Video Games: The Movie
Coming out later this year is Video Games: The Movie. Here’s the trailer and it features the Oculus Rift and Virtuix Omni.
Further information:
Coming out later this year is Video Games: The Movie. Here’s the trailer and it features the Oculus Rift and Virtuix Omni.
Further information:
Ok, so we’ve had a load of requests to include Roller Coasters in our series of game videos in virtual reality. Roller Coaster rides is one of the top ‘first experiences’ that people have with a VR headset (and you can download them here).
Why? Because the person wearing the headset gets an immediate sense of presence and it’s a great way for them to quickly ‘get’ what VR is all about. And for the people standing around watching the person wearing the headset, they almost always get a reason to smile….then they want a go! Roller Coasters was also a game genre we tested with kids for our Oculus Rift research.
Buckle-up, here we go. We should probably start with this guy because he’s only had 4.3m views on YouTube.
The MMO market is already massive across all age ranges, from the KT&T (Kids, Tweens and Teen) segment right through to older gamers. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (i.e. MMORPG) styled virtual worlds is a category we expect to thrive in virtual reality not only because of the engagement related to exploration and questing game mechanics but also the (for lack of a better phrase) ‘utter coolness’ of seeing other people interact in real-time in a shared virtual environment – it’s an incredible experience.
In terms of MMO’s available in VR (dare we call this the MMOVR sector?) we’re at an early stage but it’s very promising nevertheless as game developers are realising this is a key category for future growth, as well as one with a great ability to monetise users. Shown below is the KZero VR Radar for games in this category.
With VR games still at a demo and/or early development stage, we’ve placed the MMO-style games between the RPG and Exploration categories because the multi-player element will happen over time as the ownership-base of VR headsets expands. So at present these are more solo RPG experiences that will evolve into more multi-player games.
At the younger end of the scale, the Fairy Forest demo shows how a kids/tween MMO could look.
Moving into the older age ranges, here’s some exciting games in development creating immersive exploratory environments in VR. Continue reading →
Flying like a bird, Superman or piloting a plane. That’s what we mean by flying in virtual reality, the second genre being covered in this series showing gameplay videos (the first article covered the Space genre). Before we get to being pilots, here’s some examples of virtual reality allowing the impossible (free flight) and the dangerous (wingsuit flying).
Our VR Radar charts (Q2 2014 updated released last week) identify 12 key genres for released and upcoming virtual reality games and experiences. For each title we place them into our radar format by the forecasted average age of the player or the target audience it’s aimed at.
If you haven’t got an Oculus Rift and haven’t tried any of the Project Morpheus demo’s then don’t worry, we’ve rounded up the latest showcase videos starting with the Space genre. The radar segment belows shows Space-themed titles.
Flying games based in space have always been a popular gaming genre right back to the early days of PCs with titles such as Elite. Well, this is one franchise that’s coming back with a bang with Elite: Dangerous. Another hotly anticipated title is EVE: Valkyrie from CCP.
And proving the demand for these types of games there’s a whole host of other space flying games from other developers. What makes these games highly playable isn’t just the battle element of piloting spacecraft but in some cases the deep multiplayer RPG gameplay. Enjoy. Continue reading →
Produced in conjunction with Dubit, our Oculus Rift demo Fairy Forest has just had a major upgrade. The first version took a guided tour through the forest on rails – in other words the user experience and journey was pre-determined and took a pre-defined route. Now we’re off the rails, meaning players can freely roam through Fairy Forest and explore wherever they want. Just look out for the Fairies and the occasional fly trap!
The updated DK2 demo is available for download (in PC and Mac format) from the WeArVR portal. Here’s a walkthrough video .
Further information:
With above average ARPPUs and paying user conversion rates, the UK market has long been a high-value territory for virtual world companies targeting kids and tweens.
And, whilst the likes of Moshi Monsters, Stardoll and Club Penguin lead the way in terms of user penetration, a group of newer virtual worlds are activating UK TV advertising in order to grow their userbases and take a piece of the market.
At present, Minomonos, Space Heroes Universe, Fight My Monster, Herotopia and Bin Weevils are all buying UK air-time across the major kids channels. Here’s a selection of TV ads shown in the UK.
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Generating revenues of almost $240m in 2012, Minecraft is the juggernaut of the virtual worlds sector. The key to its success? – User Generated Content. It’s long been known that giving users the ability to create content is a powerful stimulant for both usage and virality.
Although the forecasted average user age for Minecraft users is late teens, it’s interesting that the UGC factor resonates just as much with younger users as it does older ones. The video below demonstrates this well. Check it out.
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Following the trend to link toys and virtual worlds together, here’s a new example of exactly that called Mechatars.
Created by a company called ILoveRobots, spun out of Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, Mechatars is a toy line consisting of three different robots (Alpha, Wrexx and Kodar). The price point is $39.99. And, clearly the company is keen to promote the different ‘attitudes’ of each toy because they even have their own twitter accounts.
Accompanying the physical toy range is a virtual world called the Mechaverse. Progression through levelling within the virtual world opens up and enables additional features from the real world toy. CEO Martin Hitch states:
“We’re the first company that has successfully connected physical products with virtual environments,” he said. “We’re the first company that has been able to make our product evolve over time.”
The play mechanic is primarily ‘battling and fighting’, similar to UK property Fight My Monster. Here’s one of their launch videos and a link to the full press release.
Our latest report – The Golden Triangle, explains the opportunties available for toys and virtual worlds. Here’s an extract from the report highlighting the strategies.
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Looks like we’ve got some competition.
And there’s more insight into Minecraft here.
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