LIV, the Prague-based team behind the eponymous mixed reality game-streaming platform, has secured $2.6 million in a Series A financing round, something the company says will be used to expand its development team, accelerate its streaming technology, and to integrate more third-party games studios.
The funding round was led by Hiro Capital, a new game streaming-focused VC fund led by Inspired Entertainment co-founder Luke Alvarez, Games Workshop co-founder Ian Livingstone CBE, and Cherry Freeman, co-founder of LoveCrafts.
LIV was previously completed a Venture Round this summer to the tune of $1 million by Seedcamp, Techstars, Credo Ventures, HTC Vive, Jaroslav Beck from Beat Games, and Oculus co-founder and inventor of the Oculus Rift, Palmer Luckey. Credo Ventures and Seedcamp are also participating in the Series A round alongside Hiro Capital.
The software essentially lets you visually inject yourself into a VR game so stream-watchers can get a better sense of what you’re doing, be it in the flesh with a dedicated video camera, or through a custom avatar. If still you’re scratching your head as to what we mean by ‘mixed reality’ (the term is flaunted around by some companies to mean different things), check out the video below to see LIV in action:
Founded in 2016 by AJ Shewki, Steffan Donal, and a team of ex-competitive gamers, Twitch streamers, and game developers, the company has since released its software for free on Steam, which boasts support for a number of popular games including Beat Saber (2018), SUPERHOT VR (2017), Pistol Whip (2019), Audica (2019), and plenty more.
“The tools used for broadcasting traditional PC games couldn’t show the intensity of what we were experiencing as players” says AJ Shewki, CEO and co-founder of LIV. “In VR, your body is the controller and that’s part of the magic. As a player, you are fully immersed in VR, but unless we can show the player’s body interacting with their VR environment, the 2D stream audience is missing out. And that’s how we got started — we wanted to level up the VR spectator experience.”
Shewki, also known by his handle ‘Dr. Doom’, says future releases of the software should include dynamic lighting, progression systems and other features as the LIV Play platform becomes a “massive scale MMO for live gaming spectator-ship.”
Founded in 2016, LIV was created as mixed reality (MR) capture tool for both developers and other creators to film themselves in virtual reality (VR). The company has come a long way since then and is currently on the cusp of leaving Early Access. Today, LIV Inc. has announced a successful $1 million USD funding round, with some major investors supporting the company.
Based in Prague, LIV Inc. has been backed by investors including Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey; Jaroslav Beck, CEO and Co-Founder of Beat Games (Beat Saber); early-stage VC’s Seedcamp, TechStars, and Credo Ventures; plus HTC Vive and its accelerator, Vive X; and MR production specialist Splitverse.
LIV Inc. will use the investment to grow its core engineering team, further developing its solution towards videogame developers, content creators and streamers. The company has been integrated into over 150 experiences, with Beat Saber becoming its most high profile viewing experience. Additionally, upcoming support for Oculus Native SDK is on its way.
“We think that VR is the final computing platform, and in a world where VR is mainstay we need tools for creators and developers to share their experiences in real-time. In VR, your whole body is your controller, and we had to include that human nuance into the spectator experience. We’ve taken VR from a “must try to believe” experience, to something you can watch on a 2D screen whilst still really understanding the magic of 6 degrees of freedom that VR offers,” said LIV’s CEO and Founder AJ Shewki in a statement.
“I created the Oculus Rift because I wanted the ability to transport myself into virtual worlds. AJ and his team have taken the next step towards that goal, empowering creators and developers to present themselves and their avatars however they want during live gaming and broadcast. I love what they have already done, and I am an investor because I am so excited about what they will do next,” said Palmer Luckey, Oculus Rift’s Creator and Oculus’ Founder.
Completely free through Steam, LIV 1.0 is available via the public beta branch on Steam, offering its latest feature, LIV Avatars.
“We have some pioneers within our field on the team and are now backed by the people and companies that created VR as we know it,” Shewki adds. “Together we are playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of the industry. Our kit is being pushed further and further afield, and all our partners, creators, and audience are as excited as us to see what comes next.”
VRFocus will continue its coverage of LIV, reporting back with the latest updates.
If you love playing virtual reality (VR) videogames and want to show how awesome they are then the best way of doing so is with mixed reality (MR) video. This style of video puts you, the gamer, inside the title to give viewers a taste of the VR greatness you’re playing. While not as easy to record as a Twitch stream, for example, improvements have been made over the years and one of the most popular pieces of software to record MR videos is LIV. VRFocus had a chat with LIV Inc’s. CEO and founder AJ ‘Dr Doom’ Shewki to learn more.
LIV Inc. is part of the Vive X accelerator and showcased its technology during the recent ‘Demo Days’ event in May. Shewki was there to not only demo the software solution and discuss investment opportunities with interested guests, but he also discussed what was next for the application, namely fully launching out of Early Access into version 1.0.
The update is set to introduce the long-awaited Avatar feature. As mentioned, MR videos rely on players actually being seen so viewers can better understand aspects like the motion control mechanics in VR videogames. But this requires greenscreens, depth cameras or an additional web camera. The Avatar feature means you don’t need these extra pieces of hardware, you can just download the Avatar you like and away you go – pretty much.
It uses less CPU and GPU power than regular cameras, plus Avatar perspective is controllable on the fly, with 4 types of viewpoint to choose from: Selfie, Third-person, First-person, and Gamepad.
The LIV tool can be downloaded for free via Steam, supporting over 20 VR titles including Beat Saber, The Wizards, Budgets Cuts, Space Junkies, Electronautsand Superhot. The update hasn’t gone live at the moment, with the studio yet to give a specific release date.
Check out the full interview with AJ ‘Dr Doom’ Shewki below. When VRFocus has further details regarding LIV and version 1.0 we’ll let you know.
Here on the Sunday VR Job Hub at VRFocus we like to include the very latest and most up to date selection of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) jobs from around the world. If a developer is working on an awesome new project and need to up the staff or simply looking to expand their core team, we’ll have those vacancies.
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 Hubto 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.
Back when virtual reality (VR) started to reemerge as a consumer product one of the difficulties developers had was getting the immersive qualities of the technology across to new users. One avenue that proved to be particularly successful and seen everywhere today are mixed reality (MR) videos, seeing the player in the virtual world. To facilitate an easier production process LIV came along, launching into Early Access in 2018. This week LIV Inc. has announced plans to exit Early Access, updating to v1.0.0 with several new features.
The biggest feature coming in v1.0.0 and one which users have been after for a while is Avatars. LIV Avatars only require a VR headset to use – no webcam or capture card is required. Using less CPU and GPU power than regular cameras, the Avatar perspective is controllable on the fly, with 4 types of viewpoint to choose from: Selfie, Third-person, First-person, and Gamepad.
Easily switchable using a single controller, the system will also support full-body avatars using SteamVR trackers. Going into further detail LIV Inc. states: “Avatar settings are saved against a camera profile – which means that you can set up many different cameras, avatars and behaviours all as different profiles. Switch between them instantly now using the profile dropdown.”
The other main addition is proper support for Kinect v2 on Xbox One. This means that the sensor is as fast as any normal camera, calibration is easier with faster background removal and smarter post-processing smooths out those edges. “With the performance improvements, we’re hoping to enable more of you to make use of the Xbox One’s Kinect sensor – it’s the best depth camera still commonly available, and the one we feel provides the best image today, adds LIV Inc. “So, just like any other camera in LIV, all the juicy profile improvements apply here too. You can set up advanced effects (like our LUT effect, or the mask effect) on your Kinect and easily toggle between them at runtime without any jank!”
LIV Inc. hasn’t stated when the v1.0.0 will go live but expect it to be soon. As further announcements are made VRFocus will keep you posted.
The full changelog for v1.0.0 is as follows:
Avatars! More about this up top, how did ya miss it?
Kinect support – no seriously, scroll up!
Per-camera tracking source controls!
Camera profile switching is now much faster when it can be – more here as we improve things further!
AMD support! It’s not 100% of the way there yet, so bear with us – it’s finally possible to get things capturing!
Better foreground blending for legacy titles.
Automatic calibration updating! Not all games support this yet, but you’ll notice that for a lot of them you’ll be able to change everything about a camera now!
Calibrate with games running! Just hit ‘Begin Calibration’ in the usual place and it’ll detect that there’s something running.
Simplified tracker management – we now expose options only if you need them, making it easier to work out what will make a difference when testing games!
Better feedback when changing cameras, and when capturing games.
New remote control commands for switching camera profiles and launching the compositor.
Today LIV, the leading third party mixed reality software, is officially exiting Early Access with its 1.0 release. With that news today also comes one of its biggest updates yet which introduces cross-game avatars for mixed reality capture.
This will create an almost Ready Player One meets VRChat style vibe for streamers and content creators because they can setup LIV for mixed reality capture — to put them inside the game itself using cameras — and then reskin their body to be whatever digital avatar they want. It’s really, really impressive. Check it out in the 1.0 release trailer:
What makes the avatar update especially awesome is that you don’t even need a webcam or capture card at all to use the feature — just your VR headset and controllers. The LIV app itself does the rest. You can then output footage in four different camera modes: selfie, third-person, first-person, or gamepad. And if you have SteamVR trackers, you can use those to improve tracking for full-body calibration too.
If it seems confusing, there’s a tutorial to help with setup:
LIV is a great software that I’ve used in the past, but since I don’t have much space to make a proper green screen/mixed reality studio in my home office at the moment, I’ve mostly stopped using it for now. For games like Beat Saber it’s amazing though. And in the trailer up at the top of this article you can see it being used in a wide variety of games.
Who do you want to be the next time you’re in VR? Let us know down in the comments below!
Synth Riders has been in Early Access on Steam for about a year now and it’s basically like taking the concept behind Audioshield and mixing it with dance. So instead of just punching orbs or slashing cubes like in Beat Saber, you’re moving your body with more fluidity in a way that feels very analogous to dancing. It’s also a great workout.
Today, the developers (Kluge Interactive) are announcing official integration with YUR.FIT, a fitness tracking software that keeps track of calories burned and underlines fitness benefits in games. Right now it’s just an in-game integration tool that lets you monitor your calories loss in-game, but a companion app is also launching soon. YUR was created by Cix Liv, the titular founder of LIV, the mixed reality capture company, so his focus on active VR is natural.
Also today Synth Riders is releasing a brand new free music pack called FiXT Essentials – Vol 1 which includes five new songs from FiXT, an indie electronic-rock music label, bringing the total track count up to over 20. Today’s update also brings in new modes, difficulty levels, and more to further expand the game.
Synth Riders is the first game to receive full, official integration with YUR.FIT, although over 15,000 people are already using the software to help them lose weight and get in shape with VR.
YUR already has a budding Discord community of over 3,000 members as of the time of this writing where you can connect with other users about nutrition, weight loss, active VR, and more. Synth Riders will soon be coming to Oculus Quest as well, in addition to its existing releases on Steam, Oculus Home for Rift, and Viveport. It’s $19.99 on all storefronts.
Industry specialist Kevin Williams of KWP, concludes his report on the latest developments shaping the digital out-of-home entertainment (DOE) sector and all things to do with Commercial virtual reality (VR) deployment seen internationally. In this final part we see the drive for new investment and the realities and speculation on the market’s true worth.
With this final part of our coverage and we rush from Germany, to the Czech-Republic, and a major event in the country’s capital, underlined the influence that this new commercial entertainment utopia is having on the investment community. Held at the beginning of September, Future Port Prague was a two-day gathering of innovative technology trends and influential speakers on the subject. Along with dedicated conference events there was a showcase arena that comprised demonstrations of the latest tech-trends, ranging from Drone racing, electric-automobiles, smart home appliances and 3D printing to just name some of the exhibits. As part of this, local Czech developers were also promoting their influence on the scene, and VR made a big showing.
Future Port Prague 2018 – A packed outdoor festival conference stage. (Credit: KWP)
We have already mentioned in part one of this feature Beat Games; the Czech-based company had a version of the Beat Saber VR arcade setup demonstrating to attendees in the VR Zone of the event. It was interesting to see that unlike normal VR arcade deployments of the game, this enclosure used the latest technology from new industry start-up LIV. The green-screen enclosure and specially tracked virtual camera, placed the player in the centre of the action, superimposing them into the virtual environment – but not only creating a great audience element, the LIV system has been developed to offer a unique takeaway, with the player able to download a video of their ‘performance’, with appropriate social media hooks. The company looking to deploy this platform at several VR arcades.
LIV offers an added element to the Beat Saber experience. (Credit: KWP)
Another local Czech-based developer is DIVR Labs – the company famous for a local Prague tourist attraction that is seeing phenomenal business. Golem VR (not to be confused with the otherGolem), the attraction is one of the largest free-roaming virtual experiences operating. The basement of the local Prague Hamleys toy store transformed to accommodate a backpack-based VR experience using Oculus CV1’s. Groups of up to four guests traverse the virtual environment – in an experience that sees them transported through time to the 16th century, to discover the mythical Golem and its creator in an interpretation of the story. DIVR has partnered with Hamleys to develop this first free-roaming VR adventure that has no weapons or shooting (one of the first of its kind). The company in negotiations to open additional venues.
A view of the Golem VR experience at Hamleys in the city centre. (Credit: KWP)(Credit: KWP)
Returning to Future Port Prague, and another Czech-based developer, VRgineers took an exhibition space to offer the first public demonstrations of their XTAL head-mounted display (HMD). This system offers what the company calls an Enterprise-ready solution with a world’s first AutoEye system, offering automatically aligned lenses to the user’s eyes as well as an incredible wide field of view. The system has already been taken up by the local automotive industry, and the company is now in the process of receiving additional investment towards offering the platform too interested location-based VR developers. The company running at the event the ability to fly in a networked aerial combat using the visual fidelity achieved with the XTAL.
The XTAL headset in action. (Credit: KWP)
The next phase of high-end VR headsets has seen a shift in focus towards Enterprise opportunities (a sector prepared to pay for a technological lead). Most recently Kickstarter-funded Pimax demonstrated in Europe the production version of the Pimax 8K wide-field of view system, but also at the same time revealed a cost-reduced version. We saw at the Chinese Amusement trade conference in March one of the first Chinese attraction developers experimenting with the Pimax dev-kit on their robotic arm motion platform, and there are reports of at least one major VR park developer looking to deploy this at their site.
VR Enlightenment – Up in the air in a Pimax back at the Asia Amusement & Attractions (AAA) Expo 2018. (Credit: KWP)
The consideration to a wholly focused Enterprise initiative was also seen from StarVR, the company’s Vice Chairman Jerry Kao reported as saying the company was shifting its operational focus to high-end enterprise applications, with the location-based entertainment market to aerospace and automotive. This was reported following the companies unveiling of the StarVR One HMD during SIGGRAPH in Canada. The new headset offering what the company calls a “100% human viewing angle” is clearly packaged to address a DOE centric business model; building on previous associations with IMAX, SEGA and the VRPark in Dubai, as well as through VR attraction projects with Starbreeze
This year’s SIGGRAPH saw a major push towards location-based VR application of the latest high-end graphics and computer power – many exhibitors showing a shift towards this new business dimension. Leading tracking specialists OptiTrack, introduced their new Active Puck Mini at the event, offering a cost effective and 40% reduced option. The company confirmed that along with conventional motion capture business the system had Location-Based entertainment offerings squarely in their sites. The company has been deployed in many of the leading free-roaming VR installations, and OptiTrak has partnered with Dreamscape Immersive, offering their tracking solution, as well as working in conjunction with several other developers.
Dreamscape Immersive, have been in the news for the tests of their own free-roaming Alien Zoo concept – and the company partnered with movie theatre chain AMC Entertainment late last year, the deal coming after closing some $20 million (USD) of their Series B funding. It is this drive by the movie theatre business to embrace the opportunities of LBE VR that has seen momentous developments in recent weeks. One of the biggest was the announcement that Canadian cinema giants Cineplex had signed a strategic partnership with VRstudios (famous for their VRcade platform and VR experiences). The deal saw Cineplex strategically invest in their VR business, with at least 40 multiplex and location-based entertainment centres planned in the Canada territory by 2021.
Group of players start their progress through VRcade’s Terminal 17 at IAAPA 2017. (Credit: KWP)
This undertaking is mirrored by other cinema chains taking the plunge. The VOID’s “hyper-reality” location-based entertainment (LBE) operation, announced the first “In-Theatre” VR installation in the States – following the signing of an exclusive expansion agreement with leading entertainment and media company Cinemark. This development also saw The VOID LBE VR venues opening across Canada. This news follows on from continuing developments in the movie-theatre sector to embrace the opportunity of VR attractions tailored for their unique audience mix. With the expansion of the operation The VOID was also linked to brand new game content building on influential Intellectual Properties (IPs) – a joint venture of ILMxLAB, a division of Lucasfilm, and The VOID, will see a “one-of-a-kind, original adventure” based in the Wreck-it Ralph films’ unique world (tentatively called Ralph Breaks VR). This is the first of several immersive virtual reality properties from the developer, based on film licenses, building on previous Ghostbusters and Star Wars experiences.
Investing into the cinema scene has gained momentum as the theatre business has seen in the US a 16% decline in ticket sales, attributed to a need for a more diverse offering for the “millennially-minded” audience hoping to be attracted to their locations. Following a spate of mergers and acquisitions in this sector the market has fixated on finding an entertainment-mix to incorporate as a “in-theatre” offering. As we reported in our coverage from the LBE VR summit, manufacturers such as D-BOX Technologies had invested in their own D-BOX Cinematic VR Experience which launched earlier in the year at an Ottawa theatre.
D-BOX’s cinema seat put through its paces with the latest VR experiences created for this sector. (Credit: KWP)
This also brings us to developer Nomadic, who have been developing their own location-based adventure-based, tactile VR experiences – the company has promoted heavily in the cinema industry (presenting at the 2017 CinemaCon, and reportedly raising some $6 million in seed funding). Focused initially on a in-theatre approach, the company recently announced they had partnered with Vertigo Games to deploy a turn-key, modular-based VR platform based on Arizona Sunshine LB Elite. The first installations schedule to open fall this year. How much this space will mirror the wireless VR experience seen at Gamescom, in Germany recently has yet to be revealed. But this nicely takes us full circle from where this coverage began.
Arizona Sunshine LBE at Gamescom 2018. (Via HTC)
In just a matter of months and we have seen a level of investment in immersive entertainment focusing on developing virtual reality – far surpassing the previously wild speculation of the consumer VR sector. We have seen colourful analysis on the worth of the Commercial Entertainment or LBE VR market – most notably the SuperData chart that looked at a $995 million valuation of Location-Based entertainment by 2021. And we have seen other charts rise the gambit as high as $12 Billion by 2023 (Greenlight Insights), hopeful speculation to be sure – but based on a growing hunger to maximise the aspirations of the audience, to the abilities of this sectors technology, where the consumer equivalent has failed to deliver (for whatever reasons).
LBE Market Forecast via SuperData
It is important to understand that the VR arcades scene is still at a very early stage of development and has by no means established itself as a dependable business model. One such example of this is the IMAX pilot scheme to establish their concept of IMAX VR LBE operations. News recently broke that two of the seven opened sites had been closed (one in New York and one in Shanghai). The IMAX board had already revealed at the beginning of the year in an investor call that the sites were not all operating at the expected financial level, and there was no real surprise that the roll out was being reversed.
On a recent visit to the only European IMAX VR location in Manchester, the site was seen to be closed off for a private party – and while claimed to still be popular, it was revealed that the adjacent Odeon cinema had been giving away vouchers for free VR experiences, with the purchase of movie tickets; in a hope to drive some business. We have also heard reports of major reshufflings of executive teams and complete management replacements at some of the early LBE VR manufacturers and operators, The VOID saw the departure of their CTO and CEO, while other operations in pivoting towards a commercial entertainment business model have had to drastically restructure their executive team, unable to fathom the realities of the DOE business.
But we have not seen anything yet, and one of Europe’s largest amusement and attraction conventions is about to take place in a matter of weeks – already sources have revealed a record number of new VR attractions about to be launched. While the UK amusement trade will hold their Autumn Coin-Op Show (ACOS), taking place at Olympia London during October, and will include the first London Future of Immersive Leisure (FOIL) seminar run alongside ACOS, focusing on the business opportunities presented by immersive technology to the UK’s out-of-home entertainment industry (this event hosted by our consultancy KWP) – look out on VRFocus for the latest developments from these events in the days and weeks to come.
Every weekendVRFocusbrings you a number of sports and eSports related virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) stories as part of This Week In VR Sport. This week, NASCAR have launched an AR experience to let fans enjoy some of the best moments from the NASCAR Playoffs, the Virtual Athletics League are planning more eSport tournaments and ePlay Digital release an update for Big Shot Basketball.
NASCAR Release New AR Experience For The 2018 NASCAR Playoffs
NASCAR fans are now able to immersive themselves in the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs thanks to a new AR experience that has been made available via the official NASCAR mobile app. As reported by Yahoo, the new NASCAR Playoffs AR Experience Refreshed by Coca-Cola allows users the change to walk through virtual portals to see the playoffs’ most memorable moments in full 360-degrees of immersion.
For the ten weeks that the NASCAR Playoffs are happening, fans with an AR compatible iOS or Android device will be able to download the NASCAR Mobile app and experience this new feature for themselves.
“NASCAR is always looking for unique ways to engage fans and bring them closer to the sport, especially during the most exciting time in our season,” said Tim Clark, NASCAR Digital Media vice president. “Together with Coca-Cola, we‘re inviting fans to step right into the NASCAR Playoffs and experience the action, pageantry and emotion like never before.”
Fans will place a 3D Coca-Cola can within their surrounding to create the superimposed portal into the NASCAR Playoffs experience. Once they walk through the portal, they will be able to experience the thrilling moments including team celebrations in Victory Lane and other memorable moments from throughout the years.
Virtual Athletics League Planning More Global VR eSports Tournaments
Following a successful Beat Saber tournament earlier this year, the Virtual Athletics League (VAL), LIV and SpringboardVR have now announced a new global arcade league is being formed to provide further competitions. The news was revealed earlier this week and sees HP and HTC eSports along with seven VR development studios, including Survios, Vertigo Games and CloudGate Studio to see the new league come to life.
Thanks to the success of the Beat Saber tournament, which was originally placed for 50 locations but eventually took place in over 168 around the globe, the companies are planning to reproduce this achievement with several more events during 2018 and 2019.
The first of which took place last month with a global Space Pirate Trainer tournament which run between 27th-30th September. Global tournaments are planned to be held for Arizona Sunshine and Island 359 for Halloween followed by an event for the archery title QuiVR in November.
“The league is also placing a high priority on arcade vs. arcade gameplay, with a core group of elite VR arcades participating in more team-based titles that are VR esports ready. These official launch titles include the giant mech multiplayer shooter Archangel: Hellfire, a jet-propelled shooter Skyfront, and a tactical sci-fi shooter After-H.” Said Ryan Burningham of Virtual Athletics League in a blog post.
VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest on the tournaments in the future.
ePlay Digital Release New Update For Big Shot Basketball
Finally this week, ePlay Digital Inc have announced the release of new features for their Big Shot Basketball AR app. This includes new filters for users to use when taking AR selfies, which follows the draft of NBA players to Big Shot users’ rosters. Based on popular SnapChat filters, these new filters will also allow users to add information to their selfie such as the weather, location and NBA team information to personalize the experience. The new filters will be free to use for all players of the app.
The new update also brings compatibility with the recently released Apple iOS 12 and the latest version of ARKit 2.0. This sees advanced scene and pattern detection and improved rendering and lighting effects come to Big Shot Basketball. Users will also be able to purchase “swaps” now as well, which allow a user to exchange an NBA athlete discovered in AR with different athletes from different teams. There are two types of swaps – free and paid. One free swap is given to the player ever four hours with users able to purchase four swaps through the in-app purchase screen of the title at any time.
“We continue to update Big Shot Basketball based on feedback we receive through our Beta release,” says Trevor Doerksen, CEO of ePlay Digital. “Expect more and more features as you unlock new levels and as users see their feedback come to life.”
VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest on Big Shot Basketball and other AR apps from ePlay Digital in the future.
That is all for This Week In VR Sport. For more on immersive sport news keep reading VRFocus and remember to check back next week for another This Week In VR Sport.
Esports is a big segment of the videogame industry and a growing part of the virtual reality (VR) sector as well thanks to initiatives like ESL’s VR League – which held its finals at Oculus Connect 5 (OC5). Back in July, Virtual Athletics League (VAL), LIV and SpringboardVR ran a Beat Sabertournament across a number of global VR arcade locations, and thanks to further sponsorship a new global arcade league is being formed to provide further competitions.
VAL, LIV and SpringboardVR have acquired sponsorship from HP Inc. and HTC esports whilst collaborating with seven VR development studios including Survios, Vertigo Games, I-Illusions and CloudGate Studio to bring this new league to life.
With the success of the Beat Saber tournament, which was originally slated to take place at 50 locations but eventually took place at 168 locations globally, the companies aim to reproduce this achievement with several more during the course of 2018 and 2019.
This began last month with a global Space Pirate Trainer tournament taking place between 27th-30th September. Don’t worry if you missed that as there will be global tournaments held for Arizona Sunshine and Island 359 for Halloween, then archery multiplayer event QuiVR taking place in November.
Ryan Burningham of Virtual Athletics League also notes in a blog posting that: “The league is also placing a high priority on arcade vs. arcade gameplay, with a core group of elite VR arcades participating in more team-based titles that are VR esports ready. These official launch titles include the giant mech multiplayer shooter Archangel: Hellfire, a jet-propelled shooter Skyfront, and a tactical sci-fi shooter After-H.”
More titles will be added in time, as they are VRFocus will keep you updated on the latest announcements.
