Which software and which games should you choose for the best Arcade-ervaring?

You are about to embark on a new adventure: starting a virtual reality arcade! You have the coolest and latest VR-apparatuur in your space, the entire area looks stunning and well-maintained, and you have friendly and helpful staff ready to welcome your new customers and provide a great VR-ervaring. But then you start a game and it suddenly falls short... Because when you start a game, it needs to load for a few minutes, then you begin a tutorial, and only after that can the users start playing. And by then, the time is already up!

In a VR arcade environment, it is important to 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 once. Think of it like a card game: you don't reveal your entire hand straight away. Therefore, make a selection of games that you think are fun and that you want to offer. With the points below, we provide some guidelines on how you can choose your games.

You can offer VR-spellen based on themes. Think, for example, of specific games for children, for the elderly, or for young adults. While the youth around 16 years old might find a zombie-shooter absolutely amazing, older people might enjoy walking underwater or taking a stroll on the moon. Therefore, determine which games or experiences you want to provide for each target group you are addressing. This way, there is something fun for everyone!

Besides segmenting your target audience, you can also choose to offer thema-spellen. Think, for example, of special horror nights during Halloween, a Christmas game during Christmas, or a fun VR-animatiefilm during Easter.

In a VR arcade, groups often come to play. Think of groups of friends, corporate outings, and children's parties. You want everyone to be able to play with the VR-headset, so don't choose games where a player spends fifteen minutes just starting the game. In a VR arcade, you want games where someone only has to press "start" and can immediately begin playing. After a few minutes, players can switch, and a new player can take over (for example, to try to beat the previous player's high score).

Your VR arcade will attract a very diverse audience: people who already have experience with virtual reality, people who have played a PlayStation game before, but also people who have never seen a VR-bril in their life. By offering games of different levels, you can provide a fun experience for all users, regardless of their VR experience. For example, you don't want someone with no VR-ervaring experience to play a complex zombie-spel game where they don't know how to shoot or reload the guns. For people with no VR/game-ervaring experience, it is advisable to play a game where controllers are used minimally. Think, for example, of an experience like theBlu or a game like Beat Saber; where you only need to wave your controllers and don't have to press any buttons.

Depending on how you set up your arcade, choose single-player games (games you play alone) or multiplayer games (games with multiple players). Both types of games have their voor- and disadvantages. The advantage of a single-player game is that it is much easier to set up. You are not dependent on another player, there is much less risk of connectie-/start-up problems, and you have a vast selection of games to choose from.

The fun part of multiplayer games is that you can see each other in VR. In some games, you play against each other, while in others, you have to work together to win. This adds a whole new dimension to the game and is especially fun when playing with someone you know (for example, in a group of friends). A good example of a multiplayer VR game is Arizona Sunshine.

A new trend in virtual reality is VR escape rooms. More and more developers are responding to this by releasing exciting games. Some escape rooms can be played individually, but there are also many escape rooms where you have to work together with multiple people to solve puzzles. Currently, there are two game-ontwikkelaars that professionally offer VR escape rooms: Ubisoft Escape Games and ARVI VR.

Nothing is more annoying than having to manually start different computers and games. As an operator, you don't want to have to stand at a computer with a keyboard, especially when you have to manage multiple VR-cubes at the same time. Therefore, choose a software management system like SpringboardVR. This system is specially built for VR arcades and is used worldwide by the most leading arcades. With the software management system, you can control various gaming stations from a central computer (the server PC). This way, you no longer have to stand physically next to a VR-cube, but can easily start and stop games from a computer, laptop, or even tablet.

Games cannot be used commercially just like that. For example, if you buy a game once via Steam, you are not allowed to offer it in your VR arcade. To do this, you need to pay per use to the game-ontwikkelaar. The price of this depends entirely on what the developer asks for it. Generally, the more 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 blog about game licences.

As a final tip, we suggest looking at which games are popular at 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-spellen. We recommend taking a look there to get an idea of the most popular games. Click here to go to the overview of popular games on SpringboardVR.