4 Best Ways To Sell VR Games

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Over the last few years, we’ve seen a plethora of news posts about how virtual reality was going to save the classic arcade. The theory goes that the VR equipment is too expensive for home users, so it creates an chance for operators to pony up the big bucks to buy it and then make their money back by charging a match to play with it. In the MIT Technology Review.
„While many high-end headsets were released annually that may bring virtual-reality adventures to your living space, adoption of this technology is still in its earliest days for a bunch of reasons–it is still bulky, expensive, and there isn’t all that far to do once you’ve got it on your face. More than two million cans were shipped globally in 2016, according to a quote from market researcher Canalys, but this figure pales in comparison to the popularity of, say, video game consoles (sales of the leading one, Sony’s PS4, topped six million during the 2016 holiday season ). Consumer virtual reality will probably catch on as costs come down and cans improve. In the meantime, however, a number of companies are betting that customers may be happy to pay a much smaller amount to try the tech with their buddies at, say, an arcade, theme park, or bowling alley.“
It is tempting to dive into this trap, but from an operator’s standpoint VR is a terrible deal. Operators are being asked to pay top dollar for technology that’s all but guaranteed to plummet in value within the very short term. Aside from buying a brand-new car and driving it a time, I can’t think about a way you could eliminate money quicker between what you pay and what you will be able to get down the road.
Another limitation for operators is that while you might be able to supply a space for VR people to wander around in now, as new VR tech is introduced, we are likely to find the stage expanded from 100 square feet into the entire world. Instead of viewing just the games in your headset, you will realize the true world with sport play overlayed. Children can go to the park and relive the knights of the round table or parking garages to take aliens. As the technology allows more actual world places to be researched, it is going to earn a cramped arcade look fairly lame in comparison.
VR is already heading for mass market acceptance, but it is demand isn’t being driven by gamers who wish to pay big buck to play with video games, but like the BETAMAX that came before it, by people who want to watch pornography in their homes.
Even when an operator can create a bit of money for the upcoming few years, after VR achieves critical mass, it will crush whatever revenue flow that operators’re dreaming of. Don’t believe me? Just check out what is going on in China.
A year later 22,000 of these have closed.
This is an unbelievable failure rate over this brief time period and one that should function as a sharp warning to anyone considering investing in the VR games – http://casathome.ihep.ac.cn/team_display.php?teamid=385366. Perhaps Dave and Busters is able to take losses on the games more than Chinese startup arcades, however I doubt that most North American operators will fare much better with the technology in their match rooms and will only wind up in debt in the close of the day.
The problem basically boils down to customers not being willing to pay a premium to the encounter. Tech In Asia, clarifies the issue perfectly in their own article, on that the Chinese VR boom and bust.

„Enterprising shop owners leaping into VR are finding it impossible to bill fees akin to cinemas or bowling alleys for a VR experience. One VR arcade proprietor told iHeima he saw excited queues when charging US$1.50 to get a 30-minute session, but everyone vanished as it climbed to US$5. From that sort of revenue it’s impossible to cover the rent.“
Even if the match was sold out all day, at $1.50 per half hour they are only 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 matches.
The real world data flowing in from China should serve as a canary in the quarter plantations of North America. Operators who spend considerable amounts of money on fancy VR setups will probably find their little VR rooms being replaced by the entire world as a stage. Since the installations get more expensive, smaller and more portable, the virtual arcades will look more costly, bulky and restricted. I would like to be proven wrong on this one, but I think the arcade VR fad is more hype than hope.