Vertigo Games Acquires VR Arcade Game Distribution Platform SpringboardVR

Vertigo Games, the studio behind Arizona Sunshine (2017) and upcoming VR shooter After the Fall, today announced that it has acquired SpringboardVR, creators of the eponymous location-based VR content distribution platform.

The acquisition amount was undisclosed, however the move is slated to see several members of the SpringboardVR team transfer to Vertigo Games, something the company says in a press statement will “ensure seamless service and operations for arcade operators and game studios around the world.”

Vertigo Games says both the SpringboardVR brand and software platform will continue to operate “but with the support and resources of the Vertigo Games team.”

“This combination will provide operators with access to free-roam VR content via Vertigo’s HAZE VR distribution platform as well as giving both operators and game studios new tools to grow their LBE business. The roadmap for this new content and features will be released in the near future,” Vertigo Games says.

The founders of SpringboardVR and a few senior members of their development, product, and services teams have moved to form the core of a new company called ArborXR, which manages devices, content, and users in the enterprise VR ecosystem.

Location-based entertainment is still very much an industry in recession, as nearly all VR arcades worldwide shut down for extended periods due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even now with the initial rollout of a multiple vaccines, the most well-funded names in location-based VR entertainment, The Void and SandboxVR are still dangerously close to complete bankruptcy. With the acquisition of SpringboardVR though, it’s possible companies believe location-based entertainment is about to make a come back.

The post Vertigo Games Acquires VR Arcade Game Distribution Platform SpringboardVR appeared first on Road to VR.

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

The Virtual Arena

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Adventure Lab

The VR Arcade Scene

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Virtual Arena

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
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.

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

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

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

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

Box Blaster VR
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
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
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.

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

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

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

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

VR Ninja MaskManufacturers 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.

The Virtual Arena: The Standalone LBE VR Experience!

Covering the immersive Out-of-Home entertainment scene for VRFocus, in his latest Virtual Arena column, industry specialist Kevin Williams reports in two parts on the new phase of investment with the growth in “Arena-Scale VR – Standalone”, This first part looking at the influence the new Oculus Quest has had on the deployment of this latest phase of location-based entertainment (LBE) VR, seeing phenomenal growth in interest.

“Arena-Scale VR” – the ability for groups of players to compete in the same virtual world has proven to be a big trend in the latest phase of commercial VR entertainment. Offering a unique element for this VR application, totally unachievable from a consumer perspective. Currently, the popular trend was for backpack PC’s to be employed to supply the virtual experience – but with the advancements in technology a new category has emerged with “Arena-Scale VR – Standalone”.

Employing standalone headsets with positional tracking, and enough processing power to create compelling content, one benefit is the ability to wirelessly communicate with each other, and in some cases additional peripherals and operator management screens; removing the cost and complexity of the backpack PC solutions.

LBE standalone VR
One of the first examples of a LBE Standalone Arena-Scale experiences. Image credit: KWP

Oculus Attempts to Enter the Arena

The first series of standalone headsets started to make an appearance in 2018, and one of those which received a special amount of attention was the Oculus Quest. However, the interest in using this kind of hardware in location-based entertainment (LBE) has not been a priority for the manufacturer, until recently.

Oculus underlined a new commitment to LBE VR when, at 2018s Oculus Connect 5 (OC5) convention, the company invited the operator and developer, The VOID, to present an example of its “Hyper-reality” VR attraction (operating in some eleven sites). Running ‘Star Wars: Secret of the Empire’, the demonstration took OC5 delegates through a special enclosure that maps real objects with the virtual world, created in partnership with Lucasfilm’s ILMxLAB development studio.

The current chain of VOID locations is using a modified version of the, now discontinued, Oculus CV1 headset in its construction – developed under license. This is just one of a handful of such partnerships. However, in comparison to other VR headset developers, Oculus has been less active in establishing enterprise entertainment partnerships – previously seen as standoffish with regards to the explosion of interest in this application of the virtual hardware.

The same OC5 in San Jose revealed the Oculus Quest (evolving from the Santa Cruz prototype), as a new standalone platform. Separate of the PC offering, seeing the CV1 superseded by the Rift-S, the Quest offered a new cost-effective opportunity with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promising it would run “Rift-quality experiences”. But it was the opportunity that it represented outside of the consumer market that interested a new group of developers.

During OC5, Oculus started to reposition its sights on a possible pivot to fully support the LBE VR scene. Running alongside The VOID popup installation at the Oculus event, was a demonstration of their Capability Concept Demonstrator (CCD), based on a previous popular CV1 game. ‘Dead and Buried Arena’ was a demonstration created by Oculus with support from the original videogame developers. The demonstration included a 371 square-metre arena, with two teams of three players each, wearing Oculus Quest. The demonstrations illustrated the prototype’s asymmetric “co-location” technology.

At the time of the demonstration, Oculus stated that it expected location-based entertainment (LBE) developers to benefit from the technology developed for the D&BA system. But, after the expenditure of such a complicated demonstration, all news of further investment in this direction ceased, and even the original D&BA team was disbanded internally. On the conference stage, the pivot was on par with the statement from Oculus’ head of experiences, telling the audience that the company now loved the idea of an audience being able to go to a destination and have an experience and to love that experience and continue that adventure at home.

Oculus LBE arena
The 2018 artist’s interpretation of how Oculus envisaged an LBE arena. Image credit: Oculus

Oculus Quest would go on to be launched in May of 2019, and by October of that year it was reported that sales had achieved some 500,000 units, but it soon became a very popular seller up to the Christmas period (deliveries in some areas pushed to late-February). The platform is proving to be one of the most successful for VR sales from the Facebook-owned company, since its partnership with Samsung with the Gear VR. But regarding an LBE initiative, none was forthcoming until the end of 2019.

It would not be until the Facebook Developer’s Conference (F8) 2019 that we would see a reversion in the approach to commercial entertainment, with a pivot in the approach for the ‘Oculus for Business Initiative’. This came with the introduction of a new program for the Oculus headset range, including the Quest – led internally by Facebook directly. Oculus for Business had been created as a division in 2017, focused on enterprise customers rather than entertainment.

Others’ Lead the Charge in Standalone

Though receiving very little coverage, major LBE VR deployment of the Oculus Quest was undertaken in partnership with leading Japanese video game and amusement operation, BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment. This came with the launch of their brand new MAZARIA facility in Sunshine City, Ikebukuro, Tokyo, during July 2019, when the latest investment by the corporation in a hybrid VR-amusement crossover was revealed.

This came in the form of ‘PAC-MAN Challenge VR’, a two-player experience which sees players using the Oculus Quest standalone headset to allow players to race around the iconic PAC-MAN play-space, collecting power pills and avoiding ghosts, all in 256 seconds. The title was started by the BANDAI NAMCO “Project-i-Can” team two-years ago, working in cooperation with Oculus, at that time developing the prototype Santa Cruz version that would evolve into Oculus Quest.

PAC-MAN Challenge VR
Two-players take on the ghosts in PAC-MAN Challenge VR. Image credit: MoguraVR

The second big development surrounding Oculus Quest’s usage in location-based entertainment (LBE), saw ILMxLAB announce a popup training arena based on the ‘Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series’ – in partnership with LBE developer Nomadic. The company announced it was opening at six Cinemark theatres, running ‘Lightsaber Dojo, A Star Wars Experience’ (closing in February). The ILMxLAB videogame is an arcade-style version of the consumer original, using Oculus Quest standalone headsets, players paid some $9.99 for a six-minute experience.

This the first of the main announcements of Oculus supporting the use of their standalone hardware with major IP franchises (ILMxLAB, LucasFilms’ immersive entertainment studio, has connections with the company already, having previously worked together with The VOID projects). Nomadic previously opened its free-roam venue concept under a partnership with Oculus.

Vader ImmortalMuch rumoured, Oculus eventually lifted the veil on its full pivot to support the LBE VR scene. Building on the initial Oculus for Business division’s work, and under the new direction, it was revealed during F8 that new Oculus for Business bundles would be available, supported by the needed Terms of Service (ToS) and warranties for deployment in commercial entertainment and other enterprise applications. This would be supported by a software development kit (SDK) that would allow access to a suite of tools, and most importantly the ‘Co-Location’ platform used for multi-player connectivity – unable to be achieved on the consumer Oculus Quest.

At the beginning of this year, the promise of Oculus support for a standalone VR solution for enterprise was indefinitely put on hold. After the disbanding of the 2018 Capability Concept Demonstrator (CCD) team, Oculus had been attempting to create a workable ‘co-location’ solution on top of the standard SDK that addressed concerns from legal, over tracking accuracy that could lead to injury. Taking much longer than hoped and leading to still being stated as “Available Soon”, months after being promised.

Attempting to stem the floodgates, Oculus for Business went ahead and released an Enterprise User Agreement addendum for the Quest, permitting “Hospitality Entertainment” deployment. But sadly, much of what the LBE sector was waiting for was still prohibited, the addendum seemed more drafted for single-site VR arcades to use the Enterprise licensed Quest but forbidding use of Oculus co-location functionality.

New stipulations saw enterprise developers forced to create their own co-location firmware, and undertake appropriate liability coverage, all to placate the concern overshadowing corporate thinking. However, this “speedbump” has not deterred the entertainment sector from embracing the opportunity, even if they may be looking at alternative VR platforms to release on.

Independent Devs stake their claim

The corporation had initiated the Oculus ISV (Independent Software Vendors) Program to accelerate customer adoption of VR solutions built for Oculus enterprise products. The first of the developers selected by Oculus to support this program was the French location-based entertainment developer, Scale-1 Portal. Earlier in 2019, the company launched its ‘VOXEL ARENA’ platform, which saw networked Oculus Quest systems for four-player competition employed in the LBE VR market. The new system will be launched in March of 2020, with its first title being ‘PANIK’, offering a fun and challenging teamwork-based virtual experience.

PANIK - Scale-1 Portal
Players competing in ‘PANIK’ at one of the first tests of the platform in September. Image credit: Scale-1 Portal

Another member of the Oculus ISV program is Chicken Waffle, an independent developer with a wide track record in content development and with videogames on many of the leading platforms. The company has also partnered with CenterTec, one of the established leaders of the deployment of the concept of VR arcades, with a successful location business that has also expanded into the educational side of the market, to become a community technology centre.

Working with Chicken Waffle, CenterTec has developed its own Oculus Quest powered mobile multi-user solution and has defined several titles that will offer a cost-effective platform. For operators looking at the investment needed to operate a sensible free-roaming offering, this platform will be backed up with the experience gained from operating educational content and will use many of the unique patents held by the operation. But unlike other developers, this system is cross-platform reliant and was seen supporting several of the standalone VR headsets at CES 2020.

Concerning the availability of a software and hardware solution for the VR arcade operators was one aspect under scrutiny with a question over the Oculus Quest availability for LBE deployment. One of the leading providers of commercially licensed VR game content, and venue management solutions, is Springboard VR – an operation with some 500 companies globally deploying their solution, utilising content from all the major consumer game studios, offering suitable VR content licensing through the platform. Most recently, Beat Games (Beat Saber) and VR Nerds (Tower Tag) added their successfully licensed content to this extensive library.

Springboard VR announced during last July its LBE + Education Solution for the platform, offering a device management kit for the Oculus Quest, allowing access for LBE, training and educational content, and for operators to run the system in location-based entertainment venues. This includes the content that had been appropriately licensed with a subscription model for commercial usage. The company is supplying a beta landing page – which at this point has not been updated. Springboard VR is working to support the Oculus Quest and currently supports VR hardware from Pico, HP, and HTC.

Springboard VR Oculus Quest
The marketing campaign for the beta program for interested supporters. Image credit: Springboard VR

Fennec Labs, an augmented and virtual reality development studio with specialisation in VR arcade content, had a big hand in developing the Springboard VR management platform. The company has been privately working on its own standalone VR platform, having undertaken a detailed evaluation of the current crop of headset options, evaluating Oculus Quest and Pico Neo 2 platforms for their PvP title called ‘RE: COIL’ – offering a new multi-player arena-scale LBE VR experience (the project is not tied to the Oculus API). With the launch in early-2020, the company proposes a basic licensing model for operators to get their hands on this title initially but are intending a complete turnkey model in the future.

SynthesisVR – the developer of one of the most advanced software solutions and management programs for operators of VR arcades and LBE VR venues, has established its own considerable library of the latest commercially licensed VR game content. SynthesisVR revealed its entry into LBE standalone support, having developed a version of its premium platform to support the Oculus Quest, HTC Vive Focus Plus, and Pico, as well as other upcoming Android-based headsets. This agnostic approach will offer VR arcade operators the ability to manage multiple devices, launching content simultaneously across them, and with tools for time management and payment collection (all licensed for commercial deployment).

Studio I-Illusions recently teased us with footage of Space Pirate Arena, in what has been described as a multiplayer “hall-scale” VR game, based on the Oculus Quest, for deployment in commercial locations. It is at an early (beta) stage of development but has seen serious interest from VR arcade operators based on its IP – this is a serious addition to the ranks of content looking at this opportunity.

Space Pirate Arena
Sequence from the teaser video of the beta version of ‘Space Pirate Arena’

UK-based developer Make Real, with a background in immersive networked technology solutions for enterprise and Out-of-Home Entertainment, is another entrant working towards releasing its own Oculus Quest LBE experience. The company is working on a four-player networked VR videogame within a shared “co-location” space, whilst a “theatre-scale” AR audience, powered by 5G, mixes the realities scale. Building on a collaborative puzzle solving narrative, the title has been developed in support of the Oculus for Business LBE initiative and is expected to go live in mid-2020, for operators to franchise.

The concluding part of this feature on the Standalone LBE scene follows shortly.

The Virtual Arena: Educators Learn Their VR

Out-of-Home entertainment, and Immersive Technology industry specialist Kevin Williams reports in his latest Virtual Arena column on the further growth in recognition that virtual reality VR is receiving from the Enterprise sector. Moving from entertainment, he now covers the major developments VR is having in shaping the future Education Technology scene.

The British Educational Training and Technology Show (BETT) was held last week at London’s ExCel exhibition convention centre – representing the leading trade event representing the Education Technology (EdTech) and training scene – drawing some 800 corporations to the event, that covered multiple halls of the London venue and attracted some 34,000 industry professionals. The latest trends including touchscreen, tablets, 3D Printing, programmable robotics and smart learning technology were presented.

BETT 2020
Image credit: KWP

This column previously covered the 2018 BETT show and how VR was immerging as a possible EdTech trend – but with BETT 2020 the event cemented this movement, with a vast array of new developments and applications for this technology, and growth of previous early adopters.

Yet again, the biggest presence of VR at the show was from Avantis – the company had powered into VR and was one of the first to offer educators a dedicated package. Proving successful with its ‘ClassVR’, comprising a 3DoF mobileVR headset, combined with its software package – Avantis was celebrating over 1 million students having used the company’s ClassVR platform to-date – with over 30,000 classrooms operating the system across some 60 countries. A system that took much of what had been achieved with mobileVR in 2016 and packaged it into a reliable and compelling solution for the education sector, becoming a world leader deserving much more recognition.

Avansis BETT 2020Another exhibitor that has grown its investment into VR since our 2018 coverage was Redbox VR – providing a versatile and robust solution for schools to be able to field VR for education. Redbox VR has also partnered with the leading providers of VR based educational content. Fielding not only its own mobileVR powered headset but also working with the latest developments including from Pico.

The Redbox VR platform supports content such as the 360’ educational virtual trips using the Richo Theta camera. And part of the RiVR Link (“classroom in a Box”) offering a turnkey VR solution, and Google Expeditions platforms. But also revealing its partnering with MEL Science, provider of the ‘MEL Chemistry VR’ educational experiences; the group proudly promoting winning the prestigious BETT Award for 2020 – “innovator of the year”, for their work in this field.

Red Box VR BETT 2020
Image credit: KWP

Some aspects of VR promotion had changes since our previous feature – Google though still heavily committed to the education sector had dropped its investment in VR headsets to focus on the content. As with the suspension of the Google Daydream VR system, no VR was represented on the corporations’ vast booth at BETT 2020, but the company was still fully committed to immersive education through their Google Expeditions platform – offering virtual field trips to students.

Likewise, the VR presentation on the Microsoft booth at the education show was muted – rather than the bewildering array of Windows MR headsets seen two years ago, the company promoted the virtual learning systems on only one provider, with the Samsung Odyssey on display giving an example of the education content. Along with seeing VR as a major educational tool, the corporation was also promoting the use of its videogame content as a teaching tool with ‘Minecraft Education Edition’ being played avidly on the stand. (“edutainment” a factor in the deployment of virtual education).

 

Microsoft BETT 2020
Image credit: KWP

There was no visible presence from Acer, Asus or Dell VR headset at BETT this year – but there was still much interest in VR as an educational platform. Lenovo has a major presence at the EdTech event, promoting its computer and tablet technology in schools – but along with this the corporation as grown its VR education operation, announcing recently a significant investment with their ‘Lenovo VR Classroom’ kit that supports the Lenovo Mirage Solo headset (schools having access to plug-n-play VR setup). Lenovo was presenting its technology on the booth with the Oculus Rift S (developed in partnership with Oculus), the system running educational content using CAD designs. The VR Classroom 2 platform looking beyond just mobileVR towards the high end of PC VR.

Oculus BETT 2020
Image credit: KWP

Lenovo was also represented on other booths through the show, with Oculus Rift S headsets being put through their paces – these exhibitors chose to promote the application of VR through entertainment. The Unity booth showcased their educational content development – but also hoped to educate the educators towards what VR has to offer the future classroom, running on its booth an Oculus Rift S and Beat Saber. Another exhibitor using Beat Saber and the Oculus Rift S was Nutanix.

Unity BETT 2020
Image credit: KWP

No official Oculus presence was at the education showcase – but the corporation has been increasing its investment in Enterprise, and education and scientific development is a major part of this new interest. Only one Oculus Quest was seen in operation at BETT, on the Konica Minolta booth, the education service provider running the Quest as an example of how virtual lessons could reshape education.

Oculus Quest BETT 2020
Image credit: KWP

Another VR headset developer represented at BETT 2020 was HTC – residing on the Korean Pavilion at the show, the exhibitor VRANI promoted its ‘Kooring XR Coding Adventure’, a virtual experience created to help students in programming. The company brought examples of the virtual lesson running on the HTC Vive Cosmos, and the standalone HTC Vive Focus Pro headsets. The ‘Kooring XR Coding Camp’ offers innovative education through multiple users, employing “virtual textbooks”.

VRANI BETT 2020
Image credit: KWP

On the HP booth, working in partnership with Intel, the company brought examples of its new HP Reverb headset as well as its new backpack PC – offering a new and immersive education platform for schools and colleges. The ability to utilize this platform to navigate the virtual environment in free-roam a growing application in design as well as education (not to mention also in location-based entertainment (LBE)).

HP also partnered on their booth with Springboard VR – a specialist in VR content distribution and commercial licensing that also provides a ubiquitous content management platform for commercial deployment. The company may be more familiar to readers for their presence in the VR arcade scene – but recently has promoted investment in VR education content, offering a VR content and management platform for schools, museums and libraries, offering the latest licensed virtual educational content. The company showing its latest virtual lessons on the HP platform during BETT.

SpringboardVR BETT 2020
Image credit: KWP

BETT 2020 had a much more international reach, and with that, the impact of VR from an international standpoint in EdTech was revealed. One such example was on The Norwegian Classroom booth at BETT which along with the promotion of advancements in the Norwegian education system, they were running demonstrations on the Lenovo headset – running the vreducation.no. This represented work by Norway University into utilizing VR to support mathematical assignments and offer a unique and compelling education tool.

The Sultanate of Oman – Ministry of Education was one of many that ran mobileVR headsets demonstrating the deployment in schools utilizing this innovative technology. Even the UK government represented VR in their marketing promotion for the hard work that the Department of Trade and Industries (DTI) did towards promoting the leading role that British developers have had in expanding this new area of EdTech.

Lenovo BETT 2020
Image credit: KWP

Exhibitors from across the UK and the globe all included VR applications hoping to find homes in the education system, with companies such as Entab InfoTech, Apelab, and Medicus XR. The ability to create compelling and immersive content was demonstrated by Flyover Zone Productions, using a mixture of drone footage and 360’ immersion had created ‘Rome Reborn’ – “a virtual field trip to Ancient Rome”. Created as mobileVR content offered to schools as a virtual field trip to a historic landmark, it offers an experience for the students that brings their history books to life.

Rome Reborn BETT 2020
Image credit: KWP

One of the many interesting exhibitors at BETT was a Chinese developer of a simple and effective Eyesight and Colour Blindness testing system. The company selling their units to be used in schools and hospitals, the simple test allows for the sight of both eyes to be tested in a quick and easy examination that supplies at the end a printed receipt, able to detect issues at a young age, quickly and effectively. With the deployment of so much virtual display technology, this kind of system seems a very sensible precaution.

Eye Test system BETT 2020
Image credit: KWP

And finally, following on from our 2018 coverage, another speculation that immersive projected environments (representing another aspect of the virtual reality scene) would become a growing aspect of the education sector was proven by a plethora of new systems. Examples included several surface and floor projection system – as well as the use of motion-tracked projection walls for digital sports.

Interactive Floor BETT 2020
Image credit: KWP

In conclusion, it’s only the beginning of the year and already we have seen at CES, EAG and now BETT – enterprise applications of VR are at the forefront of sold investment. The direction of the virtual reality community has migrated from the niche of the consumer PC hyperbole and has started the long and productive lifecycle of achieving its true potential. Regarding its deployment in EdTech, the 2020 education sector seems to be working hard to find the best way to deploy this new tool in educating the future workforce.

‘Hotel Transylvania’ VR Rhythm Game Comes to VR Arcades in North America, Europe & China

Hot on the heels of Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018), which hit the box offices last week, comes a newly announced VR rhythm game that lets you grove to the spooky beats DJ’ed by series’ characters Drac, Mavis, or Johnny. Called Hotel Transylvania Popstic, the game is said to be featured at around 500 VR arcades across North America, Europe, and China.

As first seen in a report by Hollywood ReporterHotel Transylvania Popstic lets you select songs from your desired character’s playlist, avoid obstacles, and hit incoming targets using a VR peripheral developed by production studio Specular Theory called a ‘Stic’.

Check out the video below for a quick taste of what Sony Pictures Virtual Reality and Specular Theory have cooked up:

Using an HTC Vive headset, the studio’s Stic peripheral appears to use a single Vive controller for tracking, projecting a virtual two-sided laser beam to hit beat-based targets. Specular Theory CMO and co-founder Ryan Pulliam says more Popstic-based titles are currently in the works, including “a whole series of games.” As a VR newcomer, or smaller kid, the idea of holding a stick seems far less daunting than using an unfamiliar controller’s many buttons.

The game is said to include easy, medium, and hard difficulty levels, making it about as family-friendly as VR can get.

Image courtesy Specular Theory

“We noticed there weren’t a lot of games designed just for VR Arcades and there wasn’t a lot of games made for families — or for first-time users,” said Pulliam in a blog post. “That’s why we’re excited to feature characters from Sony Animation’s Hotel Transylvania franchise. Such a well-loved brand brings in families — and brand-new visitors. In addition, the game is simple and intuitive, which makes it easy to get started and eliminates the need for lengthy tutorials that delay gameplay and lead to long lines.”

The companies haven’t specified which VR arcades Hotel Transylvania Popstic is coming to, although arcades running the SpringboardVR out-of-home marketplace can access the game. If you’re in North America, Europe, or China, check with your local VR arcade to find out if Hotel Transylvania Popstic is on offer.

The post ‘Hotel Transylvania’ VR Rhythm Game Comes to VR Arcades in North America, Europe & China appeared first on Road to VR.

The Virtual Arena: The Amusement Business Embraces VR

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

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

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

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

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

2018 Amusement Expo International - WePlayVR

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

2018 Amusement Expo International - TRIOTECH and Asterion VR
A player is prepared to navigate the VR Maze
2018 Amusement Expo International - Virtual Rabbids
A wild ride, racing through the Rabbids universe.

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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