Hello Community!
Omniverse Results and Updates
Omniverse continues to take the entertainment market by storm. Together, our operators have now played more than one million minutes on Omniverse. Our top-5 Omniverse sites earn on average $4,000 per month per Omni, with our customer in Melbourne achieving revenues of $26,000 per month with 5 Omnis. In total, we have now shipped more than 2,500 Omnis via our global distributor network, and our distributors have installed Omni entertainment systems in close to 500 commercial locations around the world.
Last month we conducted an in-depth survey and follow-up interviews with our worldwide operators regarding our Omniverse features and games. Based on this valuable feedback, our team has already started working on the next phase of Omniverse development, focusing on functionality that increases the Omni entertainment system’s utilization and throughput while decreasing labor costs associated with operating the Omni. Our key objectives are improving Return on Investment (ROI) and ease of use for the operator.
On the games front, our main focus is to add more top VR titles, especially multiplayer. We currently have seven new games in development as well as a highly desired co-op mode for VRZ Torment! All our Omniverse games are not only optimized for the Omni, but we also spend a lot of time with developers to make their games suitable for location-based entertainment (which requires a different approach from games meant for home use).
Omni on U.S. TV show “Startup”
We were recently featured on the PBS show “Startup,” which produced an excellent segment about the history of Virtuix, the challenges we’ve encountered, and our pivot to commercial entertainment. Watch the episode below. (Note: the show was filmed in early 2017 and is slightly out of date. Since then, we fulfilled our Kickstarter obligations and delivered more than 2,500 Omni units!)
Upcoming Omni Events
This week we are exhibiting the Omni with our global distributor UNIS at the Amusement Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center from February 28 to March 1. Our CEO Jan Goetgeluk spoke at the inaugural Virtual Reality Educational Summit about how commercial operators can maximize their ROI from VR attractions by selecting the right content and equipment for their audience. Today is the last day of the show. Come visit us at booth #437!
Virtuix is sponsoring the third annual VR Arcade Conference at the Samsung Research Lab in Mountain View on April 28-29. Jan will speak at the event, where we will display an Omni system together with our U.S. distributor, Mace Virtual Labs. Attending this conference is an excellent chance to learn about the challenges and best practices of operating a VR arcade, to try out the latest location-based VR equipment and software, and to network with peers in the industry. Buy your tickets here – we hope to see you there!
Jan will speak at the Future of Immersive Leisure (“FOIL”) conference at Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas on May 16-17. Jan is part of a discussion about VR and AR sports – the next evolution in eSports. You can find more information about the conference here.
Operator News and Events
Every month we highlight interesting news from our commercial operators and noteworthy openings of new Omni sites.
Our customer site StoneFire Pizza in Berlin, Wisconsin, made the local news with their 5-player Omni setup supplied by UNIS. StoneFire Pizza is the first Omni operator in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. See the FOX6 news segment and accompanying article here, and our favorite quote below:
“People love it,” says Ehrmann. “Especially our 10-15 age group. They keep coming up, buying more. They’ll go on this 10, 15 times.”
Last month our mechanical engineer Kurt visited a few major customer sites in Europe to ensure that our systems are working flawlessly and to support our distributors. See a few pictures below from his visits to France’s Cap’VR, Megazone Toulouse, Vilounge, and Virtual Center; Italy’s Videogiochi Colella and M.E.M.; and YourVRRoom in Holland. We now have Omni systems installed in close to 500 commercial venues!
Our engineer Tom supported our Russian distributor DIGIS at their annual technology conference at the TsarGrad Hotel in Moscow on February 1-3. See a picture of the event below:
The Omni made it to the Olympic Games! Our distributor in South Korea, Lee & Parks, exhibited two Omnis at the Olympic Center in Pyeongchang. See a few pictures below:
Best regards,
Jan and the Virtuix Team