If you grew up in the 80s or 90s, there’s a very good chance that quite a bit of your childhood was spent at arcades. These days arcades still exist but honestly it isn’t quite what it used to be. However HTC wants to bring it back and they think that one way to go about it is to use virtual reality as one of the attractions.
Many believe VR represents the next stage in gaming, but given sometimes VR requires high-end computers and a large space to be utilized properly, it makes it quite inaccessible to some gamers, and that’s where the arcade comes in, where HTC believes that the larger open and public spaces will make VR more accessible.
The company has recently announced two titles that will be coming to Viveport Arcade: The Brookhaven Experiment and Everest VR. According to a report from The Verge, HTC has since opened its own flagship location in Taiwan last week, and as it stands they are trying to strike up partnerships with Chinese internet cafes to do the same thing in China.
It is also expected that the company will eventually expand to the US and Europe by the end of the year, according to Viveport president Rikard Steiber. Will VR arcades catch on? We guess if it saves users money from having to purchase the equipment themselves, possibly, but only time will tell.
Filed in . Read more about HTC, HTC Vive and Virtual Reality (VR).