Category: Skonec Entertainment

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F2P Shooter Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena to Support HTC Vive & Oculus Rift

Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena

A few days ago Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida revealed during Japanese indie event BitSummit Gaiden 2020 that free-to-play shooter Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena would be coming to PlayStation VR. Developer Skonec Entertainment has confirmed to VRFocus that the online title will also support HTC Vive and Oculus.

Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena

While the PlayStation VR version will see a beta launch in August followed by an official release in September, the PC VR edition doesn’t have a date at the moment. Skonec Entertainment said that a date hadn’t been decided upon but it will be after the PlayStation VR version, so no multiplatform launch.

Another aspect that was unclear was whether Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena would see a global release. That will be the case, so initially, PlayStation VR players around the world will be able to enjoy the competitive free title.

Continuing the franchise which first began as an arcade shooter a few years ago, Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena will offer both single-player and multiplayer gameplay modes. Solo, you’ll be tasked with completing a 15+ mission campaign across normal, hard and expert difficulty levels.

Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena

The core multiplayer mode will feature Quick Match (2-4 players), Ranked Match and Event Match options. The end of each match will then provide players with their stats, rankings, achievements and titles earnt.

Matches take place in arenas filled with hexagonal platforms with light barriers activated once stepped on. While these do offer some protection, with enough firepower opponents can blast through, encouraging players to keep moving for dynamic, action-packed battles. The system also means only teleportation is used, so Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena should be comfortable for most players.

Players will be able to customise their characters and loadouts, from the colour of their armour to weapons including a machine gun, minigun, rocket launcher, shotgun and railgun.

As further details regarding the beta launch of Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena for PlayStation VR next month are released, VRFocus will let you know.

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Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena Coming to PlayStation VR for Free

Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena

South Korean virtual reality (VR) developer SKonec Entertainment tends to focus mainly on the location-based entertainment (LBE) market in its home region. But it does occasionally dabble in the home market, most notably with arcade shooter Mortal Blitz a few years ago. Recently, it has been revealed the studio plans on releasing a multiplayer shooter called Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena for free on PlayStation VR in the coming months.

Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena

PlayStation’s Shuhei Yoshida made the announcement as part of the BitSummit Gaiden 2020 event which is all about indie developers. Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena will be a free to play experience coming to PlayStation VR in September with a beta released in August. What wasn’t clear was whether this info is purely for the Asian market or if it’s a global release.

Supporting a single-player mission-based mode as well as the core multiplayer which can have up to four players, Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena will include customizable weapons and items to pick up as well as Aim controller support.

In the multiplayer mode players have to teleport between platforms of varying heights to allow you an advantage over a lower positioned opponent. Light walls appear upon arrival to aid in defense but these can be destroyed with enough firepower.

Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena

In fact, VRFocus has played a previous incarnation of Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena during Gamescom 2019. SKonec Entertainment originally announced Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz as an LBE only experience back in 2018 before taking it to the Cologne-based event the following year.

While there are some graphical differences – this was running on a PC originally – the gameplay looks virtually identical. Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz was an enjoyable arena shooter and that was only with 2 players; with four VRFocus would imagine Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena is going to get seriously fast and frantic.

VRFocus has contacted SKonec Entertainment for further information regarding the launch of Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena and whether it’ll be global. When’s there’s further info to update you, we’ll let you know.

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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.

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SKonec’s LBVR Shooter Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz Offers Thrilling PvP Combat

Korean developer SKonec Entertainment has a long and varied history in virtual reality (VR) development, having released first-person shooter (FPS) Mortal Blitz VR for Samsung Gear VR back in 2015. The studio has developed other titles since then but the Mortal Blitz franchise remains a core IP, especially when it comes to location-based entertainment (LBE). The latest instalment is a player versus player (PvP) title called Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz showcasing how well SKonec knows VR technology.

Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz

Currently, all of SKonec Entertainment’s VR LBE offerings are only available in its home territories. However, the recent Gamescom 2019 event in Cologne, Germany proved to be the perfect opportunity to demo arcade content to Europeans. Whilst not being able to offer the same lavish space-consuming attraction found in Korean arcades, the setup was ample enough to test Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz.

The videogame can normally accommodate up to four players but in this instance, there was only space for two. Honestly, this may have worked in Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz’ favour, providing a deadly game of cat and mouse across the single arena. Offering a pure deathmatch mode that was exceptionally fast and energetic, the rounds only lasted a couple of minutes. Once complete the desire to jump right back in was unmistakable.

Just like any good VR arcade experience which involves multiplayer Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz’ controls were easy to pick up for newbies, yet the gameplay was dynamic enough so that VR veterans could always enjoy a few matches.

Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz

For comfort Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz offers fixed point-to-point teleportation locations, set atop hexagonal pillars which were at various heights. This gave the arena a very tight, undulating topography which could mean at any given second you could either gain or lose the high ground making getting those kills a whole lot trickier.

When the match starts you automatically came equipped with pistols for both hands. While quite effective when getting a few headshots in, every time you teleport to a new spot a defensive light barrier appeared to hide behind. While destructible, without a decent line of sight the pistols were less than effective against the barriers, which is where all the other weapons came into play.

This being a competitive arcade multiplayer, SKonec has placed shotguns, miniguns and other weapons towards the map extremities. They couldn’t be picked up instantly though, locked via a timer. As such you weren’t simply able to ‘tool up’ and find your opponent, having to carefully dart around the arena to grab a gun at the opportune moment. For those lucky enough, at the very centre of the arena was the most destructive weapon, a huge plasma gun which fired a massive ball of purple energy. Relatively slow, when used correctly it offered a one-hit kill, instantly disintegrating the light barrier and enemy cowering behind it (very satisfying).

Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz

More importantly 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 (winning does help). What’s a real shame at the moment is you need to go to South Korea to play it. There are lots of good VR arcade experiences in Europe and the US, one more definitely won’t hurt. When that will happen is a question SKonec Entertainment has yet to answer.

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The Door VR Is Releasing Tomorrow For PlayStation VR

Skonec Entertainment are known for creating interesting virtual reality (VR) experiences that offer players unique adventures in truly immersive worlds. Their latest title, The Door VR, is set to release tomorrow and will see players step into a world of darkness and mystery as they try to escape from a locked laboratory and the horrors that await within.

The Door VR

The Door VR is an escape-room style videogame where players will need to make their way out of the locked laboratory. Of course, that is to simple so along the way there will be plenty of tricks and dangers hidden within that players will need to overcome. Featuring multiple endings and a story that is sure to keep players on the edge of their seats, The Door VR looks and sounds to be an interesting horror title that will immersive players within it’s horrors.

As seen in the below trailer for the title, there seems to be some dark events unfolding in the laboratory as there is a quick shoot of a monster of some kind, along with a scary looking child in a doorway. On top of that, we also see what looks to be a distressed women sat on a bed along with the player completing a number of different puzzles and challenges along the way. Of course, blood and gore can be find throughout the darkness filled rooms and hallways.

The Door VR

Recently, Skonec Entertainment also revealed a new project for location-based VR centers in the form of Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz. This title is based on the companies Mortal Blitz IP and will see players enter a first-person shooter (FPS) arena where they will battle with up to four other players in a location-based setup. The Mortal Blitz series has been around since 2015 and it is still going strong to date. You can read more about Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz here.

The Door VR is releasing tomorrow September 21st, 2018 on PlayStation 4 with support for PlayStation VR. You can see the teaser trailer below for yourself to get an idea of the title and for more on it and Skonec Entertainment in the future, keep reading VRFocus.

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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.

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Skonec Entertainment Reveals Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz at KVRF

South Korean developer Skonec entertainment have unveiled its two latest projects for location-based virtual reality (VR) centres. The first is a VR Arcade version of popular action rhythm title Beat Saber, while the other is a new title based on Skonec’s Mortal Blitz IP, titled Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz.

The two new titles were revealed at the Korean Virtual Reality Festival, an event which allows consumers, developers and companies to explore what is currently possible and available in the world of immersive technology.

Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz is a VR first-person shooter (FPS) which has been designed for location-based VR attractions. It is equipped to handle 2-4 person multiplayer battles, with the intention of becoming suitable for VR esports.

Mortal Blitz is a long-running franchise for Skonec Entertainment, with the first iteration, Mortal Blitz EP-1 being released back in 2015 for the Samsung Gear VR, afterwards Mortal Blitz for Walking Attraction was developed as a free-roaming shooter for theme parks and VR arcades. Mortal Blitz was then adapted into a title for the PlayStation VR in 2017.

Previous Mortal Blitz titles put the player in the role of a special agent who is trapped inside a research facility where terrifying Teratoma mutants have infested the halls and labs, and players need to familiarise themselves with an array of weapons to take out the mutants and find a way to escape.

The Beat Saber Arcade machine was developed as a partnership between Skonec entertainment and Beat Games, with gameplay modified to better suit the arcade style of location-based play. The first official K-pop song has been added to this version, Killing Me by iKon, with plans to add more famous K-pop songs in future.

Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz will be available at VR Square arcade centre from Q4 of this year. For future coverage on location-based VR centres, keep checking back with VRFocus.

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The Beat Goes On: Beat Saber Arcade Machine Officially Announced

Note-smashing virtual reality (VR) videogame Beat Saber has become an impressive success, particularly for a Steam Early Access title produced by a small indie studio. It seems like Beat Saber is planning on expanding the franchise, aiming to be the next location-based VR arcade phenomenon thanks to a partnership between Beat Games and Skonec Entertainment.

The plan is to create a version of Beat Saber that will be suitable for VR centres and other attractions and locations that utilise VR arcades, with a specially built machine featuring customised content for a more ‘arcade flow’.

The Beat Saber Arcade Machine will be ‘self-operable’, meaning that players will not need and assistance from an operator in order to climb into a VR headset, grab the controllers and start flailing away to slice those notes.

Beat Games and Skonec Entertainment have expressed lofty aims for this new product, with ambitions of stepping into the shoes of legendary rhythm-based arcade titled like Dance Dance Revolution.

The two companies say that locations tests for the Beat Saber Arcade Machine will be running from the end of August until the middle of September in selected cities in Korea and China. Namely, South Korea will see unit appearing in Seoul and Busan, while China will get the machines in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang.

Beat Saber ArcadeSkonec entertainment are planning to reveal the Beat Saber Arcade Machine machine at two upcoming events:

KRVF, which will take place in Seoul, South Korea on 5th-9th September. Further information is available on the KRVR website.

GTI Expo, which is set to take place in Guangzhou, China from 12th-14th September. Further information and tickets can be found on the official GTI Expo website.

Jordhan Choi, the Vice President of Skonec Entertainment had this to say: “We are happy to bring this experience to the market with globally being loved game, Beat Saber. We are sure that this will be an exciting addition to not only to VR arcades but also to any locations. We are pleased to service Beat Saber into this branded arcade machine, and plan to include further collaboration such as adding famous K-pop songs and more.”

For future coverage on the Beat Saber franchise keep checking back with VRFocus.

 

 

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South Korean Companies Foster UK Ties During AR & VR Conference at Manchester Metropolitan University

Last week the Manchester Metropolitan University held the 4th annual AR & VR Conference, hosted by the University’s Creative AR & VR Hub. The event was focused on foster the UK’s growing virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) industry, combining global technology venture capitalists as well as South Korean technology companies backed by the  government organisation Gyeonggi Content Agency (GCA).

Skonec VR Square_1

The GCA is actively working on VR/AR start-up promotion and industry ecosystem building, bringing over ten companies like  location-based entertainment (LBE) solution provider SKonec Entertainment, alongside Redrover, Toorock, GonGungames, HelloVR, Qlab, LBS Teck and Mammo6. SKonec Entertainment is most well known for Mortal Blitz, alongside newly revealed titles Operation Black Wolf: Battle of The Desert, Dark Tale Heroes, and Mortal Blitz Legacy.

“This is an exciting time in the AR/VR sector, with organisations finding increasingly innovative ways to use technology and bring benefits to a range of business sectors,” said Dr Timothy Jung, Director of the Creative AR & VR Hub at Manchester Metropolitan in a statement. “The event is an opportunity to introduce UK businesses to global immersive technology organisations and investors to explore ways they can work together and develop business in the region.”

All these companies were brought along as part of GCA’s Nest Reality Partners (NRP) programme, a VR/AR startup accelerator. Additionally, as part of the conference five Korean companies including Superbeans, DiveCore, Charms, and DolphineEyes will visit the UK for a two-week period as part of a Global Collaboration Project supported by the agency.

ARVR conference

The results of the collaboration between the UK and South Korean companies and Universities will be presented at the Global Developers Forum (GDF) 2018, setting an example for future partnerships.

UK-based companies who attended the event included BBC R&D, Microsoft HoloLens and Unreal Engine. Keynote speakers included Nigel Jones (Sector Specialist for Digital and Creative at the DIT, Nothern Powerhouse), Seung-Jong Kim (Chairman of the Board, Gyeonggi Content Agency), and Adrian Woolard (Director of BBC R&D).

As companies like SKonec Entertainment look to involve themselves further in the UK VR/AR industry, VRFocus will let you know.

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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.

Mortal Blitz Legacy
Mortal Blitz Legacy

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.

Dark Tale Heroes
Dark Tale Heroes

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.