Could virtual reality resurrect the game arcade in Asia?

Virtual reality technology in games is getting more and more exciting these days. The folks behind the Oculus Rift headset have been showing off their new Crystal Cove prototype, which won best of CES 2014 thanks to the addition of a camera and sensors that eliminate motion blur and provide for more accurate head and body tracking. Valve has been showing off its own VR headset at Steam dev days, and some of the folks who’ve played with it say it’s even better than the Oculus Rift. This may well be the future of gaming, and it’s getting pretty damn close.

This isn’t going to be exciting news for everyone, though, because the cardinal rule of new gaming hardware tends to be that the awesomeness of new hardware is directly proportional to its cost. In other words, when these VR headsets hit the consumer marketplace, they’re going to be cool, but they’re not going to be cheap.

That poses a problem for gamers who want to use this tech without spending a fortune, and it’s especially daunting for Asian gamers because import duties and shipping fees mean that these devices are likely to cost even more in Asia than they do in the States once they finally hit the market.

Another issue is that the more real VR technology gets, the more we’re going to want to move around while playing games, and that takes space. Both the Valve headset and the new Crystal Cove Oculus Rift require cameras, some space to move around in, and probably a certain type of room. Add in more VR hardware like the Omni and you’ve got an uber-realistic game experience…that takes up quite a lot of space. Even if you have the money, it’s going to be tough to fit all this stuff into many apartments in Asia’s densely-populated cities.

Via The Verge. How many Tokyo apartments do you think could fit this monstrosity?

So what’s a boot-strapping, space-starved gamer to do?

One answer might be to go to the arcade. That’s what we used to do back in the day, of course, but since then arcades have been replaced by home PCs and consoles (for those with the cash to pay for the convenience) and by internet cafes (for those who don’t). Now, with Asian economies taking off, internet cafes are dying out, and the advent of this expensive, space-hungry VR hardware could be exactly what it takes to revive arcades again. Or at least, a sort of arcade/internet cafe hybrid.

Obviously, the old-style arcades with a dedicated machine for each game are pretty much a thing of the past; to be competitive a modern arcade would need to offer pretty much every PC and console game available. So the hybrid I’m imagining — let’s call it an internet arcade — would feature PCs and consoles outfitted with various expensive input devices most gamers probably can’t afford or don’t have the space for themselves.

For example, one corner could be dedicated to racing games, with PCs connected to VR headsets, vibrating seats, and wheel-and-pedals inputs instead of regular controllers. Another area could be for fans of shooter games, with an Omni for movement, a VR headset for visuals, and a motion-controlled gun for realistic aiming. Maybe there could be a few “isolation” rooms for horror games with VR headsets, Omnis, and soundproof walls so that the rest of the arcade doesn’t hear it when you start screaming like a newborn baby. Et cetera.

Obviously, the up-front costs for building an “internet arcade” like this would be pretty significant, and there probably couldn’t be one on every street corner like arcades used to be in some cities. I would expect that at first, there could probably only be one or two, and even then maybe only in major, game-friendly cities like Singapore or Jakarta or Beijing. But with all this new technology coming out, I suspect there will definitely be gamers interested in trying out all this gear without having to spend a fortune and sacrifice a room of their apartment to the gaming gods. And the internet arcade could meet that need and give gamers a new way to get out of their house and move around on the weekends — all without having to stop gaming.

(Featured image via Tom’s Hardware, shooter image via Omni).