Operation Black Wolf: Battle of The Desert – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

December 6, 2019

South Korea’s SKonec Entertainment Open First Western Location in LA

South Korea has a dedicated virtual reality (VR) community of creators but it’s not often the content makes it out of the country and onto western shores. SKonec Entertainment has featured on VRFocus before thanks to its Mortal Blitz franchise but the company mostly specialises in location-based entertainment (LBE) on its home turf. Recently it made the transition into America, opening VR Square Los Angeles.

SKonec VR Square LA

SKonec Entertainment teamed up with local bowling alley space Xlanes to make VR Square LA a reality, using over 10,000 sqft to create the arcade. With that much space on offer, VR Square LA features several of SKonec’s LBE titles, ranging from free-roaming experiences to PvP shooters and VR escape rooms. On the free-roaming side, there’s Operation Black Wolf: Battle of the Desert, a modern military-themed multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) designed for three to six players.

Then there’s Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz offering the PvP element. VRFocus demoed the experience at Gamescom 2019, stating: “Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz was just great fun to play. With an awesome looking sci-fi, neon theme, matches were brutal, exciting and leave you with a big smile.” It was noted that one downside was the need to go to South Korea to play it. Now that’s no longer the case.

For those after a greater puzzle element then there’s always the VR Escape Room. Another first for western audiences, the title offers two-player co-op gameplay optimised for LBE gaming. And to keep you coming back for more there are multiple endings.

SKonec VR Square LA

One addition that’s surely going to attract a few players is the Beat Saber Arcade Machine. A collaborative effort between SKonec Entertainment and Beat Games, the arcade machine was revealed last year with several sites in South Korea and China selected for testing – YouTuber Nathie went to China’s VR Star Theme Park to see test it out. Like many home VR videogames brought to arcades, the machine features customised content for a more ‘arcade flow’.

So if you happen to be in the Downtown LA area looking for something VR related to do, Xlanes has VR gaming starting from $5. For further LBE updates, keep reading VRFocus.

September 19, 2018

Skonec Entertainment Prove They’re All About Location-Based VR

If you’ve never been to South Korea then you should know its a very technologically forward focused country – hardly surprising with tech giant like LG and Samsung based there. VRFocus recently went there and found an impressive amount of virtual reality (VR) there, where we spent time with location-based entertainment (LBE) specialist Skonec Entertainment to learn more about the company’s ongoing projects.

Operation Black Wolf Battle of The Desert

Having featured a number of times on VRFocus, Skonec Entertainment is best known for its VR title Mortal Blitz which is available for both home VR headsets as well as its LBE attraction. Such is the growing popularity of VR arcades around the world the team have been working on several other titles as well as its own hardware tech for businesses.

VRFocus originally reported back in February that the studio was developing three new experiences, two shooters Mortal Blitz Legacy and tactical FPS Operation Black Wolf: Battle of The Desert, plus Dark Tale Heroes a MMORPG style fantasy themed multiplayer. Development team lead and chief developer at Skonec Entertainment, JongHyeon Yuk, discussed how the projects were going and what time frame the team were working towards regarding release dates.

Apart from the Mortal Blitz release Skonec is mostly focused on its home market at present, opening its own official location in Seoul, VR Square back in May. It plans on adding a further 2-3 more VR Square’s in Korea over the course of this year.

Mortal Blitz Legacy

That’s not to say the company isn’t starting to look further afield having attended the 4th annual AR & VR Conference at Manchester Metropolitan University as part of a group of South Korean technology companies backed by government organisation Gyeonggi Content Agency (GCA).

Check out the video interview below. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Skonec Entertainment and its location-based VR plans, reporting back with any further developments.

February 7, 2018

Skonec Release further Details about Operation Black Wolf and Two Further VR Titles

Late last month VRFocus reported on South Korean developer Skonec announcing a new virtual reality (VR) title for its location based Walking Attraction booths, Operation Black Wolf. Today, the studio has released further details on the title as well as two more VR experiences in the works.

Operation Black Wolf’s full title is now Operation Black Wolf: Battle of The Desert, and as VRFocus previously surmised the videogame a modern military themed multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS). The experience is designed for three to six players, with three guests making up one team in one Walking Attraction room. Two VR Walking Attraction kiosks can then be connected allowing two teams to cooperate on the same maps which will feature team-based objectives.

If you happen to be going to the Japan Amusement Expo (JAEPO) 2018 this month then you’ll have a chance to demo the VR experience.

As mentioned, that’s not all Skonec has been working on. It’s main title Mortal Blitz will be getting a prequel in the form of Mortal Blitz Legacy. As a team of three to four people, players will have to cooperate with each other and they battle androids and giant robots.

Finally there’s Dark Tale Heroes a MMORPG style fantasy themed multiplayer based on a famous fairy tale story. Designed for a minimum of three people, Dark Tale Heroes will also support a PvP team battle option for up to 16 players, linking a maximum of four Walking Attraction kiosks with four players in each.

Skonec’s Walking Attraction locations are currently only based in Asia, with the company yet to announce plans on a wider roll out to western shores. To see the studios’ handy work in action, Mortal Blitz is available for Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR. You play a special agent finding themselves trapped in a secret research facility. Using an assortment of weapons, including environmental objects, you need to fight through Teratoma mutants whilst searching for a means of escape.

As Skonec release further details about its VR project, VRFocus will keep you updated.