After a very tough year, the location-based entertainment (LBE) is starting to bounce back with new venues and attractions opening up including some major videogame IP’s landing. One of which was Far Cry VR: Dive Into Insanity, a collaborative effort between Ubisoft, Zero Latency and nDreams. Today, the LBE company has revealed ticket sales have spiked thanks to the videogame as well as announcing a new investor to aid expansion plans.
Far Cry VR: Dive Into Insanity arrived at Zero Latency locations in June with the company seeing a 40% rise into new customer ticket sales purely down to the new title. Bringing Ubisoft’s popular Far Cry franchise into virtual reality (VR) for the first time, the multiplayer experience takes up to eight players to the Rook Islands, the setting for Far Cry 3. Battling through henchmen with haptic-enabled guns they’ll eventually confront the main villain himself, Vaas.
As for the investment details, the Australian private equity firm Advent Partners has become a partner and majority shareholder in Zero Latency for an undisclosed sum. The company’s founders will remain key shareholders as it continues to expand in the free-roaming (FRVR) industry. Zero Latency will soon have 55 venues open in 24 countries with more planned for 2022.
“Zero Latency VR will remain the global leader in FRVR. This new funding will accelerate our strategy, allowing us to expand aggressively into new markets and increase our support to existing locations,” explained Tim Ruse, Zero Latency VR CEO in a statement. “We welcome our new strategic partner, Advent, whose professionalism, experience in technology and investment, will help us meet our goals.”
“It is the ideal time to get into the location-based VR sector, with consumers increasingly seeking new experiences, creating a large opportunity for Zero Latency VR, which is one of the fastest-growing, and the most disruptive players in this space,” said Symon Vegter from Advent Partners. “We are thrilled to be partnering with the team and to provide them with support as they seek to establish FRVR as the new medium in leisure and entertainment.”
As mentioned, the LBE VR industry is coming back in full force with plenty of exciting additions available now and in the near future. Apart from Far Cry VR, LBE specialist Hologate is due to launch Hologate World in September in Germany, offering a new hyper-reality experience called Sigvried: Escape from Valhalla. Or if you’re a fan of shooting zombies there’s always Viva Las Vengence: A VR Experience that takes place inside its very own taco truck. Set in Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, the multiplayer experience opened in Los Angeles and New York City in July, with the London, UK event starting next month.
For continued updates from Zero Latency, keep reading VRFocus.
via Mint VR