8 Things To Do Immediately About VR Games

Over the last few years, we've seen an array of news articles about how virtual reality was going to save the timeless arcade. The theory goes that the VR gear is too expensive for home users, so it creates an opportunity for operators to pony up the big bucks to buy it and then make their money back by charging per game to play with it. From the MIT Technology Review.
"While many high-end cans were released annually which can bring virtual-reality experiences to your living space, adoption of this technology remains in its earliest days for a lot of reasons--it's still bulky, pricey, and there isn't all that much to do as soon as you've got it on your face. More than two million headsets were shipped globally in 2016, according to a quote from market researcher Canalys, yet this figure pales compared to the prevalence of, say, video game consoles (earnings of the leading one, Sony's PS4, topped six million during the 2016 holiday season alone). Consumer virtual reality will probably catch on as costs come down and cans improve. Meanwhile, though, a variety of businesses are betting that consumers may be happy to cover a much smaller amount to try the tech with their friends at, say, an arcade, theme park, or even bowling alley"
It's tempting to fall into this trap, but in the operator's standpoint VR is a terrible deal. Other than buying a brand new vehicle and driving it a mile, I can not think about a way you could eliminate money quicker between what you pay and what you will have the ability to get for it down the road.
Another limit for indoor playground equipment, www.childwelfaresocietykenya.org, operators is that while you might have the ability to provide a room for VR people to roam around in today, as new VR tech is unveiled, we're likely to find the stage expanded from 100 square feet to the entire world. Rather than viewing just the matches from your headset, you will realize the true world with sport play overlayed. Children can visit the park and relive the knights of the round table or parking garages to take aliens. As the technology allows more real world areas to be researched, it is going to make a cramped arcade seem fairly feeble in comparison.
VR is already heading for mass market acceptance, but it is demand is not being driven by gamers who wish to pay big buck to play with video games, but such as the BETAMAX that came before it, by individuals who want to watch porn in their homes.
Even when an operator can make a bit of money to the upcoming few decades, after VR achieves critical mass, it will crush whatever earnings flow that operators are dreaming of. Do not believe me? Just check out what is happening in China.
A year after 22,000 of them have closed.
That is an incredible failure rate over such a brief time period and one which should function as a sharp warning to anyone contemplating investing in the VR games. Maybe Dave and Busters is able to take losses on the games more than Chinese startup arcades, but I doubt most North American operators are going to fare much better with the technology in their match rooms and will only wind up in debt at the end of the day.
The issue essentially boils down to consumers not being prepared to pay a premium to the encounter. 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. 1 VR arcade proprietor told iHeima that he saw eager queues when charging US$1.50 to get a 30-minute session, but everybody vanished as it rose to US$5. From that sort of revenue it's impossible to pay the rent."
Even if the game was sold out daily, at $1.50 per half hour they are just earning $30 per day. Together with retail rents in North America running $1 -- $2 a square foot, there is no way to make the math work, even if you assume that Americans will spend more to play with the games.
The real world information streaming in from China should function as a canary in the quarter plantations of North America. Operators who spend large amounts of money on elaborate VR setups will probably find their little VR rooms being replaced by the entire world for a stage. Since the installations get cheaper, smaller and more portable, the virtual arcades will look more expensive, bulky and limited.