There's news about HTC investing in a '100 million dollar' venture to bring back the good 'ol Arcade Game experience to the masses. The plan is to help create new facilities that function as a pure Arcade park, as well as convincing existing "family entertainment" type locations to set aside space for VR Arcade setups.
Keep in mind that for something like this to work, square footage is essential. The more you can squeeze in to a small space, the more money you make. Which means that a 15x15 foot area isn't very intelligent. HTC seems to know this, as they are moving forward with games that support a standing experience:
The storefront is initially launching with 120 titles, including updated versions of two of the more popular VR titles available for the Vive currently, Phosphor Games’ The Brookhaven Experiment and Sólfar Studios’ Everest VR.
I think this is the smartest move HTC has made ever since they released their Nintendo VR kit. They are finally embracing the fact that room-scale is a cute feature that should not be the forefront of any real market decisions. I certainly hope to see a VR Arcade in my hometown soon. I anticipate lots of company outings there!
@Evileyes that kind of abusive language is not allowed here. I've given you your first warning, and your account will be limited for 1 week. Please try to be more respectful in the future. Thanks.
Have to say Zenbane has a point regarding room scale who really can accommodate 15 x 15 feet. Over here in old Blighty many people stuff a whole family in a room that size and call it a house.
Although I love to go the the DHSS and tell them I don't have a spare room it's my VR Arcade. See them try and smack me with the bedroom tax......
As for the vr Nintendo lets be honest the vive wands look out of date now compared to the touch, and even they have now reverted back to the cutlass design for a future interface.
Room scale is not practical for most people and what we really need is for push locomotion to be resolved or at worst a relatively small and practical virtuix omni like device that you can use in your socks so you don't sound like a pony doing dressage.
As @TC1999 has said, here in the UK the vast majority of people don't have a great deal of room for Room Scale VR. The majority of Vive games so far are 360 degree games rather than Room Scale experiences, Brookhaven Experiment is a perfect example of this.
The problem with Room Scale VR is that the vast majority of mainstream game genres such as first person shooters, third person games, adventure games, RPGs just to name 4 are unsuitable for Room Scale play because they all involve locomotion and exploration. You'll end up walking to get to a door, open the door, go through it and then rotate yourself 180 degrees so that you can continue exploring lol
Room Scale games certainly have their space in the VR game ecosystem but the amount of decent Room Scale games are going to be in the minority.
My second game I'm going to develop is going to have Touch/Vive controllers but it's going to be a 360 experience because it's going to be a first person survival horror game. No teleporting because it doesn't make sense in the context of the game, it's going to be stick locomotion all the way for me. The vast majority of early adopters of the CV1 and Vive have been using the DK1 and/or DK2 and will have had their VR legs for quite some time now.
I'm fed up with developers wrapping gamers in cotton wool with teleportation mechanics.
My first game I'm going to have comfort turning as an option but I'm certainly not going to have that turned on as a default.
