The famous names from the heyday of coin-op are starting to move in to the world of location-based VR says industry commentator Kevin Williams in his latest Stinger Report.
BANDAI NAMCO has recently revealed its next VR Zone experience, VR Rapid River. This motion-based virtual white-water experience has been inspired by the original 1997 video amusement release - having two players working as a team to paddle their raft through rough waters. The game uses the HTC Vive Pro headset and tracked controllers to represent the oars. The motion platform offers rotation (yaw) as well as heave motion effects to add to the experience. The game is expected to be launched across the Japanese VR Zone chains for the end of the year.
News has also surfaced that SNK would be partnering with consumer VR developer Studio Roqovan, to develop a VR arcade title. It is based on the World War Toons VR shooter, but also incorporates new elements and new characters taken from the popular SNK Metal Slug universe. Codenamed WWT:MSVR, the game will be expected to launch at the beginning of next year at collaborator KT Corporation's VRight locations. This development indicates significant movement in the Japanese amusement sector.
Most of the major corporations have invested to some degree in the development and operation of VR entertainment. From Capcom's VR Monster Capdom and Exa Verxus experiences, Taito's VR Theater and VR football concepts, Sega's investment into the Sega Area installations along with the brand new announcement of Joyopolis VR and BANDAI NAMCO's Project I Can VR Zone initiatives among other investments.
Only Konami appears to have held back from investing in a VR initiative at least publicly.
Williams concluded: “With SNK now entering the fray, this marks an important moment for the Japanese amusement trade, a situation that will have ramifications over their western satellites. All this is linked to rumours of a new start-up Japanese VR arcade sales operation, launching in the Home Islands in the coming weeks.”
