If you've been waiting for a resurgence in interest for the arcade halls of old, you may be in luck! Starbreeze, the developer behind games like the excellent The Chronicles of Riddick and Payday 2, has announced that it is going to open a new arcade hall in Los Angeles that will focus primarily on giving people access to virtual reality experiences.
This new concept, titled Project StarCade, aims to deliver premium virtual reality experiences as well as give enthusiasts of the new medium a place to meet other fans.
We continue to iterate the fact that VR really needs to be experienced in person to fully be able to appreciate the phenomenon, and why not have your first experience in a real premium setting in our StarVR headset? We’ve managed to secure a prime location where people are welcome to step into our StarCade and enjoy our OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead VR experience.
The Walking Dead VR won't be the only thing people can try on. The developer is also working on more VR projects to display in the arcade hall.
We’re developing our own StarCade catalogue of experiences, but we’re open to any content. We will invite developers to join us and give them the opportunity to put their content in our StarCade. We as an industry continuously need to educate ourselves to make VR truly successful, and this is just the first step in our planning to do so.
The Project StarCade initiative will officially open its doors to the public in the spring/summer of this year in an as of yet unknown location, although the developer mentioning a premium location may imply that it isn't too far away from the city's hotspots. Once we hear more details on the how, why and when you will be the first to know!
Starbreeze will also attend the Virtual Reality Los Angeles Expo in the Los Angeles Convention center so if you decide to attend you can play around with their StarVR headset and the Walking Dead VR game made by Overkill. Their headset may have a hard time shipping units when it eventually gets released due to the rapidly saturating market. The headset does have an extremely wide field of view (210° versus 110° in the Oculus Rift and HTV Vice) and a slick and futuristic design.
Starbreeze is also publishing on a VR game based on the John Wick movie franchise called John Wick - The Impossible Task, which will most likely also be playable when Project StarCade opens its doors.
Do you think Virtual Reality will be able to resurrect arcades? Would you go to StarCade? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
