After bringing its wireless VR solution to Europe, Bellevue-based VRstudios is now betting big on another market: casinos.
The company, which provides a proprietary VR arcade solution that allows users to walk around virtual environments wirelessly, teamed up with Muckleshoot Casino in Auburn, Washington. Both single and multiplayer VR experiences are now available several days a week at the site’s nightclub, Club Galaxy. Players can experience Time Zombies, an undead shooter that’s been featured by VRstudios for a while, Barking Irons, a western-styled multiplayer FPS, or its most recent game, a family-oriented piece named Planktos, with more to come.
Though the kits haven’t been installed in the casino for long, Junior Maldonado, Entertainment Manager at Muckleshoot claims its already having a big impact. In a prepared statement, he said that some users had already used the tech 15 times within one night.
Muckleshoot is not the first casino to look to VR as a new source of revenue. As revealed in September, Gamblit Gambling is also experimenting with the tech, bringing pods running the HTC Vive horror shooter, The Brookhaven Experiment to sites across the US. The game, which has you fighting hordes of monsters with dual weapons, has been modified to suit casinos, too.
For its part, VRstudios has now partnered with companies across 11 different countries.
It’s an interesting area of the industry for sure. Location-based VR as a wider concept is growing steadily, with the upcoming launch of IMAX’s cinematic VR pods and HTC’s efforts to bring the Vive to arcades and help developers deploy content there. It seems likely that VR will take off outside the home as well as in.
