3 Places To Look For A VR Games
Throughout the previous few years, we've seen a plethora of news posts about how virtual reality was about to save the timeless arcade. The theory goes that the VR indoor playground equipment is too expensive for home users, therefore it creates an opportunity for operators to pony up the big dollars to purchase it and make their money back by charging per match to play it. Even Nolan Bushnell, the inventor of Pong, is attempting to hype the tech since the industry's savior.
"While several high-end cans were released last year that can bring virtual-reality adventures to your living room, adoption of the technology is still in its earliest days for a lot of reasons--it's still bulky, expensive, and there is not all that much to do as soon as you've got it on your face. Over two million headsets were shipped globally in 2016, according to an estimate from market researcher Canalys, but this figure pales compared to the prevalence of, say, video game consoles (sales of their leading one, Sony's PS4, topped six million during the 2016 holiday season ). Consumer virtual reality will likely catch on as costs come down and cans improve. Meanwhile, though, a variety of companies are betting that consumers may be happy to pay a much smaller sum to try the tech with their friends at, say, an arcade, theme park, or bowling alley."
It's tempting to dive into this trap, but in the operator's standpoint VR is a terrible deal. Aside from buying a brand-new vehicle and driving it a mile, I can't think of a way you could eliminate money faster between what you pay and what you will be able to get for it down the street.
Another limitation for operators is that while you may be able to provide a space for VR people to roam around in today, as fresh VR tech is introduced, we're likely to find the stage expanded from 100 square feet to the entire world. Instead of viewing just the matches in your headset, you'll see the real world with game play overlayed. Kids can visit the park and relive the knights of the round table or parking garages to take aliens. As the technology allows more real world places to be researched, it is going to make a cramped arcade look fairly lame in comparison.
VR is already heading for mass market acceptance, however it's demand isn't being driven by players who want to pay big buck to play video games, but such as the BETAMAX that came before it, by people who want to watch pornography in their homes.
Even if an operator can make just a bit of money for the upcoming few decades, once VR achieves critical mass, it is going to crush whatever revenue flow that operators are dreaming of. Do not believe me? Just check out what is happening in China.
This past year, an eye popping 35,000 virtual reality arcades opened in China. A year after 22,000 of these have closed.
This is an incredible failure rate over this brief period of time and one which should serve as a sharp warning to anyone considering investing in the VR games. Perhaps Dave and Busters can afford to take losses over the matches more than Chinese startup arcades, however I doubt most North American operators are going to fare far better using the technology in their match rooms and will only wind up in debt in the end of the day.
The issue essentially boils down to consumers not being prepared to pay a premium to the experience. Tech In Asia, describes the issue perfectly in their article, on that the Chinese VR boom and bust. 
Even if the match was sold out daily, at $1.50 a half hour they're only earning $30 per day. 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 games.
The real world information streaming in from China must function as a canary in the quarter plantations of North America. Operators who invest large amounts of money on fancy VR setups will soon find their small VR rooms being replaced by the entire world for a stage. Since the setups get cheaper, smaller and more mobile, the virtual arcades will seem more expensive, bulky and limited.
