Adventure Lab, a group of VR developers, who created what they have described as the “World’s first VR live hosted escape room”. The platform currently supports Oculus Quest hardware, allowing players to register online to take part in a connected 40-minute VR escape game, with a live “game master”, acting as host to help players. The first title Dr. Crumb’s School for Disobedient Pets is in early beta, charging $100 for up to four players. The commercial VR escape gaming scene has been incredibly popular before lockdown, and this move hopes to capitalize on the interest from isolated players, bring remote users together, and even supplying captured scenes to share on social media.

The VR Arcade Scene

Another developer hoping to build off of commercial VR popularity, repackaging for consumer consumption, was German-based VR Nerds – the company famous for Tower Tag, a highly competitive PvP capture-the-flag VR experience, played by over 1,000,000 players in arcades worldwide, reportedly available to some 1,300 VR arcades since its launch in 2018. Licensed by Springboard VR, along with porting to the Hologate arena and seeing success in the Japanese VR scene with CA Sega Joypolis installing several units. In May VR Nerds announced that the title would now be accessible for consumers, available on Steam and Viveport for all the leading consumer VR headsets. The ability to relieve the exciting multi-player shooter as it was released in arcades was supported with the developer providing 3D-printable STL files to recreate the gun controller from the game.

Tower Tag - VR Nerds — Example of the weapon in the ‘Tower Tag’, and the new 3D printed controller for the Quest. Image credit: VR Nerds

The need to feed the interest in VR to an audience that is in lockdown has been a consideration for VR arcade operators with hardware sitting unused. One remedy attempted was seen from The Park Playground. One of the first European VR arcade operations, with their sites temporarily shuttered the company decided to launch a new service. The Beta service, called ‘VR in Home’, is only currently available in the Belgium city of Antwerp – interested players use the operations web page to request loans of an Oculus Quest with appropriate game content, for a minimum four-day rental. What has been nicknamed “the Uber VR arcade!” – the use of hardware as a rental business is not an entirely new idea during the pandemic. In Spain, the Canary Virtual business started a similar service in March including a PC as well as standalone platforms for rental – and all specially cleaned and populated for this service. However, the use of the Oculus Quest in commercial applications has come with its own issues.

The Park Playground VR arena in full swing at the Antwerp location before lockdown. Image credit: The Park Playground

But there have been developments in thinking during this changeable time for the Oculus Quest – one of these has been the re-emergence of ‘Oculus for Business’. Finally unveiled with its commercial machine and supported pricing with a yearly subscription, at the same time saw the removal of any of the “Colocation” firmware facility. A facility that had been teased to so many commercial developers only to be removed some 12-months later. It is expected that many developers will continue with their standalone free-roaming release plans, but now deserting official support, (see out previous coverage if this scene).

Another operator of VR venues, as well as a developer of hardware for this sector, has restructured its operation. European based Neurogaming has been known for the RevolVR tethered enclosure VR experience, as well for its PolygonVR free-roaming multiplayer platform, operated in several venues. During May the company announced the signing of a lucrative licensing deal that will see Estonian start-up NeverBored; who will develop a brand-new version of the four-player PvP Western shooter (RevolVR) for the location-based entertainment sector. At the same time, the new developer has started work on a special consumer version of the videogame that will be launched on the Oculus Quest later in the year, bringing the LBE action to consumer players. Additionally, NeverBored will now take on the role of European distributor for the Neurogaming range of LBE hardware including its free-roaming platform. Operations will be restructured to be ready for the reopening of these businesses internationally.

Players competing in the Wild West blaster ‘RevolVR’. Image credit: KWP

This is the end of the first part to this exclusive coverage of the developing immersive commercial entertainment industry. The second part, looking at the new trends moving into reopening and the future of the scene, follows shortly.

May 17, 2020

The VR Job Hub: Hologate & BigBox VR

Every weekend VRFocus gathers together a number vacancies from across the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) industry, in locations around the globe, to help make finding the ideal job easier. Below are a selection of roles that are currently accepting applications across a number of disciplines, all within departments and companies that focus on VR, AR and MR.

Location	Company	Role	Link
Munich, Germany	Hologate	Customer Success Manager	Click Here to Apply
Munich, Germany	Hologate	Finance Administration Assistant	Click Here to Apply
Munich, Germany	Hologate	Key Account Manager	Click Here to Apply
Munich, Germany	Hologate	Supply Chain Manager	Click Here to Apply
Munich, Germany	Hologate	2D Concept Artist	Click Here to Apply
Munich, Germany	Hologate	2D Designer UI/UX	Click Here to Apply
Munich, Germany	Hologate	2D Motion Graphics Artist	Click Here to Apply
Munich, Germany	Hologate	3D Artist	Click Here to Apply
Munich, Germany	Hologate	Game Designer	Click Here to Apply
Munich, Germany	Hologate	QA Tester	Click Here to Apply
Munich, Germany	Hologate	Unreal Developer	Click Here to Apply
Seattle, US	BigBox VR	Graphics Engineer	Click Here to Apply
Seattle, US	BigBox VR	Senior Character Artist	Click Here to Apply
Seattle, US	BigBox VR	Art Tools Software Engineer	Click Here to Apply
Seattle, US	BigBox VR	Environment Artist	Click Here to Apply
Seattle, US	BigBox VR	Live Service Game Designer	Click Here to Apply
Seattle, US	BigBox VR	Networking & Multiplayer Engineer	Click Here to Apply
Seattle, US	BigBox VR	Unity 3D Software Engineer Mobile VR	Click Here to Apply

Don’t forget, if there wasn’t anything that took your fancy this week there’s always last week’s listings on The VR Job Hub to check as well.

If you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).

We’ll see you next week on VRFocus at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.

May 13, 2020

Hologate Partners With Cleanbox Introducing LBE Hygiene and Safety Standards

There have been many industries heavily affected by the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdowns many governments have had to enforce. Location-based entertainment (LBE) venues fall into this list and when these measures ease virtual reality (VR) centres will have to employ stringent practices to ensure public safety. One of the biggest companies focused on this space is Hologate which has recently developed new Hygiene and Safety Standards in partnership with Cleanbox.

Publishing the new standards on its website, Hologate provides instructions for standard and advanced cleaning methods so that venues can create customer peace of mind.

These cover all the various aspects of Hologate’s hardware; headsets, controller, haptic vests and Blitz. In the standard method (imaged below) staff can follow a three-step process, checking devices for any wear and tear before thoroughly cleaning down with sanitising wipes and then drying. This may all be common sense when dealing with hardware which people touch and put on their faces but how often do arcade machines get wiped down?

The second more advanced step is the Cleanbox UVC light cleaning solution. Making eco-friendly, medical grade, Ultraviolet-C cleaning equipment, Cleanbox now offers Hologate owners a second level of protection to decontaminate VR headsets.

Available in two and four-player package options retailing for $3,600 USD and $7,200 respectively. Users simply place the headset inside the Cleanbox and wait 60 seconds, with the UVC process 99.99% effective in destroying viruses, bacteria, and fungi.

Hologate has over 300 locations in 35 countries across the globe, providing custom, small footprint multiplayer solutions. The platform offers exclusive experiences including Das Boot: VR Escape, The Angry Birds Movie 2 Prank Attack VR, Tower Tag and World of Tanks VR.

It’s these sort of steps all LBE VR locations need to employ as they look to reopen in the coming months. How many survive once lockdown measures are rolled back is another matter. For further Hologate updates, keep reading VRFocus.

May 8, 2020

Hologate Wants Its New VR Arcade Hygiene Standards to Inspire Confidence in a Wary Public

As businesses begin to reopen, it’s becoming more and more clear that the out-of-home entertainment industry needs to adapt in a major way if it wants to move forward. Inspiring confidence in the cleanliness of VR equipment donned by the paying public is, without understating it, the biggest obstacle to clawing back the much-needed repeat business that many VR arcades have become accustomed to. To that effect, VR arcade company Hologate recently released a new set of guidelines that it hopes will set a standard for not only its own 300+ global network of locations, but also the VR arcade industry at large. But will it be enough?

Let’s get it all out on the table first. It’s way too soon to head back into public places without a proper face covering and the expectation of a six-foot bubble between you and anyone who you aren’t already isolating with. That said, it doesn’t mean companies aren’t devising strategies now to bridge the uncertain gap between the eventual reopening of arcades (depending on when regional lockdowns are loosened) and the release of a bonafide vaccine. Enter Hologate’s new hygiene and safety standards, something it hopes will get VR arcades back into business.

The company issued this statement, which proceeds a number of strategies outlined in a pretty comprehensive blog post. We’ll dig into those below.

Post coronavirus, we must accept the reality that we will be unable to operate as we have before. Cleanliness and disinfection will have to become paramount to customer’s confidence in enjoying our attractions and location based entertainment.

We must also ensure that standards are maintained by professionals and not left to the customer. Attendant run systems are at an advantage in regards to hygiene as they ensure that the public-accessed components are sanitized at at professional level.

Virtual Reality headsets and accessories have always been the target and topic of hygiene conversations, so it’s more important than ever to make sure that you have proper cleaning procedures in place to ensure that your customers are not only protected but also have full trust in your facility and staff.

Hologate recommends a smorgasbord of techniques for cleaning equipment, which seem pretty common sense—even before the pandemic:

Start with a visual check on all components (VR headset, peripherals, haptic packs, etc).
Ensure that all parts are free of detritus and other debris.
Use a sanitizing wet wipe over any area that touches hands, face, or body.
Only wipe the outside of haptic vests and parts that were touched by clients. The inside liners should be washed regularly.
Allow the component to sit and air dry for at least 30 seconds, or until fully dry.
If any areas remain wet, dry wipe with a soft single-use tissue. Gently dry wipe lenses. Check that all areas are clean and dry.

It’s not enough to just sanitize the equipment itself though. It’s also about creating the perception of cleanliness for arcade-goers. Hologate suggests making sure the process is “highly visible by your customers,” and done so via daily cleaning shifts and even hourly shifts for highly trafficked areas. And like everywhere else, anti-bacterial dispenser or disinfectant wipe stations should also be visible and convenient to access.

This even extends out to the realms of social media. Hologate says arcades should take “photos and video of your team in action” and post on social media channels to drum up the consensus that VR arcades are safe.

“Word of your company’s care and conscientiousness that you’re ensuring your location is a safe place for friends and families will spread through resharing and word-of-mouth. This customer confidence will build and people will respond by returning to the fun once again,” the company says.

Hologate is striking a hopeful note with its safety guidelines: simply sanitize everything, make sure people know you’re actually doing it, and the people will eventually return. But is it enough?

The company also suggests following guidelines established by The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), which take things a bit further. It stipulates that attraction owners should “encourage the use of masks/face coverings for guests and staff,” and to follow local guidance on social distancing. Locations may not even be able to ensure the required six-foot distancing.

The Virtual Arena: The Changing VR Out-of-Home Landscape – Part 2

Covering the immersive Out-of-Home entertainment scene for VRFocus, in his latest Virtual Arena column, industry specialist Kevin Williams reports – concluding this two-part feature. The impact of the latest trends in free-roaming VR attractions is looked at, as well as the continued success of VR enclosure business. Then the report turns its gaze to the impact of the health crisis, and what life for the VR entertainment scene could be #AfterLockdown.

Returning to the surprisingly crowded show floor of the influential B2B Amusement Expo International (AEI) in New Orleans, during early March. Days before the global health crisis would shut down all commerce – this show revealed the key trends and issues that would need to be reevaluated for a market in transition after lockdown.

Moving away from the approach of standalone VR amusement platforms, seen on the show floor that conformed to the more traditional pay-to-play model (covered in the first part). The amusement and entertainment facility sector had been revolutionized by the appearance and deployment of multi-player videogame experiences that offer a compelling attraction.

This approach has seen two unique categories – the first being “VR Enclosure” systems, these using frameworks to cordon off the player space. This has become a distinctive category of its own, and one of the most successful developers of this approach is Hologate. The company based in Germany has sold hundreds of their four-player systems across the market and came to AEI with an updated ‘HOLOGATE Arena’ – offering a compact two-player version of the system, to suit all sizes of location.

Hologate at EAG 2020 — VR teamwork in the latest blaster from HOLOGATE. Image credit: KWP

Another developer of this kind of VR enclosure system was from Minority Media, having developed its own small foot-print enclosure, the operation was promoting its latest dedicated game system with ‘Transformers: VR Battle Arena’. Based on the popular Hasbro franchise, four players compete in a player-vs-player blaster, taking part as the famous robots in a fast base and competitive experience.

Looking at a larger enclosure offering, AEI exhibitor Inowize, in partnership with their lead distributor had their six-player enclosure system called the ‘Arkadia VR Arena’. The platform using the HTC Vive Pro headsets, tethered to the ceiling of the enclosure, offering a multiplayer immersive game experience. The flexibility of the system also offering a four-player variant.

The need to offer the latest platform that achieves the best ROI is essential in a fast-moving sector such as VR amusement and entertainment deployment. The latest variants of the VR enclosure category have started to use the new and emerging VR technology. Manufacturer Box Blaster has created a dedicated enclosure to suit the needs of the market, using the latest Valve Index high-end VR headsets for their four-player ‘Box Blaser VR’. And have focused on a family-friendly approach for their content to drive the key demographic interested in trying VR experiences.

Purpose-built enclosures that allow entertainment facilities to run their own VR arcade-style operations, to compete with independent venues, was also on display. The new developer Sektor VR presented at AEI, their enclosure called the ‘Sektor 001’ that used a giant LED spectator screen to allow the audience to see the virtual environment that the players inhabit. The enclosure allowing two players at a time, both using wireless HTC Vive Pro headsets. As with all in this category, the operation is from a touch-screen kiosk, offering a selection of games provided through the popular Springboard VR content distribution platform.

One of the largest and most impressive of the enclosure systems is that offering from Virtuix – a completely enclosed environment offered by their ‘Omni Arena’. The attendant attracting players to come inside the system, prepare to enter the VR environment using the innovative omnidirectional treadmill, to physically navigate the virtual world. Virtuix has worked hard to create a competitive game environment and were running cash prize ‘VRZ Tournament’ during the show, illustrating the eSports credentials of their hardware.

As we saw leading up to the Health crisis, interest in “Arena Scale VR – Standalone” (the second leading category) has grown exponentially. These represented the deployment of the next innovation in tech, with the Standalone VR headsets such as Oculus Quest, Pico Neo2, HTC Focus Plus, and other systems offering a VR multi-player platform. That could be a cheap alternative to the more expensive and complicated backpack PC VR platforms, for area-scale (free-roaming) deployment. As covered in VRFocus recently this sector still garners much interest with developers like VirtuaActions and their ‘Cyberaction Arena’.

The March AEI show reflected the growth of popularity in this trend across the trade floor. Those companies exhibiting with their entry into this category included VEX Solutions with its ‘VEX Arena’ representing a six-player free-roaming turn-key system. The platform building on the operations’ experience with backpack VR systems. The new ‘VEX Arena’ uses specially customised Pico Neo2 headsets. A flexible arena platform that can accommodate four, six, eight and even 10-player configurations.

Another exhibitor with this category of experience was Arenaverse – showing its ‘Arenaverse’ platform, offering a free-roaming system requiring a minimum footprint of 20ft x 30ft – a totally scalable platform ranging from two players all the way up to twelve. An operation comprising accomplished VR executives in this field, many of the lessons from previous endeavours have been applied. Recently coming out of secret development, the platform comprises a unique operator kiosk that charges the headsets and launches the experiences.

The AEI exhibitor, Scale-1 Portal, is an official Oculus IVS Partner, and presented using the Oculus Quest headset, their new ‘Voxel Arena’ – one of the first official standalone free-roaming four-player spaces, crafted to offer unique multi-player specialist experiences. One of these unique titles is the energetic rhythm music game (‘RYTM’), played as a group in a highly frenetic immersive music experience.

This is a snapshot of the considerable impact that VR had on the last major amusement and entertainment trade event of the post-pandemic market. The March Amusement Expo was driven by the innovation that VR was having on the industry, seeing 10% of the exhibitors on the show floor offering a VR solution of some kind.

VR Entertainment’s Future

From all the developments that were presented at the beginning of March, the then Out-of-Home entertainment sector looked to be continuing its rapid growth in market dominance. But this advance would be placed on hold as global commerce was impacted by the ravages of the COVID-19 epidemic. With all Western VR arcades and location-based entertainment centres shuttered, the industry has been placed in hibernation, eager to re-emerge.

VR Arcade — One of the many shuttered location-based entertainment facilities. Image credit: KWP

Going into these latest weeks of lockdown for the entertainment, hospitality and non-essential businesses, across the West; there is a mood towards attempting to understand what the #AfterLockdown future business for location-based entertainment (LBE) VR will look like. Many operators drawing up plans on how they will welcome their guests to the new landscape of social entertainment in an evolving landscape.

The consumer VR scene while in lockdown has proven that the interest in this technology has not diminished, and with the successful launch of Valve’s Half-Life: Alyx, there has been a desire for more. Not every one of the record number of watchers of the streamed “lets-play” of the videogame has access to the VR hardware or intend to buy it, but this does not mean they would not pay heavily to be able to experience the title. And already plans are in place to support VR arcades to run this title as an option to their clientele.

Hygiene and safe operation of their experiences are a constant for the Out-of-Home entertainment sector long before we entered the grip of the pandemic. Numerous developers have added extensive cleaning and guest operation procedures to ensure that as with the 3D cinema sector (with 3D glasses), bowling sector (with shoes and socks), paintball sector (with goggles and masks) and even the Go-kart sector (with helmets and race suits), the guests experience is a clean and comfortable one. Many operators of VR hardware have deployed “Ninja Masks” (disposable paper liners for VR headsets) to customers using their hardware.

VR Ninja Mask Manufacturers are also looking to incorporate dedicated self-disinfection systems to their hardware, similar to that seen with VR LEO USA’s platform (covered in the previous part) – as well as emulating the work that CleanBox Technology has been developing with their UV-C disinfection stations for VR deployment in enterprise. Companies also like VR Cover have supplied specialist versions of their system for use on most VR amusement platforms.

Operators of large numbers of VR headsets ensuring the manufacturers accommodate the needs of resilience and durability regarding deployment in entertainment. The extra development time that has been afforded to the industry during this hiatus will inevitably result in major development work, and increased ingenuity in the deployment of this technology into the market.

Once the restrictions of isolation are eventually lifted and the population is allowed once again to enjoy themselves, there will be no doubt that VR entertainment will continue to play its part in the vast variety of offerings from the Out-of-Home entertainment landscape. But with increased burden on disposable incomes and concerns of venues operating under restrictions from local government, that the “new normal” for the sector will take some time to be defined with undefined new elements added to the mix. We await, with interest, to report on these new developments.

January 20, 2020

The Virtual Arena: VR in UK Amusement

Covering the immersive Out-of-Home entertainment scene for VRFocus, in his latest Virtual Arena column, industry specialist Kevin Williams reports on the amusement industry’s latest trade extravaganza in London, and the new VR platforms revealed to invited trade buyers, with his exclusive coverage revealing these new category of systems for readers.

The amusement trade represents the pay-to-play sector and started the new decade off underlining how much virtual reality (VR) has influenced innovation in this business. The UK saw one of the largest exhibitions for the sector this month, and VR was front-and-centre. The Entertainment, Attractions and Gaming (EAG) International Expo 2020 – held in London at the beginning of the year for amusement trade professionals – has become a hotbed to demonstrate the latest VR applications in the European Enterprise entertainment sector.

EAG at ExCel — The crowded hall of the ExCel exhibition center. Image credit: KWP.

The various categories of deployment in this market were on display. First was “Standalone VR Arcade” – these are VR systems applied along lines that conform to the needs for amusement deployment in leisure entertainment venues but also applying various levels of “self-service” VR deployment, looking to remove the need for an attendant to run these systems from the mix.

Many of these systems are represented by distributors, companies that place and service the hardware with venue operators for the manufacturer. On the Harry Levy Amusement booth, the VRsenal developed ‘Beat Saber Arcade’ system was presented, an upright kiosk with retractable HTC Vive headset and controllers, configured to as a standalone system running the popular music rhythm VR experience. The machine has become a popular platform with already some 100-units deployed in the Western market.

Beat Saber Arcade at EAG — Beat Saber Arcade proving a big hit with the player-base at the show. Image credit: KWP

Taking on a more familiar amusement approach, UNIS presented on the Instance Automatics booth their ‘Ultra Moto VR’ – a two-player arcade-style ride-on motorcycle racing videogame, with its own motion platform. Players are able to experience the action on the big screen or immersed using the 3Glasses VR headset. The platform marketed to operators as “easy to manage” – offering a familiar package to the VR entertainment medium in amusement.

UNIS - Ultra Moto VR — High-speed competition on the VR motorcycle game from UNIS. Image credit: KWP

Also, on the Harry Levy Amusement booth, was another top-selling VR product, LAI Games has seen great success with its ‘Virtual Rabbids: The Big Ride’ – with hundreds of sales of this two-seat motion ride platform already achieved. Developed in partnership with D-BOX and with content from Ubisoft, the VR ride-experience runs on HTC Vive. At the London show a new compact version of the platform was on display, (for cruise ships and smaller venues), also incorporating three new ride experiences, including a new interactive ride, with scoring elements.

Virtual Rabbids at EAG 2020 — Riding through the Rabbids universe in this eclectic experience from LAI Games. Image credit KWP

The division of the Japanese amusement developer, operator and manufacturer, Bandai Namco Amusement represented the latest entry into this genre with a new two-seat VR motion ride platform from Triotech. Launching their new ‘Storm’, the company has integrated many of the popular elements seen with other systems, using the HTC Vive Pro headset incorporating Ultraleap, to track the riders’ hands. This offering an interactive game element to the roller-coaster ride experience.

Triotech at EAG 2020 — Players using their hands to capture the items during their ride on the TRIOTECH system. Image credit: KWP

Moving on from the standalone amusement deployment, also on show at EAG’20 was the “VR Enclosure” platforms that offer multiple-player VR experiences within an enclosure than as just individual machines. The market leader in this genre is HOLGATE, who came to the London show with its over 500-unit selling ‘HOLGATE Arena’. The latest version of the tethered platform offering a four-player plethora of different co-operative VR experiences, including titles licensed from Angry Birds, World of Tanks and other properties – running on the VR high-end Valve Index headset.

The VR Enclosure approach can also be deployed for the larger game experiences – such as with “Arena-Scale VR” – using backpack PC’s to allow free-roaming for multiple players co-operating in immersive shooting and escape game experiences. EAG exhibitor VEX Solutions presented ‘VEX Adventure’ that takes the Arena-Scale system and places into a flexible platform for both LBE and enclosure deployment. The company showing its system at the show as a complete turnkey solution, with player registration tablets, the onboarding infrastructure – HP backpack PC’s and HTC Vive Pro headsets (incorporating Ultraleap units), and force-feedback weapons.

VEX Backpack PC — Backpack PC VR offering a free-roaming experience on the VEX booth. Image credit: KWP

A glimpse of the future of this application was seen at EAG with the latest example in “Arena-Scale VR – Standalone”, these platforms negate the need for a backpack PC and employed the all-in-one Standalone VR headsets, (a far-reaching feature on the emergence of this new aspect of the VR scene will be published soon in VRFocus). At EAG’20, the exhibitor Hero Zone demonstrated its version of this approach, with a four-player platform, employing Oculus Quest headsets, modified with the Modicap soundkit and battery extension. The pop-up enclosure running the new title ‘Dead Ahead’ – for some co-operative zombie blasting. The first installation of this platform is going live in February.

Hero Zone at EAG 2020 — Team of players try out the new Hero Zone game and modified Oculus Quests’. Image credit: KWP

The final aspect of the diverse Out-of-Home entertainment deployment of this technology is the category of “Large VR Attractions” – turning VR tech into dedicated attractions for theme parks and LBE venues. One of the major developers in this field is Holovis, working on several attractions, but at EAG they revealed plans to develop smaller-scale applications that can suit amusement and FEC (Family Entertainment Center) deployment – offering big experiences in a small package.

Displayed for the first time, Holovis revealed their first title with ‘The Descent’, developed in partnership with D-BOX – the company created an intense alien blaster which uses the physicality of a special-effects mine-cage, descending virtually into the bowls of the Earth, battling waves of aliens on the way down. The system borrowing heavily from all the physical effects deployed in larger attractions, Holovis hoping to open a new sphere of the market with “Mid-Scale VR Attractions”, seeing their first orders at the show.

Holovis at EAG 2020 — The brave player controls their descent into the nest of voracious aliens on the Holovis platform. Image credit: KWP

Along with the new hardware on display EAG 2020 held a seminar to present the opportunity of what immersive entertainment platforms offer the operators in this sector (ranging from seaside, leisure, amusement and FEC venues). Held in partnership with the show organizers, and industry consultancy KWP, the session brought together presenters from key executives in the field, including MeetSpace, operator of the Zero Latency arena in Wembley, the co-founder of HOLOGATE, SPREE Interactive, famous for its arena-scale family VR entertainment, and operating developer IMMOTION – who have championed a radical approach on getting “bums-on-seats” with the deployment of VR entertainment into the leisure sector. While later in the seminar the aspects of deploying VR in eSports experiences saw presentations from Virtuix and others.

Hologate seminar at EAG 2020 — The well-attended seminar session listens to the latest developments from HOLOGATE. Image credit: KWP

This gives a snapshot of what proved a fascinating and intense three-day convention, with many orders made for the latest VR hardware. This will hopefully mean that even more of the general public will be able to get their first taste of VR entertainment at one of the many hundred entertainment venues in the UK and across Europe.

The London show will be followed by a plethora of trade events to start the year, including events in Japan and North America. But also, interest in Enterprise VR will see launches of the latest eSports and even Edutainment deployments. Watch this space for our next coverage.

January 16, 2020

The Best Location-Based Centres in the World

Okay, let’s build a complete guide to virtual reality (VR) for a newcomer. First of all, let’s put aside any kind of home use. If you’re a newcomer, you want to try it, nothing more at this point, right? Then, you need a place to go. And there are VR parks, VR arcades, VR centres and VR rooms for you to choose. So where should you go?

Ask yourself these questions.

Did you try VR before?

If yes, hopefully, it wasn’t some low-quality rollercoaster at the mall.

If no, all the experiences in the market are accessible enough for a first-timer so keep calm about that.

Did you feel uncomfortable using VR or 3D-cinema?

You should know that it may happen when you’re in VR, especially if you have already experienced it before. Staff in good locations know what to do if it happens and will help you.

Are you an experienced videogame player?

If yes, ask for challenges because the entry-level experience may look too simple for you.

If no, it’s not a problem. Stick to attraction-like VR. Go to a VR escape room centre or VR theme park with a bunch of VR simulators.

What are your favourite genres?

If you like shooters then go warehouse-scale VR to shoot some zombies. If you’re into Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero, then try a rhythm-based title like Beat Saber. If you are fond of adventures then go to a VR escape room centre.

If you don’t know just ask yourself what do you like to do, what movies are your favourite? And that would be the clue.

Single-player or multiplayer?

Do you want to go it alone? Then head to a VR arcade or VR park. Most will have a varied selection of videogames to suit most tastes and skill level.

If you want to go with company then choose VR escape centres, warehouse-scale VR or check if VR arcade or VR park does have a title that your group would like.

Whom are you gonna take with you?

This is the most important question on the list. Do you want to go with your friends? Will you bring the kids? Or your parents? Or co-workers?

If it’s a kids party, they will love theme parks and will easily adapt to VR in arcades. If you don’t want them to play anything violent then choose wisely. VR escape is a convenient solution since it’s a complete event and you can choose a theme in advance.

If you bring elders with you, choose the most accessible VR escape experience, the one which is more of an attraction than a videogame. Try VR park to see how your old folks will manage a VR swing or a flying simulator.

With colleagues, decide do you want to compete or to cooperate. VR escape is the perfect fit for team building. Some VR arcade games or warehouse-scale VR are good competition. Look at your group. Do your teammates have different videogame experience?

If you’re all experienced in videogames, then go to a VR arcade, and figure it out in the process. And if everyone likes to shoot then just go to warehouse-scale VR. If the diversity is high, either choose a VR park with a lot of attractions or universal experience for everyone which is VR escape game.

If all of you like the same movie may be The VOID will satisfy your needs with its experiences based on famous franchises.

Also, use this scale of action. It’s not universal, and there are exceptions. Start with this lense, try things and then create your own lenses.

0 – A visual experience, less interaction	VR Cinema
1	VR rollercoasters, swings, bungee
2	Short VR experiences like The Void and Dreamscape
3 – Well-balanced	Seated VR escape rooms, VR flying simulators
4	Free-roam VR escape rooms, VR arcades, VR racing
5 – Plenty of interaction, less to experience	VR free-roam shooters

Top locations across the globe

This is list doesn’t pretend to be full in any way. Here are some examples of perfect client management, diversity of content and unique audience appeal.

Europe

Torch VR in Prague, the Czech Republic is the best VR attraction in Prague according to TripAdvisor. The rating is 5 out of 5. You can play both seated and free-roam VR escape games there. If you’re looking for hand-tracking VR it’s the best place in Europe to try.

DNA VR in the first VR arcade in London, UK and it keeps the highest ratings on TripAdvisor. It’s a good choice if you want to try different experiences all in one place. Likewise, Vertigo VR in Milton Keynes, UK is another noteworthy arcade but it has VR escape games onboard. The location has 5 of 5 on TripAdvisor.

Virtual Room has high TripAdvisor ratings in a few VR escape room locations across the globe. One of them is in Paris. If you want to go to time-travelling with your team, it’s a perfect choice.

VR Games Zone in Oslo, Norway is the best VR centre in the country. You can play both seated and free-roam VR escapes there as well as warehouse-scale shooters.

VR Gamehouse is a VR arcade in Amsterdam with the highest TripAdvisor rating, offering VR racing simulators.

Zero Latency is the synonym for warehouse-scale VR, and its Madrid location has an enormous number of reviews. If you’re looking for zombies to shoot, it’s the place.

Asia

VR Star Park in China is the largest Virtual Reality theme park in the world recently featured at VRFocus. Check out Nathie’s video about it. You’ll find all kinds of VR experiences from rollercoasters to bumper cars, from swings to warehouse-scale VR shooters. Go there with teenager kids and elders, friends and colleagues.

Looking for VR escape rooms, check Virtual Room in Singapore.

Before getting $68 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Sandbox VR started its way as Glostation in Hong Kong. The location keeps its ratings high. The experience is a mix of free-roam VR, escape room and hyper-reality. The Singapore location has five stars as well.

Australia

Virtual Reality Rooms in Sydney, Australia is the first centre in the country dedicated to seated VR escape games. This one was the proof of concept for Entermission opening its locations across the USA right now. Also on the recommendation list is Sydney’s Virtual Room owns one of its best centers in Sydney.

Australia is also a homeland of Zero Latency, so go check its Melbourne location to know if there are any zombies left to be shot.

America

The biggest arcade in America is VR World, New York. It has all kinds of VR arcade games, plus some VR escapes and free-roam shooting titles. Virtual Room’s third-best VR escape centre is located in Los Angeles.

Avengers: Damage Control, Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, Ghostbusters: Dimension, Ralph Breaks the Internet and Jumanji: Reverse the Curse. These are the franchises you can visit at The VOID facilities. Their locations are well spread across the USA. Visit them if you want a short experience in a well-known universe. And in Dreamscape, you can visit an alien zoo with exotic animals for 15 minutes. There are locations in Los Angeles and Dallas.

Bonus

There is no point listing all the Hologate locations here. Plus it’s hard to understand what locations are actually good since there are no reviews at TripAdvisor or Yelp. But if you want to shoot with your pals at each other, try Tower Tag at one of those. There are accessible across the globe.

September 16, 2019

Hologate Blitz Offers new Immersive Possibilities for VR Arcades

When it comes to location-based entertainment (LBE) for virtual reality (VR) arcades there’s quite a lot of avenues operators can take. From massive warehouse-scale experiences or standard roomscale ones to more compact offerings like Virtuix’s VR Arena or the slightly more unique Birdly, the world of out-of-home entertainment is decidedly varied. Hologate is one such company specialising in this space and for the IAAPA Expo Europe, is unveiling its latest product, Hologate Blitz.

Hologate Blitz

Hologate Blitz is a motion simulator designed primarily for flying and racing videogames. The platform is geared towards multiplayer experiences supporting 2-8 players, whether that’s flying fire breathing dragons, engaging in space battles or taking on opponents in futuristic racers.

Featuring a steering wheel can be switched from 1 axis to 2 axis control and a pneumatic system which can move almost a full meter in height and can tilt ±30° in every direction, Hologate Blitz aims to offer full immersion whilst minimising motion sickness.

On display at IAAPA Expo Europe in Paris, France from 17th-19th of September 2019, Hologate hasn’t yet divulged how much the Hologeta Blitz will cost, the hardware configurations available or what videogames will be compatible. Hologate’s normal systems tend to use HTC Vive Pro’s but from the images, Valve Index is now supported as well.

Hologate Blitz

Better known for its VR arcade systems used across the world in 25 countries at 256 locations (including two in the UK Milton Keynes and Skegness), Hologate recently attended Gamescom 2019 last month where it announced The Angry Birds Movie 2 Prank Attack VR. A collaboration between Sony Pictures Virtual Reality (SPVR) and Rovio Entertainment – much like The Angry Birds Movie 2: VR Under Pressure by XR Games – the LBE title acts as a precursor to the events in the movie, where four players have to man giant slingshots at the invading piggies.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Hologate and the LBE industry in general, reporting back with the latest announcements.

May 7, 2019

Location-based VR Attraction ‘Hologate’ Celebrates 2 Million Player Milestone

Hologate, a Munich-based startup, today announced that their eponymous world-wide VR attraction has taken in two million visitors since it was first launched in 2017.

The virtual reality hardware company and VR gaming/experience studio boasts over 250 installations spanning Europe, the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific region, and North and South America—a total of 21 countries to be exact.

The company says they’ve seen a steady increase of roughly 200k players each month leading up to the two million player mark.

Two Bit Circus, the micro attractions company, is owner of two such setups, saying that Hologate is one their “top VR attractions,” and that it’s “reliable, operator friendly, always busy, and people love the experience.”

Other top establishments include Andretti´s Indoor Karting & Games, Cinergy Cinemas, Main Event, VR Park: PVRK-Dubai, Timezone, and Urban Air Trampoline & Adventure Parks.

The Virtual Arena: The Amusement Business Embraces VR

Guest columnist Kevin Williams, continues his coverage of the emerging VR Out-of-Home entertainment scene, with an exclusive report from the floor of America’s largest dedicated amusement industry show.

The Virtual Arena The American amusement trade held their annual convention in the heart of Las Vegas during February, the Amusement Expo International, saw the AAMA, AMOA, along with NBVA trade associations and Lasertag Convention combined to create a dedicated gathering for all aspects of the American digital out-of-home entertainment (DOE) sector.

For the first time, the event comprised a Virtual Reality (VR) Educational Summit, reflecting the impact that VR out-of-home entertainment, along with dedicated exhibitors from the emerging sector, hoping to influence the family entertainment centre, leisure entertainment and location-based entertainment business landscape.

The issue with new entrants into the established amusement landscape is the learning curve that these start-ups must undertake to establish themselves; so, turning Amusement Expo into an impromptu beauty pageant of the latest VR platforms developed to capture the public’s and operator’s attention.

One of the traditional amusement trade to embrace VR in this sector, BANDAI NAMCO Amusement represented A.i.Solve’s WePlayVR – the maze enclosure based system that has individual players navigating the virtual environment wearing a backpack and HTC Vive headset. As well as revealing plans for BANDAI NAMCO to bring their VR ZONE Portal facility concept to the States, later in the year – something VRFocus covered last month as they look to further expand the chain throughout the US and Europe, particularly the UK.

2018 Amusement Expo International - WePlayVR

Another developer of this approach was TRIOTECH, partnered with Asterion VR, to develop their ‘VR Maze’, running the Virtual Rabbids: The Big Maze – again with a single player backpack approach. The Ubisoft property was also on display on the LAI Games booth with their Virtual Rabbids: The Ride – this time a two rider VR motion experience using D-BOX motion hardware.

2018 Amusement Expo International - TRIOTECH and Asterion VR — A player is prepared to navigate the VR Maze

2018 Amusement Expo International - Virtual Rabbids — A wild ride, racing through the Rabbids universe.

The need to generate a strong ROI from operating VR hardware has seen many multiplayer approaches, Creative Works represented Hologate VR at Amusement Expo – the four-player enclosure, uses a ceiling tethered HMD approach (again, with HTC Vives); strong initial sales seeing the company working on their own and licensing content to support the platform.

2018 Amusement Expo International - Hologate — Players do battle in Hologate VR

Amusement manufacturer and distributor, UNIS Technologies has partnered with Virtuix to present the Omni Arena – the two and four player configuration arena stage utilizes the companies omni-directional platform. Virtuix promoting that already some 2,500 of their platforms were in operation at some 500 location-based facilities internationally.

2018 Amusement Expo International - Omni Arena — Frantic competition on the Omni Arena.

Another omni-direction system on display at the Las Vegas show was represented by FOCUS VR, showing the Cyberith Virtualizer – this approach was more based on offering a delivery platform for VR arcades. Several new exhibitors to the amusement trade took this approach, with the likes of Springboard VR, who have created a turnkey package for those wanting a plug-and-play VR arcade approach.

2018 Amusement Expo International - Cyberith Virtualizer — The Virtualizer being put through its paces

Content for the virtual arcade was also provided by exhibitors such as EscapeVR – offering a room-scale escape room experience in a virtual environment. While the ability to capture footage of the player within the virtual environment was offered through Blueprint Reality’s MixCast platform. The company bringing a Windows Mixed Reality system from Acer, to demonstrate their platforms versatility.

2018 Amusement Expo International - Mixcast — The MixCast platform running in conjunction with the Acer headset

Also walking the show floor were several of the up and coming operators and developers of new VR arcade locations, hardware and content – many sitting in on the VR Educational Summit sessions dedicated to the new technologies opportunity for amusement application.

Free-roaming (Arena Scale) VR experiences has gained great momentum in the DOE scene, exponents of this could be found on and off the show floor, including exhibitor Modal VR, presenting their PING experience. The system using a special tracking architecture, linked to mobile VR (Samsung Gear VR derivative) headsets – players taking part in a virtual game of an interpretation of the Atari classic Pong.

2018 Amusement Expo International - Ping — Player’s prepare for a one-on-one game of virtual PING.

While, Hyperverse promoted their own VR free-roaming solution at the show, based on backpack PC’s and Oculus VR CV1 headset. To experience a full free-roaming VR system, all the delegates had to do was travel down the Strip to the MGM Casino, and their new Level UP entertainment location, which has newly installed a Zero Latency four-player backpack VR system and a suite of games.

2018 Amusement Expo International - Kevin Williams At Zero Latency — Kevin Williams and associate suit up ready to play at Zero Latency in the MGM Casino.

It is the reality of the actual hardware deployment in the field that will validate its worth from this business. Already the Zero Latency system will soon be joined by at least two new free-roaming installations in Las Vegas – and along with the other fielded VR entertainment systems on display, it looks to be a very interesting time for this emerging market. It will be interesting to see their penetration into the Western market – watch this space for more coverage from this sector.