Commentary

VR rides a host of post-pandemic sports and entertainment trends

Virtual reality's awakening from its pandemic hibernation continues at an explosive pace, driven on several different fronts.

Image courtesy of Spree Interactive.

August 9, 2021

Virtual reality continues to rebound following its enforced hibernation, on numerous fronts in the amusement and entertainment industry.

One front some may have overlooked of late is the Sim racing scene, as the home race-seat scene crosses over to location based entertainment race rooms.

ImSim, which creates hardware and software for immersive virtual experiences, recently partnered with SynthesisVR, a virtual reality management platform, becoming the U.S. and Canada representatives of racing simulators.

SynthesisVR has also broadened its reach, supporting its VR content licensing and smart management for VR locations, comprising a large library of games and educational content; and including a variety of free roaming arena scale platforms within the offering.

Through ImSim, SynthesisVR is positioning to offer a one-stop solution for operators in this territory.

E-sports momentum

VR also continues to ride the growth of e-sports.

Spree Interactive's latest free roaming VR experience, "Cops Vs. Robbers," supports from six to 10 players simultaneously using the Pico standalone headset. The game is configured with a strong e-sports element.

Published by Reality on Demand Studios and developed by Knuckleheads Studios, the version of the game that Spree will be fielding is described as a "immersive e-sports experience" and will incorporate a dedicated prize tournament and facility-based competition component. The in-game functionality will allow locations to operate real-time leader boards.

The ability to offer an e-sports capability to a proven formula is gaining momentum, especially with the more exotic game platforms.

Valo Motion, known for its mixed reality climbing wall and trampoline experiences, has been redefining its approach, announcing the launch of the first ever Active eSports League in support of the company's platforms.

The new ValoLeague combines the digital experience with the physicality of the game and competition. It is also supported by a connected app that will allow players and spectators to chart the competitions taking place on the system at various facilities. The web and mobile app will include a leader-board on stats, and streamed video from the systems, along with notifications on important competition stats.

Valo Motion is covering initial cash prizes, ranging from €100 ($117.63) to €300 ($352.90) on the platform, and has started promoting events across the existing 700 install base.

Sports betting rides e-sports

Meanwhile, the sports betting scene has migrated towards riding the popularity of e-sports, as well as migrating into the entertainment scene. This continued with the news that NASDAQ-traded corporation Esports Technologies was now applying its wagering platform towards accepting bets on popular e-sports game titles, including "Counter Strike," "League of Legends," "Dota 2," "FIFA," "StarCraft 2," "Warcraft 3," "King of Glory," "Rainbow Six" and others.

The company will be using its consumer platform Gogawi.com to support the wagering made on the outcomes of these popular e-sports games. The company is enhancing the deposit and withdrawal options on the service, which also supports traditional sports betting across more than 40 sports.

E-sports construction reached a new height recently with the announcement of the largest e-sports stadium opening in China. In a strategic partnership between Sunac Culture & Tourism and the QG E-sports Club, Shapingba has become the home of the newly-opened Chongqing QG Sunac E-sports Center.

The venue comprises a retail mall, theme park and hotel components — all in support of the e-sport stages and 20,00-seat arena. The venue is playing host to several regular championship events and hosts local e-sport teams such as the Chongqing QGhappy.

Japan joins the fray

The Japanese amusement trade also revealed major news of their doubling down on e-sports.

Sega Corp. revealed the deployment of its legacy IP in a brand-new platform. Called Virtua Fighter eSports, it is the latest outing for the brawler (since its 1993 launch), with a new e-sports competitive tournament. Having launched in June for the Japanese market, the amusement version will have the conventional tournament league features through the VF.Net facility tournament system.

But, in a first for the Japanese scene, the game will also feature cross-platform competition. Players on console versions of the new release will be able to take part in competition with amusement gamers, with an end-of-year grand championship tournament scheduled. The amusement version is released on the ALL.Net P-ras Multi online distribution platform.

This marks a continued pivot towards migrating tournament play amusement into full-blown e-sports, as seen by Capcom, Taito and Konami — this is a move which is gaining momentum.

Consumer adoption grows

Facebook, owner of Oculus, continues to drive consumer adoption of VR.

The recent "Oculus Gaming Showcase" launched a series of games targeting their standalone VR Quest-2 hardware as it prepares for competition from Samsung, Pico, Sony and HTC in the coming months.

Not to be outdone, Taito released "Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey," developed by Survios and based on the 1986 Bubble Bobble property, while Konami Digital Entertainment launched "Beat Arena," '– a music rhythm game in VR, based on the Bemania property, hoping to launch a "Beat Saber" competitor for Asia.

The mall factor

The deployment of immersive entertainment within mall locations also moves forward at a rapid pace.

The ex-founders of the Void's have sited their new concept at the 3 million-square-foot American Dream retail and entertainment complex. This proof-of-concept facility is part of the operation's latest investment raising round, having secured $1 million in seed capital from investor Bryan Wright in 2020.

Certain of the founders behind the original hyper-reality offering have formed a new operation, under the name Jump. This company is continuing its interest in hyper-reality, but is this time swapping directed-walking for full body flight simulation.

Under the brand, the operation offers groups of up to six the chance to experience a virtual wingsuit interactive experience, with the visuals supplied via a VR helmet, and a special trapeze-system simulating the experience of flight.

Post-pandemic, VR continues to expand in many directions.

(Editor's note: Extracts from this blog are from recent coverage in The Stinger Report, published by KWP and its director, Kevin Williams, the leading interactive out-of-home entertainment news service covering the immersive frontier and beyond.)

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