The hey day of the video game arcade is long gone, this isn't the early '80s after all, but perhaps they could make a comeback. Virtual reality is the carrot that Raw Data developer, Survios, believes could draw back punters and make the idea of visiting arcades popular again.
"VR devs should definitely keep arcades in mind as a valuable opportunity for their content, but they need to understand that it's a completely separate market," Survios' VP of Business Development, Ben Kim told GamesIndustry.biz. "You can't just copy your existing strategies and expect the same results. Arcades attract different customers, require different marketing strategies, and necessitate different support requirements."
The reason that VR arcades could be so popular, is because virtual reality hardware and the PC to run it, is still quite expensive. You also need the space to truly appreciate roomscale and even then, it can be restricting.
In contrast, public spaces can have much more room and a bigger budget, meaning better hardware, experiences and content for people to enjoy. Kim also pointed out that VR is confusing to a lot of people. If they haven't been following the industry's development, they have to consider graphics cards, headsets, controllers, sensors - all these things are rather confusing for a hardware enthusiast, let alone a non-techy person.
"We believe the current preference for roomscale, high-end VR experiences will have enthusiasts [playing in VR arcades] on every continent and in every tech-loving culture around the world," he said.
Would you go to an arcade again if they started offering high-end, VR experiences?
