A new location-based experience (LBE) centred on the Transformers franchise will allow you to fight alongside the Autobots against the Decepticons in a cooperative VR game, with appearances from iconic characters such as Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Megatron.
It’s produced by game studio Minority Media, who were also behind the other location-based experience Transformers: VR Battle Arena. In Battle Arena, players fought against each other, playing as either the Autobots or the Decepticons in a PvP game.
However, Invasion will put the focus on working together and pit you in a battle against the Decepticons, playing as the Autobots. Here’s a bit more info:
TRANSFORMERS: VR Invasion delivers collaborative gameplay that enables guests to be part of the liberation squad of humans fighting alongside well-known Autobots like Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, as well as Grimlock, the leader of the Dinobots powerful strike squad. Players enter epic battles against sworn enemies Megatron and Soundwave and repel non-stop swarms of Insecticons. Failure is not an option in this high-stakes mission to stop an all-out invasion by the Decepticons.
This isn’t the end of Battle Arena either – Invasion will simply join the line-up of available Transformer VR experiences available to venues.
There’s no specific date for when Invasion will make its debut, but Minority Media says it will be available in the US at Kalahari Resort in Poconos, PA, Airway Fun Center in Kalamazoo, MI and Compass Entertainment in Irvington, VA. It will also be available at select Kingping Bowling locations in Australia.
Have you tried Transformers: VR Battle Arena or are you excited for Transformers: VR Invasion? Let us know in the comments.
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.
Amusement Expo International: Image credit KWP
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.
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.
Box Blaster VR. Image credit: KWP
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’.
VEX Arena. Image credit: KWP
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.
Voxel Arena. Image credit: KWP
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.
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.
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.
In his coverage of the immersive Out-of-Home entertainment scene for VRFocus, in his second part of his latest Virtual Arena column, Kevin Williams reports from the IAAPA trade show on the other emerging categories of “VR Enclosures”, and “Arena-Scale VR” both including backpack PC and now the new launch of Standalone systems.
In this, the second part of our coverage of the mammoth International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) held in Orlando and covering some 580,000 net square feet of exhibit space, and accommodated some 1,140 exhibitors – of those exhibitors it was calculated that over 70 of these had some form of VR product or initiatives on display.
The vast vista of just one hall of the IAAPA 2019 show floor. Image credit: KWP
Continuing the different categories of VR business that were on display during the convention and we come to “VR Enclosures” – this represents the creation of structures that enclose a space within a facility to offer a VR experience. This is best illustrated by leading provider HOLOGATE, who has developed and launched its ‘HOLOGATE Arena’ placed with some 300 active locations throughout Europe, the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific region, and North and South America. The four-player tethered enclosure revealed that the company would be moving from HTC headsets to using the Valve Index. And at IAAPA it also launched an eye-catching ‘HOLOGATE Tower’ – a two-floor steel platform that doubles the floor space to play on.
The company also entered the motion racing VR scene with its new ‘HOLOGATE Blitz’ – the developer partnered with an established motion platform manufacturer to create a unique motion cockpit system as a companion to the successful Arena. As we have seen in the first part of this report, the interest in VR racing simulator videogames has grown, and HOLOGATE is looking to offer a varied selection of both content and VR experiences to drive interest in this platform.
Another VR enclosure developer that had big developments at IAAPA was Minority Media, the company is the developer of the four-player ‘Chaos Jump’ enclosure, and building of success selling this system launched their new ‘Transformers: VR Battle Arena’, created in collaboration with Hasbro. Again, four players battle against each other, but this time the videogame uses the new version of the StrikerVR haptic weapon for added immersion.
Extreme racing on the HOLOGATE Blitz. Image credit: KWPTransformers: VR Battle Arena at IAAPA 2019. Image credit: KWP
One of the other VR enclosures developers on the show floor was Inowize, presenting the ‘VR Quest Arena’ – this is one of the first systems that offered six-player competition within their platform, using tethered HTC Vive Pros. The company has also partnered with an already established sales veteran, sharing space in the Amusement Products booth during the show. Aiming at a younger audience has been the focus for several the new VR enclosure developers, hoping to attract the widest demographic. One such developer presenting at IAAPA 2019 was AlterEyes with its ‘DOJO’ – this system using the latest wireless HTC Vive Pros, uniquely able to accommodate four synchronize players. While another developer Boxblaster VR also presented a cost-effective tethered four-player VR enclosure platform, also announcing that its moving across to the Valve Index headset.
Another example of the successful deployment of this approach to VR entertainment, the Funovation represented their partnership with Virtuix, (the pioneer of “Active VR”) – who launched last years’ ‘Omni Arena’, a four-player VR enclosure employing their omni-direction movement system and HTC Vive headsets. Virtuix has focused their system on offering a perfect competition platform partnering with HP, to double the 2020 eSports prize-pool from $50,000 to $100,000. The company also announced the launch of the new eSports game ‘Elite Force’, a player-vs-player military blaster. Another company that has expanded the approach to a VR enclosure from just a structure, but into a full game stage is MajorMega – presenting at the Orlando show its completed ‘Hyperdeck’ platform. Offering multi-sensory effects (wind, heat, motion), running the HTC Vive Pros for the four-players. The company has already seen a strong return on investment numbers while on test at a few well-known venues, and during IAAPA the company gave a sneak peek of its next videogame title on the system called ‘Dream-Saver’.
The Virtuix Omni Arena. Image credit: KWPThe MajorMega Hyperdeck in action. Image credit: KWP
The development of VR enclosures that also expand into the other new category of “Arena-Scale VR – Backpack” was also witnessed, as well as the pivoting of many consumer VR developers into supporting LBE VR. Exhibitor IMMOTION was working in association with Survios to launch ‘Raw Data Arena’, a VR 4m x 4m multi-player enclosure based on the popular game. While Vertigo Games’ LBE VR division Vertigo Arcades made the trip to the Orlando show with their LBE version of their popular ‘Arizona Sunshine’ and their new release ‘Corsair’s Curse’. Both running on backpack PC’s and using HTC Vive Pro headsets.
Not all Arena-Scale VR – backpack systems are housed in enclosures and many builds on free-roaming spaces dedicated for their deployment. One of the veterans of this space is Zero Latency with its multi-player “warehouse space” VR experience. The company showed at IAAPA the Gen 2 VR System, developed in partnership with HP, Microsoft and Intel, with an HP backpack and HP Reverb headset. Zero Latency has started the process of retrofitting across some of their 41 venues, recently adding MeetupVR in London Wembley at Boxpark (as covered in the recent VRFocus report).
More exhibitors promoted their platforms that offered a multi-player arena-scale solution; developer Ideas Extremas presented their ‘VR Ideas – Cybengerz VR Arena’ – a three-player using wireless HTC Vive headset so removing the need for a backpack. While developer ARena Space showed its wireless HTC Vive Pro multiplayer platform, deployed in the companies established chain of stores. The appearance of wireless solutions shows the latest phase of development, while examples of the use of standalone headsets was also evident.
Another Backpack PC VR provider is VEX Solutions – the company showing at the show their previously launched ‘VEX Adventure’ – run as a large VR enclosure employing FX elements such as vibrating floor and heat elements – along with the four players wearing haptic vests and HTC Vive headsets. But the company also launched a new variant of this approach with their “Arena-Scale VR – Standalone” system called the ‘VEX Arena’. This platform making use of the Oculus Quest headset, the company offering a flexible game space of between 16 up to 100 square meters – with between two or 12-players.
Vertigo Games’ Arizona Sunshine LBVR enclosure. Image credit: KWPThe VEX Arena deployed on the Oculus Quest. Image credit: KWP
Another exhibitor with this approach was ANVIO that showed their Standalone VR system running on the Oculus Quest. This was not the only company that looked at Standalone mobileVR headsets, with their all in one approach to offering immersive experience as a new opportunity for cost-effective deployment in the LBE VR scene, and there are several other manufacturers on and off the show floor that are taking the same approach. So much so, that OculusVR has undertaken to re-evaluate their approach to Enterprise business (including LBE VR) and will be making an important announcement in the coming weeks.
But not all Standalone developers are depending on the Oculus Quest – there are several alternative hardware offerings. Emerging VR developer SPREE Interactive; (formerly known as Holodeck VR) has created a suite of Arena-Scale VR experiences that use the Pico standalone headset. The company creating multiplayer free-roam experiences based on their patented technology aiming at a family-friendly approach with their ‘SPREE Arena’.
As touched upon in our previous report SPREE Interactive have taken their tracking technology and in cooperation with VR Coaster launched their ‘VR Bumper Car’ platform, converting a conventional bumper car attraction into a virtual experience – again using their standalone headsets. The company has also built on a third partnership with Hollywood VFX team Pixomondo – to launch a new experience called ‘Mission to Mars’. This free-roaming VR experience accommodating 20-players and allowing them to explore mans’ attempts to inhabit the Red Planet.
The SPREE Arena in operation. Image credit: KWPTaking SPREE Interactive’s VR Bumper Car for a spin. Image credit: KWP
Obviously, these two features can only offer a snapshot of this amazing trade gathering regarding some of the myriad of exhibitors that came to IAAPA 2019 – but shows the incredible diversity in development in VR applications for Out-of-Home entertainment. 2020 will continue to see the diversity grow with the launch of new hardware and entertainment platforms continuing, and also the opening of a number of the latest LBE facilities across major cities such as from Sandbox VR and The VOID, (to name just two). Watch this space for the next series for reports from this dynamic sector.
Minority Media, the virtual reality (VR) developer behind Time Machine VRhas announced a new location-based entertainment (LBE) experience in collaboration with Hasbro, Transformers: VR Battle Arena.
The LBE title offers a 4-player, PvP experience where players can jump into some of the most famous Autobots and Decepticons to battle for supremacy. The Allspark has shattered into pieces around the planet and it’s up to players to collect these fragments whilst battling other Cybertronians. With three roomscale environments to navigate – a refinery, a cityscape and the docks – the player with the most shards at the end wins.
Transformers: VR Battle Arena has been designed as an all-in-one attraction for venue operators. The arena has a small footprint ideal for most arcades and the system only requires one person to operate it.
“An out-of-home multiplayer virtual reality game is an exciting way to put fans right into the middle of the larger-than-life action associated with the Transformers franchise,” notes Casey Collins, GM & SVP of Entertainment and Licensing at Hasbro in a statement. “Now anyone can become the heroic Autobots Optimus Prime or Bumblebee, or unleash their inner Decepticon by stepping into the role of Megatron or Soundwave for a massively fun battle on the epic scale fans have come to expect.”
“There are generations of fans who will now be able to experience actually becoming one of the huge Transformers bots,” adds Vander Caballero, CEO of Minority Media, the award-winning game studio that created the popular location-based entertainment multiplayer VR game Chaos Jump. “Minority Media and Hasbro have come together to craft a heart-pounding player versus player battle – a truly fun and immersive Transformers adventure that delivers the awe-inspiring thrill of being and seeing building-sized Transformers robots as you chase and fight your way through this game.”
Transformers: VR Battle Arena will make its public debut at the IAAPA Expo in Orlando later this month (19th-22nd November). To keep players coming back for more Minority Media and Hasbro will add further characters, new team play modes, additional battle arenas, more powerups, and new weapons after launch. As news of Transformers: VR Battle Arena locations appears, VRFocus will let you know.
In June a cacophony of announcements regarding major LB-VR projects and new commercial entertainment VR hardware came out – so we conclude this two-part feature with more observations on developments in the Digital Out-of-Home entertainment VR (DOE) scene; with industry specialist, Kevin Williams ending his latest observations of this defining market for VR technology.
As we reported in the previous part of this coverage; companies like The VOID have recently opened VR attractions in Las Vegas – feeding off the casino and tourist industries hunger for immersive entertainment.
The second Future of Immersive Leisure (FOIL) event, organized by KWP, took place in Las Vegas during the previous month and charted many of the new immersive entertainment developments seen on the Strip – and well as the emergence of VR technology internationally as a major draw of new investment into the interactive attraction and amusement scene. During the conference opportunities to see the latest development were made, including visits to the new Level Up amusement venue within the MGM casino, including the installation of a Zero Latency free-roaming experience.
Leading industry specialists from the commercial immersive entertainment supported FOIL’18, including presentations from Schell Games, DreamScape, Ubisoft, LAI Games, VRstudios, Dave & Busters’, IGT, Springboard VR and many other pivotal speakers. The event was also able to gather some interesting exhibits that changed not just the immersive attraction scene, but the penetration of VR in the market. Amusement developer and manufacturer LAI Games came to the FOIL conference with their new Virtual Rabbids: Wild Ride amusement VR entertainment ride system. Offering a gateway for venue operators to evaluate how VR can best suit their audience’s appetites.
Other developments, seeing major brands marrying themselves with immersive attraction projects included Merlin Entertainment, partnering with UK based IMMOTION, to develop The Great LEGO Race VR Experience. This motion-base VR attraction installed at the LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Boston. IMMOTION using their access to cutting-edge motion simulation, and a commercially proven VR platform (running on the Deepoon headset) – married to a compelling experience that was based on LEGO IP, and is driven by Merlin Entertainment.
This development, coming a few weeks after LEGOLAND Florida announced the launch of their ‘The Great LEGO Race’ – a VR coaster experience based in the LEGO minifigures universe, seen by riders on their rollercoasters using special Samsung Gear VR headsets. This VR ride developed under the supervision of Merlin Magic Makers, by Figment Productions – the experience combining a prominent IP with an exciting VR experience.
The combination of unique motion platforms and virtual reality systems has continued a paced with several new visitor attractions opened that comprise this approach. Most recently the European park Futuroscope launched their Sebastien Loeb Racing Experience – developed by French based corporation E-Virtuality, comprising their new e-Motionseat6 platform – guests enjoy an immersive thrill ride in the passenger seat as the famous rally driver puts his vehicle through its paces.
In this 360’ film that employs 6K resolution – the riders sit on the 6DoF electro-dynamic motion base, but also have a level of interaction. With an auditorium comprising 108 simulators, with each rider wearing an HTC Vive, this is the latest large-scale VR attraction to open in recent months. The theme park industry warming to the unique opportunity that VR offers their audience.
Still in France, but on a reduced scale; the FlyView visitor attraction recently opened in Paris. Using a unique motion platform that emulates a futuristic quad-copter, that the riders stands on as their view the tourist spots of the grand city, from the unique perspective of soaring above the ground. This entertainment experience uses hardware and content developed by CL Corporation – who have a number f promotional VR experiences under their belt and employs HTC Vive HMDs to capture all the action.
Creating a standing VR experience that also employs a dynamic motion-base is a trend being seen from several developers. Only a matter of days ago, Korean robotic and motion platform specialists Sangwha launched their brand-new offering in this genre. The company launching the Flying Jet – a highly dynamic standing motion system, players hold on to their grips as the motion platform tips forward and back and rotates in synchronization to extreme 360’ ride films they view using Samsung Gear VR’s. Sangwha are famous for their Gyro-VR ring-based VR motion experience that wowed so many during CES last year
One of the most unusual of the dynamic motion platforms find a home in the commercial entertainment scene is from ICARACE, pioneers in virtual reality locomotion. The ICAROS platform, using human powered movement, was created to achieve the full physical sensation of flight. Most recently this system has been deployed in a few museums, but the developers have now started to look at the pay-to-play business and even considering their system for fitness and even being seen as a new sports experience.
The development of VR entertainment experiences that fulfil the needs of a wide selection of operations continued. Out-of-Home entertainment seeing great investment in theme parks, but also the deployment of VR in more traditional Family Entertainment Centers (FEC) and the new generation of Social Hang Out’s (#SHO). These social entertainment venues thrive on the group party and socially inclusive entertainment experiences – in many cases aiming for a young adult audience (compared to the more traditional younger visitors).
As reported in our China AAA’18 show coverage, a couple of trends have started to emerge that are proving popular in this latest phase of VR entertainment deployment. One of those being “Tethered VR Enclosures” – four player enclosures with tethered VR headsets suspended from the framework of these enclosures. These systems offer a strong group play dynamic, and offer a strong audience draw, as players compete as a team. Several manufacturers have entered the development of their own platforms in this genre, and we can expect to see offerings that comprise the fundamentals of this genre, employing new software that building on the experience. Canadian studio Minority Media has developed their own new attraction Chaos Jump – a highly competitive four-player experience that will be soon available as a VR arcade title, and a stand-along tethered enclosure.
Another platform in this genre that is about to burst onto the scene is TOWER TAG – developed by German based VR Nerds Gmbh, the product has already been taken up by CA SEGA JOYPOLIS – the Chinese amusement operation of the popular amusement and game company SEGA – the first TOWER TAG systems were installed at SEGA VR AREA location in Japan. Emboldened by this success the German developers have started the arduous process of conceiving their own tethered enclosure platform that they can sell to other operators in the West.
These two editorials have hoped to illustrate the growing momentum in development of this unique market. Interest is growing for more information and consumer VR development concerns now pivot their investment towards working in this market – most recently we saw the successful developer SURVIOS open their first VR arcade and have already started to promote other new commercial VR projects. We can expect continuing major announcement from influential players in consumer game, movie and attractions regarding their new concepts in this direction.
Another example, illustrating the continued growth in interest for the commercial entertainment sectors engagement with VR; sees KWP, the author of this column, invited to present the keynote at June’s Bristol VR Lab Out-of-home entertainment afternoon seminar – BVRL’s sixth afternoon seminar will be focusing on the topic of out-of-home VR and location-based entertainment.
Expect to see even more coverage of the explosion of LB-VR and VR arcade projects in the coming weeks, especially as more details of the changing consumer VR landscape emerge following this year’s E3 convention.
Virtual reality developers have to be creative to survive the VR desert, where sales haven’t kept up with expectations. So Vander Caballero, founder of Minority Media and creator of the VR game Time Machine VR, has adopted a new strategy to get through the tough times.
Montreal-based Minority Media, which also created the groundbreaking PSN title Papo Y Yo in 2012, has created the four-player VR game Chaos Jump for virtual reality arcades. VR arcades are starting to thrive in places like China, and they may become a viable business for VR game developers who are awaiting broader adoption of home VR headsets. It’s a strategy that many developers are thinking about, but Minority Media is busy executing on it, said Caballero, in a talk and an interview at the recent MIGS 2017 game conference in Montreal.
Above: Players try Chaos Jump at MIGS 2017.
Image Credit: Dean Takahashi
It’s as good a survival strategy as any, and some kind of strategy is in order because too many VR startups got funding under the overhyped hopes for VR from 2014 to 2016. When sales came out to be a pittance of expectations in 2016 and 2017, investors scaled back and stopped pouring money into every VR startup that came along. Some startups are failing. Some are getting acquired, and others like Minority Media are figuring out how to generate revenues.
Roughly 8.4 million VR units have sold, but 4.9 million of those are Samsung Gear VR mobile devices, Caballero said.
“Some of us will die on the climb up the mountain,” Caballero said. “Some of us will reach the top. It’s growing slowly, and people are sad that it’s not picking up as they thought when there were crazy expectations. We’re in this period of people wondering, ‘Why do I need a VR headset?’”
Minority Media’s approach was always to create original content, coming from the days of Papa Y Yo, which was loosely based on Caballero’s alcoholic father. After the success of that game, cofounder Julian Barnoin and Caballero saw a demo of the Oculus Rift. They fell in love with it and got their hands on a dev kit. They started making games for it, and then Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion in 2014. They wanted to make games for everyone. They didn’t want anyone to get sick, and they wanted it to be the highest quality. So they build Time Machine VR, which took players back to an undersea adventure with monstrous sea creatures.
Minority Media’s Time Machine VR, debuted in May 2016 on the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. It also came out later on the PSVR and Gear VR. It was only one of an estimated 30 games that cleared $1 million in revenues, hauling in $1.2 million. That was enough to keep the company afloat, along with grants from the Canadian government. The company was happy to have one of the few titles that got some traction, and it received good reviews regarding the game’s quality. The next game, The Other Room, also got good reviews, but it had almost no sales.
Above: Vander Caballero talks about VR arcade games at MIGS 2017.
Image Credit: Dean Takahashi
“We learned that VR is a moving target,” Caballero said. “You get new technology every six months that may change your game or make it obsolete. Retention of users is hard, and they expect a lot of the titles to be free. The lifespan of games is maybe two months to three months.”
That was when the company entered into its period of “rage and despair,” along with the rest of the industry, Caballero said.
“During that time is when you get your greatest learning,” he said. “I asked why are we here. VR is such an amazing technology.”
He added, “Santa Clause is not happening. We asked if the potential of VR was misunderstood. It was like the 5-cent admission that movie theaters charged in 1905. Nobody wanted to pay. People didn’t get it. With VR, this is like a dragon breathing VR at small companies.”
But Caballero saw different patterns for VR in China, where people go outside of their homes for entertainment. His company partnered with D-Box, a maker of a VR chair, to debut the Time Machine VR in HTC’s Viveland Arcades.
“It’s doing really well in China,” Caballero said.
In the arcades, players may pay something like $1 for 10 minutes, or less. They don’t have to buy VR headsets and laptops that together cost more than $1,500 just to get started.
Minority Media’s next title is Chaos Jump Squad. I tried it out at MIGS 2017 at a demo booth. It was an action-packed experience, where you have to go back in time, shoot a bunch of drones that attack you, steal a bunch of gold, and then escape with your haul back to present day. You can play both cooperatively and competitively with three other players at the same time. The one who makes it back with the most gold wins. It’s a sweaty experience that you can play in 10 minutes.
Above: Chaos Jump
Image Credit: Minority Media
Caballero said this kind of experience could be a way to make arcade fans happy and generate enough revenue to make it through the period of rage and despair, toward “a new hope.”
As for the future of VR, Caballero believes we’ll use it to “buy memories.” A couple of friends will go to a simulation room and get the experience of climbing Mount Everest together. They’ll buy tickets, much like they do for The Void’s experience in New York, and get a full VR experience with things like motion-tracking rigs, tactile, walls, special effects, and a room-size experience. That is a turnkey solution, kind of like how arcade machine makers delivered an entire box to the arcades.
“That’s where it’s going to go,” Caballero said. “It will be more meaningful, with more haptic feedback, and motion sickness goes to zero. It will be realistic and easy to use.”
The developer behind HTC Vive/Oculus Rift title Time Machine VR, Minority Media has announced the release of a new title for the Google Daydream called The Other Room.
The Other Room is a room escape videogame in which the player attempts to escape from a series of insidious traps set up by a twisted genius. The story mode the player is required to solve puzzles to uncover the secrets behind the antagonist’s identity and ultimate plan.
The levels of the game are on a timer, so the player must solve the procedurally generated puzzles before time runs out. The developer has also promised that the antagonist will contact the player and ‘Evaluate you psychologically’. What exactly this entails is not yet known, but could be an interesting 4th-wall breaking character akin to Psycho Mantis from the Metal Gear Solid games.
The developer has also put much work into the sound design of the game, experimenting with ambisonic and binaural audio to create the most immersive experience possible.
Minority Media have previously worked on the popular Papo & Yo, and Time Machine VR, a VR experience which takes the player on a trip through Earth’s prehistory to come face-to-face with dinosaurs.
The Other Room is available now on the Google Play Store for Google Daydream at a price of £4.79 (GBP).
VRFocus will keep you up-to-date with new Google Daydream releases.
This weekend sees the annual SXSW festival return to Austin, Texas, exploring the worlds of interactive, film, music, and comedy with awards, screenings, and showcases. Heading to the event is D-BOX Technologies, part of contingent of 50 Québec companies called Planet Québec. For SXSW D-BOX has teamed up with Minority Media to showcase its virtual reality (VR) title, Time Machine VR.
The delegation will be the largest from the province ever to be part of this SXSW, made up of representatives from a variety of sectors including VR, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of things (IoT), transportation, culture and the creative and digital industries.
Time Machine VR launched for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift last year, for SXSW a new version incorporating motion systems will be available to attendees, which made its debut at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2017 earlier this month.
“We are very excited be a part of this massive delegation especially when you consider all the creative talent and innovative products this province will have on display,” says Claude Mc Master, President and CEO at D-BOX. “This is the ideal place to introduce our innovative and reliable motion technology to an international market, build our brand and forge strategic partnerships with all the major players at the event.”
D-BOX is most well known for its work on The Martian VR Experience, made in conjunction with 20th Century Fox, The Virtual Reality Company and The Third Floor.
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.
These two editorials have hoped to illustrate the growing momentum in development of this unique market. Interest is growing for more information and consumer VR development concerns now pivot their investment towards working in this market – most recently we saw the successful developer SURVIOS open their first VR arcade and have already started to promote other new commercial VR projects. We can expect continuing major announcement from influential players in consumer game, movie and attractions regarding their new concepts in this direction.
