Survios is one of the most versatile and successful VR studios. That they are also adaptable, they show with their expansion in the VR arcade market. In an interview, founder James Iliff talks about the "big new business" and gives developers tips on getting started in the VR arcade business.
Survios was founded in 2013 and received at the height of the VR hype $ 50 million venture capital from the movie studio MGM and other investors. The VR studio has brought as different games as Raw Data since 2016, Creed: Rise to Glory (Test), Battlewake and West World Awakening out.
With this wide range of genres and styles, they want to try new VR interaction techniques and thus advance the industry software side, says James Iliff in one Interview with Venturebeat.
New focus on VR arcades
Around the year 2016 and 2017, the studio entered the VR arcade business. At the time, the VR gambling hall market was said to have been smaller than the one for consumer VR, but had shown much greater growth, says Iliff.
Meanwhile, the development focus has shifted, so that some projects from the beginning for VR-Arcades would be developed. To get the best possible feedback, Survios opened his own VR arcade in the Californian city of Torrance.
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Survios games like the pirate adventure Battlewake should be interesting in the arcade as well as for home users. Picture: Survios
The studio now licenses its titles to more than 3,000 VR Arcades: 500 in the US and 2,500 in China. The next major expansion is planned in Japan and South Korea.
"The VR arcade market is currently growing three times faster than home VR. This can become profitable quickly if you have enough partners, "says Iliff. As early as 2018, Survios announced that she was using VR Arcades reach ten times more people than home VR.
VR experiences are particularly popular for groups on birthdays or corporate events. The Pirate game Battlewake was developed for this arcade usage scenario, but can also be purchased by home users and played at home. Ultimately Survios wants to skim both markets as well as possible.
No cannibalization hazard
VR games for the home and the arcade would appeal to VR core users as well as the grandmother, who is experiencing virtual reality for the first time in an arcade. For beginning VR developers, Iliff advises first to focus on a market, as the balancing act between arcade and home VR is difficult.
The Survios founder does not (yet) fear overlaps between the markets: Seventy percent of the VR arcade visitors are passing customers. The arcade and home user market will grow in parallel in the next few years, believes Iliff.
An expansion towards high-end arcade market à la The Void does not aim for Survios. The reason: Such VR experience could then be marketed only in the special gambling halls. In addition, high-end VR arcades are more cumbersome: visitors would have to spend ten minutes relying on VR equipment alone. This would give you fewer customers per day.
Cover Picture: Survios, Source: VentureBeat