Finding The Best VR Games

Description

Throughout the previous few years, we’ve seen a plethora of news posts about how virtual reality was about to save the classic arcade. The idea goes that the VR gear is too expensive for home users, therefore it creates an chance for operators to pony up the big bucks to purchase it and make their money back by charging per match to play it. Even Nolan Bushnell, the inventor of Pong, is attempting to hype the technology as the industry’s savior. From the MIT Technology Review.
„While many high-end cans were released last year that may bring virtual-reality adventures to your living space, adoption of the technology remains in its first days to get a lot of reasons–it is still bulky, expensive, and there is not all that far to do once you’ve got it on your face. More than two million cans were shipped worldwide in 2016, according to an estimate from market researcher Canalys, yet this figure pales in comparison to the popularity of, say, video game consoles (sales of the leading one, Sony’s PS4, topped six million during the 2016 holiday season alone). Consumer virtual reality will probably catch on as prices come down and headsets improve. Meanwhile, however, a number of companies are betting that customers may be happy to cover a much smaller amount to try the technology with their buddies at, say, an arcade, theme park, or bowling alley“
It is tempting to fall into this trap, but in the operator’s standpoint VR is a terrible thing. Operators are being asked to pay top dollar for tech that is all but guaranteed to plummet in value within the very short term. Other than purchasing a brand new vehicle and driving it a time, I can’t think about a way you could lose money quicker between what you pay and what you’ll be able to get for it down the road.
Another limit for most operators is that while you might be able to provide a room for VR people to roam around in now, as fresh VR technology is unveiled, we’re likely to see the stage expanded from 100 square feet into the whole world. Instead of viewing just the matches in your headset, you will realize the true world with game play overlayed. As the tech allows more real world places to be explored, it is going to make a cramped arcade seem fairly feeble in comparison.
VR is heading for mass market acceptance, however it is demand is not being driven by players who wish to pay big buck to play with video games, but such as the BETAMAX that came before it, by individuals who wish to watch porn in their houses.
Even when an operator can create a bit of money to the next few decades, once VR achieves critical mass, then it is going to crush whatever revenue flow that operators are dreaming of. Don’t believe me? Just check out what’s going on in China.
This past year, an eye popping 35,000 virtual reality arcades opened in China. A year later 22,000 of these have closed.
That is an incredible failure rate over this brief time period and one which should function as a sharp warning to anyone contemplating investing in the VR games – https://penzu.com/p/9afe1c8e. Perhaps Dave and Busters can afford to take losses on the games longer than Chinese startup arcades, but I doubt that most North American operators will fare far better using the technology in their match rooms and will just wind up in debt in the end of the day.
The issue essentially boils down to customers not being prepared to pay a premium to the experience. Tech In Asia, describes the problem perfectly in their own article, on that the Chinese VR boom and bust.

„Enterprising shop owners jumped into VR are finding it impossible to bill fees comparable to cinemas or bowling alleys for a VR experience. One VR arcade proprietor told iHeima that he saw excited queues when charging US$1.50 to get a 30-minute session, but everyone vanished when it rose to US$5. From that sort of revenue it’s impossible to cover the rent.“
Even if the match was sold out all day, at $1.50 per half hour they’re only earning $30 a day.
The actual world information flowing in from China must serve as a canary in the quarter mines of North America. Operators who spend considerable amounts of money on elaborate VR setups will soon find their little VR rooms being replaced by the entire world for a stage. As the setups get more expensive, smaller and more mobile, the virtual arcades will seem more expensive, bulky and limited. I’d love to be proven wrong on this one, but I feel that the arcade VR trend is more hype than hope.