SynthesisVR is adding another big gun to its arcade line-up; World of Tanks VR.
We first played this official spin-off of Wargaming’s popular battle simulator last year. However, Synthesis will be giving the game a global rollout via its arcades on September 13th.
World of Tanks plays a little differently than you might expect. Instead of simulating a realistic tank cockpit, players find themselves sitting on top of their war machines. They then move the vehicle a little like it were a remote-controlled car. While perhaps not as authentic as some might hope for, it does provide fun arcade-style combat perfect for, well, arcades. Battles consist of two to four players choosing between three tanks across three maps. We’ve got a brief look at the game in the below trailer.
At launch players will be put to the test with prizes up for grabs at local arcades.
Sadly there’s still no word as to if Wargaming will ever release a home-based version of World of Tanks VR. We’d certainly welcome the game on PC VR headsets. Wargaming’s mixed reality division, Neurogaming, is also doing experiments in AR and beyond.
It’s not the only big game Synthesis has added to its lineup recently. Last month we reported that Slightly Mad Studios’ Project Cars Pro was launch in its arcades too. The company offers a location-based entertainment operation package that also includes content from companies like Vertigo Games. A standard plan starts at $25 though the company also just announced the release of a free version.
Wargaming has been experimenting with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) versions of its popular MMO World of Tanks for several years now, most notably launching World of Tanks VRas a location-based entertainment (LBE) experience in Russia last year. Next week the videogame will be rolled out to VR arcades worldwide using the Synthesis VR distribution platform.
World of Tanks VR was created specifically for the LBE market, featuring specific motion controller support so players can drive, aim, and shoot these war machines quickly and fluidly. Arcades will be able to offer 2-4 multiplayer battles with three tanks (LTTB, T-144, IS-3) offering their own strategic advantages and disadvantages available at launch. The LTTB is light and nimble yet poorly armoured while the IS-3 is a giant brute with plenty of power but very slow. That makes the T-144 the balanced medium tank.
With deathmatch and team deathmatch modes to chose from, three realistic maps (medium-sized summer – Citadel, small winter – Monastery, and large winter – Blizzard) featuring hilly terrain with all kinds of obstacles, shelters and destructible objects will be on offer. The matches are designed for high-velocity gameplay taking approximately 8 min per session with an optional tutorial and 2 battle rounds of 3 min each.
For VR arcades Synthesis VR mentions in a blog post that: “All LBVR operators will have access to license WoT VR without a subscription to Synthesis, making WoT VR available to every arcade non-exclusive of any management software.”
When VRFocusfirst tested World of Tanks VR we noted: “It’s very much a simplified experience; one designed less for the passion of tanks and more for the thrill of battle. That’s no bad thing however, as World of Tanks VR stands as an interesting LBE title that may introduce new audiences to the core online experience.”
Distributed directly through Synthesis VR’s content delivery network, World of Tanks VR will be made available to hundreds of arcades across the globe on Friday 13th September 2019. To celebrate the launch the companies will be hosting a World of Tanks VR Global Arcade Invasion Day featuring competitions and prize giveaways. For further updates on World of Tanks VR, keep reading VRFocus.
A long time ago VRFocus questioned Wargaming about the possibility of a virtual reality (VR) edition of World of Tanks. Given the success of competing online war machine simulator War Thunder within the new medium it seemed only natural for Wargaming to be looking into doing the same. At the time a representative of the company explained that it wouldn’t work for tanks in the same way as planes, and that a great deal of experimentation would have to be undertaken before World of Tanks could make such a jump. That jump, it seems, is into location-based entertainment (LBE).
Wargaming, with the support of Neurogaming and VRTech, unveiled World of Tanks VR earlier this year. It’s most definitely an aside to World of Tanks – a spin-off experience designed for fans and newcomers alike – opposed to integrating VR into the existing online videogame. That brings both strengths and weaknesses into play, but also allows for Wargaming to pitch the experience perfectly for LBE execution.
Limited to four players, each dons their HTC Vive and prepares for war by choosing their preferred tank. In a significant update from when VRFocus first experienced World of Tanks VR, there are now a small selection of tanks available each one with statistics bars demonstrating firepower, reload speed, acceleration etc. Players are no longer limited to fast or slow, heavy or spread. Tactical ambition is now at play not just in the positioning of your tank, but also in the way you engage your enemies.
The World of Tanks VR controls are complicated at first, but soon it becomes natural. The tank will accelerate forward towards the direction the player faces, however given the large bulk of machinery may take some time to turn tight corners. Meanwhile, the player’s central viewpoint will always represent their firing arch in real-time. The player must combine navigation and maneuvering with lining-up that shot on the weak point in the enemy tank’s armour for maximum efficiency, and their best chance of escaping unhindered.
With a new map also on display at Gamescom 2018, Cologne, players were invited to work on new strategies revolving around a central chokepoint. The previous map VRFocus experienced was designed to grant a height advantage to those who lied in wait upon a hilltop, with an open plane providing little in the way of cover below. This new map, conversely, is too uneven to offer much in the way of an overview, but pushing into the busy central area looking for a kill can leave you open to attack from every direction; a bridge that provides access to spawn points at either end of the map makes you an obvious and easy target even for those shooting from the hip.
Matches in World of Tanks VR are only a few minutes long and consist of two rounds. It’s very much a simplified experience; one designed less for the passion of tanks and more for the thrill of battle. That’s no bad thing however, as World of Tanks VR stands as an interesting LBE title that may introduce new audiences to the core online experience in a sort of role-reversal for Mario Kart Arcade GP VR: World of Tanks is a franchise set to benefit from VR, opposed to being a benefit to its reputation.
You can also check out our hands-on with augmented reality (AR) counterpart World of Tanks AR Spectate from Gamescom, here.
Neurogaming showcased two products to the press last month, both of which aim to revolutionise out-of-home entertainment services. Their first product is a platform called Cinema VR, a cloud-based solution for virtual reality (VR) arcades. The second product is called Polygon VR. An arena space where five full body players are able to interact with one another in a free roaming space, which can be recorded and broadcast to television, tablets or phones. VRFocus spoke with Alex Morozov, Chief Marketing Officer of Neurogaming about their future ventures.
Players compete with one another in RevolVR at a location based tournament.
Cinema VR launched December 2016, it’s a turnkey solution for location owners allowing them for quick and easy access to essentially create a four-player VR set-up. It can be used for various different use cases such as for demonstrating industrial applications such as demoing or selling real estate or immersive gaming experiences. Anything that requires up to four users experiencing or interacting with a space can be enabled with Cinema VR. A Cloud-based solution, Morozov explains that the platform services a completely cycle from the selection of an area, content management, location management, guidelines for assembly, a catalogue of available locations, personal training, help with marketing and a pipeline of content.
With an integrated CRM system that is capable of third-party ear pieces, Cinema VR is supposed to help upscale and cross sale as Neurogaming will offer in-app purchases if the location hits a critical mass of users. The CRM is also able to recognise returning users, so if a child interacted with a character in an experience already and returns – the character will recognise her and potentially introduce new objects to interact with. The CRM will allow companies or individuals to register user preferences and offer ways to stimulate customers to return. Really what it is, is an easy set-up for users who are looking for an easy solution that can simply be controlled with a tablet to introduce VR for up to four players in a VR space. Cinema VR is set up on a subscription model at the moment, but next year between Q1 and Q2 it may be coming to consoles and and home users.
Cinema VR is already located in over 40 countries and will come with its own content that Neurogaming create in-house. They’ve already created several VR experiences that span several genres, including well-received shooter RevolVR. An eight minute game, Neurogaming tested the experience last November where they offered over $20,000 as a prize and saw how RevolVR engaged with audiences. Their next VR videogame World of Tanks, is already in Beta testing in Moscow and will be released to the Cinema VR platform come May. Morozov says that they have around 150 leads at various stages for creating more content that will be available to Cinema VR platform users. For now they have 50 locations in Spain with two locations opening in Vancouver, Canada and potentially over 18 Cinema VR locations opening in the United Arab Emirates. Morozov explains that location based VR is a great entry point, a space ripe for entrepreneurs as there is a renaissance taking place in the arcade market.
VRFocus in motion-capture attire and VR headsets play in real-time in New York with a player in Moscow.
Neurogaming’s second product will excite anybody working in immersive entertainment, television, eSports and general videogaming. Polygon VR is an ambitious plan to amalgamate those audiences and connects up to five users in full body tracking systems and VR headsets. Polygon VR then uses a server to connect various physical arenas together and has integrated a built-in broadcast and television system that will allow for live-broadcasting to television, laptops, tablets and mobiles.
Morozov compares it to films The Running Man and The Hunger Games film trilogy, where players can be in dramatic action with zero trauma or risk but with all the spectacle and drama. All the action will be happening in real-time, across real locations with real people all filmed and edited by live action directors and producers to create a show. He also mentions a second screen ability that would enable viewers to have a direct impact on the action taking place. For example if an escape room scenario was taking place, viewers could give a hint to help them. If it was a shooter videogame, viewers could offer team support and try to debuff an enemy team. At the moment they’re hoping to bring AAA franchises on-board to help and bring something which Morozov believes can revolutionise the entertainment industry.
At the moment Polygon VR h ave two locations in Moscow, one in New York and one in Amsterdam. Polygon VR will also be available at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) where they will be able to demonstrate the smaller more mobile version of Polygon VR. Essentially, Polygon VR would be able to create a media show that can also double as a location based entertainment system. Neurogaming are hoping to bring it to Asia as well after showcasing at the Tokyo Games Show in Japan last year and are in talks with several partners in China too.
Morozov says that Polygon VR is hardware agnostic, and as soon as a new piece of hardware is available, they will be the first ones to purchase them and prepare them for both Cinema VR and Polygon VR. At the end of the day, he says that format, concept and content are king in this new age of immersive technology.
Creating a virtual reality (VR) videogame has its challenges, especially when tackling the subject of motion sickness. VRFocusspoke in-depth with Tamaz Murgulia, Chief Experience Officer of Neurogaming about their latest VR videogame World of Tanks and how they tackled it by looking at field of view (FoV).
VR hasn’t hit mass market yet, this means that your average consumer or the general public have still not adopted VR at home. Until the prices for VR headsets has gone down, there’s been a resurgence of arcades dedicated to VR. These out-of-home entertainment locations have started to appear in numerous locations around the world. This is exactly the space and target audience for Neurogaming, who are seeking to revive the local arcades. “It’s too clumsy to come into your home right now with all the wires, but perfect for out-of-home entertainment where you have a spare fifteen minutes,” Murgulia explains.
Creating a VR videogame has it’s own challenges as well, especially when it comes to motion sickness. Murgulia seems to remember painful memories of trying to do this, explaining that their first concept for a VR tank game was to put various players in the same tank with different roles. Neurogaming have spent around a year prototyping, experimenting with what works and doesn’t work in VR. Their first experiment RevolVR proved to be their first success. A videogame experience that lasts only eight minutes where players had to fast draw against others and win. A simple game that made players completely exhausted but had them extremely excited. “This is the experience we want to deliver,” Murgulia says, “we wanted to do something like this but with different mechanics.”
Murgulia explains that when it comes to tanks in VR, “motion sickness would be the main enemy. The adversary that hasn’t been beaten yet, no one know how to do this except us. You cannot avoid it, but you can trick your mind into not feeling that you’re motion sick.” He explains that their first step towards success is by creating intuitive controls, and that they’ve invented a mechanics of movement control which didn’t make you think too much. Players can aim separately to the movement of the tank by simply using the touchpad, this way players can look around them whilst moving around a map.
Their second solution was solving the field of view. All corners of the tanks have to be visible, and you can’t be too low or too high. You have to see the corners of the whole tank, but not on turret height and certainly not near the ground. Murgulia says that, “your mind is effected by screen resolution, and should get sick but it doesn’t because it doesn’t have much time for this. it has a goal, it’s completely taken with the idea of killing, evading, of getting kills, shooting and all this.”
So far players, even those who have never tried VR before have not experienced any motion sickness.
Currently World of Tanks is in beta mode in one location in Moscow. This is just to get feedback and will be launching to all of the locations Cinema VR exists around the world starting from May. World of Tanks by this time will have more than just team death match, but also various maps and a progression system as well.
World of Tanks can be played with four players in real time in Cinema VR, but Neurogaming are also currently looking to increase this and connect two Cinema VR systems together so four players can battle it out with tanks with four other players. This would make for a total of eight players fighting against one another in real time. To find out more watch the video below, and for further updates keep reading VRFocus.
2018 is shaping up to be a big year for VR arcades and attractions, and a new player in the space is looking to find success with an approach that focuses on fun gameplay and multiplayer.
Cyprus-based Neurogaming is a joint endeavor made up of Wargaming — the group behind World of Tanks — and a venture funding group called VRTech. They’ve got a development office in Moscow and two demo offices, the first in New York. Together, this group is developing a number of VR titles alongside cloud services and hardware packages designed so operators can easily set up and run their own VR arcades.
Neurogaming invited me to the New York demo office among a small group of journalists to see what they’ve been working on ahead of a larger push at GDC next month. It is still early for the group, but they are focusing more heavily than other solutions I’ve seen on one critical aspect of an alluring VR attraction: hooking people to come back with a quality competitive gaming experience.
Here’s a look inside.
Fighting With Russians
I was navigating a tank over the bumpy terrain of a small village in the middle of a snowy winter when I first started noticing the Russian chatter. The three Neurogaming representatives playing with me were yelling to one another outside VR, and they were doing it in their native language. I suppose I’m revealing something of my prejudices here, but their chatter activated something in me. If you strip away all the VR tech, this simple human behavior had an incredible effect on my sense of immersion. I was now driving that tank in the mindset of Rambo with some Russians to beat.
Neurogaming said World of Tanks VR is built from the ground up for the medium, completely separate from the other versions of the game for mobile, console and PC. I believe it. I was a little lost at first but in a single play session of 10 minutes I got a good grasp on the controls and was playing much better by the end. The tanks are actually pretty nimble and as the match progressed it became clear how well they’ve balanced the size of the map against the number of players, the length of each round, and the challenge of both aiming and moving. After they are finished further balancing the game, Wargaming plans to release a version of it for home systems sometime early next year.
Simply put, when we finished the match I was disappointed it was over. I got to see my score at the end and while I wasn’t the worst of the group, I also wasn’t the best. I wanted more.
Before I played with them, Neurogaming representatives explained that retention is exactly the problem they are focused on trying to solve. This was evident in the design of both World of Tanks VR and shooting game RevolVR. Each match packs multiple rounds into sessions lasting just 10 minutes. RevolVR got through 12 of these rapid fire rounds. The fast-paced battles mean you can’t waste any time trying to trounce the enemy. The pace also means players have lots of chances to feel some sense of success or improvement, even if it’s just a single winning round or one kill.
Other location-based VR startups like The VOID and Dreamscape Immersive offer an excellent sense of immersion enhanced by environmental effects like wind, scent, or haptic floors. These companies provide great fun battling stormtroopers or ghosts alongside friends, or simply enjoying the wonder of exploring an alien zoo. While both those startups appear to be seeing brisk ticket sales, neither offers a truly compelling reason to come back just yet. IMAX VR is closer in design to what Neurogaming’s first arcades will look like and they are hosting tournaments in games like Sprint Vector to try and create reasons for people to come back and spend more time.
Neurogaming is trying to take this further. They are developing games either in-house or in close collaboration with partners aimed at providing a reason for people to come back. The effort starts with well-designed games for friends to play together and continues with high scores, kill counts, tournaments and a customer tracking system that keeps a record of your previous visits so you can get a sense of progress as a player or team.
“With the arcade version of World of Tanks VR we’ll introduce in-app purchases and [a] progression system later on this year, which adds extra monetization channels for operators,” wrote Neurogaming Chief Marketing Officer Alex Morozov, in an email.
Neurogaming’s CinemaVR system — ideal for roll-outs in places like theaters or malls — includes a large metal structure that sits over four players with computers and other hardware stored overhead. Each of the headsets hangs from the top of the structure with some slick cable management. The system does a pretty good job of making it easy to spin in 360 degrees and aim your tank in any direction without getting tangled up. Four players are tracked in this space by just two well-placed base stations. Neurogaming sells the four-player hardware package for around $35,000, with plans to become hardware agnostic later this year.
This hardware setup is accompanied by a cloud-based management system meant to make it easy for operators to download Neurogaming’s titles and start selling tickets. The whole arcade is designed to be managed from a mobile device.
Neurogaming is already powering arcades in locations in Russia and Europe, with plans to expand in the Middle East and North America soon. Perhaps most interesting to VR industry readers, the company offered some actual numbers to break down the kind of business they’re seeing initially.
With 37 locations online as of this writing, Neurogaming says each location is seeing on average 2,500 visits per month with each player paying $5-$7.5 for about 10 minutes of gameplay. This is enough, say Neurogaming representatives, for individual locations to become self-sustaining and make a profit each month from a single four-person installation.
Those are some interesting numbers to consider, but perhaps the most interesting figure to me is the following one. Neurogaming says they’re seeing a 25 percent retention rate. In other words, one in four people are already coming back for more even as they fine-tune experiences to try and increase that number.
Stay tuned in the coming days as we follow up this report with one about Polygon, which is Neurogaming’s second generation system. It is still extremely early but takes things to an incredible level of full-body, almost military-grade, simulation.
You can see a sneak peek of that in the image above.
Wargaming—the company behind free-to-play titles World of Tanks (2010),World of Warplanes (2013), and World of Warships (2015)—has announced development of a new title, World of Tanks VR, under development for deployment into VR arcades.
While the original World of Tanks itself isn’t getting VR support (at least for now), the company has announced the formation of Neurogaming, a new VR studio that’s a joint venture between Wargaming and VRTech, a Russia-based VR developer.
As part of its work on CinemaVR, a “scalable, location-based entertainment VR solution focused on session-based multiplayer and co-op games,” which will be offered as white-label VR arcade for those who want to operate their own business, Neurogaming is developing World of Tanks VR, which will be offered through the CinemaVR locations.
World of Tanks VR is based on the World of Tanks IP, but as we understand, it will be an entirely separate game that’s specially designed for location-based VR arcades.
“With location-based VR, we make the experience more affordable and accessible,” says Slava Makarov, World of Tanks creator and strategic advisor of Neurogaming. “Moreover, unlike any other developer, our biggest aim is to change the experience from one-time involvement to a long-term engaging story with co-op and competitive elements.”
Nerogaming is also undertaking the development of VRTech’s Polygon VR platform, a VR attraction offering full-body immersion similar to The VOID, Zero Transform, and others.
Multiplayer war simulator World of Tanks is one of those games that just makes too much sense in VR, but has eluded headsets thus far. That’s going to change very soon.
World of Tanks developer Wargaming announced today that it was forming a new arm of its business in partnership with VRTech. Neurogaming, as this new division is called, is to be a location-based VR gaming provider that uses in-house technology. For the service’s first game, Wargaming is building World of Tanks VR, which will bring the series’ staple multiplayer combat to headsets for the first time.
Neurogaming is currently working on two solutions for location-based VR. The first, CinemaVR, is a scalable service that focuses on multiplayer and co-op gaming and is already available in 36 locations around the world. Later this year the company will launch the solution as a service for VR arcade owners to adopt for their own locations. The other solution, PolygonVR, is aimed at competitive, long-play multiplayer and eSports with support for first and third-party content and is currently in beta.
The thought of World of Tanks in VR is quite an exciting one; cramped, claustrophobic settings in which you really have to focus and know your way around your tank could make for some of the most exciting gameplay in VR.
Sadly Wargaming didn’t note whether or not World of Tanks VR would be coming to home-based headsets in the future. Over the past few years, the company has been producing plenty of 360-degree videos that showcased historic war machines.
Es ist vollkommen egal, ob man auf Panzerspiele steht oder nicht: Den Namen World of Tanks kennt wohl jeder Gamer. Das MMO mit Kettenfahrzeugen erschien 2010 und entwickelte sich rasant zu einem weltweiten Hit mit über 200 Millionen Spielern. Nun möchten die Entwickler von Wargaming auch die Virtual Reality erobern.
World of Tanks VR erscheint als Arcade-Titel
Um WoT (World of Tanks) in die virtuelle Realität zu bringen, geht Wargaming eine Kooperation mit VRTech ein, um das VR-Unternehmen Neurogaming zu gründen. Aktuell sind bei dieser neu gegründeten Firma bereits 75 Menschen beschäftigt, welche hauptsächlich an der VR-Version von WoT arbeiten.
Während Wargaming das Spiel mit in die Partnerschaft einbringt, wird VRTech mit Cinema VR und Polygon VR das gemeinsame Projekt bereichern. Cinema VR ist ein System für bis zu vier Spieler, welches speziell als Aufbau für Arcades und andere Einrichtungen gedacht ist. Aktuell betreibt das Team bereits 36 Standorte in Russland und insgesamt betraten über 180.000 Menschen die heiligen Hallen. Polygon VR wiederum ist für eine perfekte Inszenierung zuständig und arbeitet mit einem Motion Capture Systeme, Software für die Übertragung und ein Game Management System, welches auch mit Third-Party-Content funktioniert.
Durch die Kooperation mit Wargaming sichert sich VRTech auf dem Arcade-Markt eine sehr vorteilhafte Position. Immerhin wird es World of Tanks VR nur in Arcades geben, welche das Cinema-VR und das Polygon-VR-System nutzen. Dies könnte ein schlagendes Argument für viele Menschen sein, die eine Arcade aufbauen wollen, denn mit einem Titel wie World of Tanks zieht man die Menschen an.
Wargaming, with the support of Neurogaming and 
