Which software and which games do you choose for the best Arcade experience?

You are about to start with a new adventure: starting up a Virtual Reality arcade! You have the coolest and latest VR equipment in your room, the entire space looks beautiful and well-kept, and you have good and friendly staff walking around to welcome your new customers and give a nice VR experience. But then you start a game and it suddenly all disappoints ... Because when you start a game, the game must first load for a few minutes, then you start a tutorial, and only then can the users start playing. And then the time is already up! And then we haven't even mentioned the fact that the operator of your VR room must start the games separately for each Headset by with standing a keyboard next to the Computer.

That can of course be improved. And in this blog we explain in great detail how you can do this and how you can ensure that your VR arcade can (and may) offer the coolest VR games in a professional way!

Choose the right VR games

In an VR arcade environment it is important that you offer the right VR games to your customers. There are of course hundreds of games available, but you don't want to offer all games at the same time. Think of it as a game of cards: you don't immediately reveal your entire hand. Therefore make a selection of with games that you think are fun and that you would like to offer. with Below we provide a number of handles on the basis of which you can choose your games.

Determine a theme for each target group

You can offer VR games by theme. Consider, for example, specific games for children, for the elderly, or for young adults. While the youth of about 16 years absolutely love a zombie shooter, the elderly like to walk underwater or take a tour over the moon. Therefore, determine which games or experiences you want to provide for each target group that appeals to you. So there is something fun for everyone to do!

In addition to dividing your target group, you can also choose to offer themed games. Consider, for example, special horror evenings during Halloween, a Christmas game during Christmas or a fun VR animation film during Easter.

Choose games where you can switch quickly

In an VR arcade there are often groups. Think for example of groups of friends, company outings and children's parties. You want everyone with to be able to play the VR headset, so don't choose games where a player spends 15 minutes with launching the game. In an VR arcade you want to have games where someone just has to press "start" and then immediately go with the game. After a few minutes, the players can then continue to switch and a new player can get started (for example, to try to beat the previous player's high score).

Think of certain levels for games

Your VR arcade will have a very wide audience: people who already have experience with Virtual Reality or people who have played a PlayStation game, but also people who have never seen VR glasses in their lives. By offering games of different levels you can give all users, regardless of their experience with VR, a fun experience. For example, you don't want someone with no VR experience to play a complicated zombie game where they don't know how to shoot or reload the guns. For people with who have no VR/gaming experience, it is advisable to play a game that requires little or no use of Controllers. Consider, for example, an experience such as theBlu or a game like Beat Saber; where all you have to do is wave with your Controllers and press no buttons.

Single player or multiplayer?

Depending on how you set up your arcade, choose single player games (games you play alone) or multiplayer games (games with with multiple players). Both variants of games have their advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of a single player game is that it is a lot easier to set up. This way you are not dependent on another player, you have much less risk of connection / start-up problems and you have an enormously wide range of games from which to choose.

The nice thing about multiplayer games is that you can see each other in VR. In some games you play against each other, while in other games you have to work together to win. This gives the game a whole new dimension and is especially fun if you with play someone you know (eg in a group of friends). A good example of a multiplayer VR game is Arizona Sunshine.

VR escape rooms

A new trend in Virtual Reality are VR escape rooms. More and more developers are responding to this by releasing cool games. Some escape rooms can be played individually, but there are also a lot of escape rooms where you have with several people working together to solve puzzles. At the moment there are two game developers offering the VR escape rooms professionally: Ubisoft Escape Games and ARVI VR.

Use a software management system

There is nothing more annoying than having to manually launch various Computers and games. As an operator you don't want to with have to move a keyboard to a Computer, especially when you have to control multiple VR cubes at the same time. Therefore choose a software management system such as SpringboardVR. This system is purpose-built for VR arcades and is used by the world's leading arcades. with the software management system you can tonight control a central Computer (the server PC) different gaming stations. As a result, you no longer have to physically stand next to a VR cube, but you can simply start and close games from behind a Computer, laptop or even tablet.

Make sure you have the correct game license

Games should not be used commercially just like that. For example, if you buy a game once via Steam, you may not offer it in your VR arcade. To be able to do this, you have to pay per use to the game developer. The price of this depends entirely on what the developer asks for it. In general, the popular VR games cost more per minute than the less popular or well-known games. We have written an extensive blog about this. Click here to go to our game licensing blog.

See what games are popular with other VR arcades

Finally, we provide Tip to see which games are popular with successful VR arcades. These games are popular for a reason (probably because they meet the above criteria). The aforementioned platform SpringboardVR offers a complete overview of the most popular VR games. We therefore recommend that you take a look at this so that you can get an idea of the most popular games. Click here to go to the overview of popular games on SpringboardVR.