6Oct/18Off
“Jurassic World” Hits On Formula For VR Arcade Success
[by my buddy David Bloom]
Recipe No. 1 may be the bronto-sized hit Jurassic World VR Expedition, which landed in June at more than 100 Dave & Buster's restaurants in the United States and Canada.
The four-person VR experience, based on NBCUniversal's durable dinosaur franchise, quickly became what CEO Brian Jenkins said in a September earnings call was the restaurant/arcade chain's biggest-ever game launch.
Even though the game didn't debut until late in Q2, it already had become "meaningfully incremental" to the chain's revenues, Jenkins said. Now, Dave & Buster's plans to replicate the Jurassic World success by year's end with new titles and more of the VR hardware systems that can run them.
At this week's Hollywood Entertainment Technology Festival in Los Angeles, a string of top execs pointed to Jurassic World VR Expedition as one smart approach that could be replicated by at least some in the infant industry.
In the meantime, Stromberg's colleague, Virtual Reality Company CEO Guy Primus, said more standardization around specific hardware platforms such as the one in Dave & Buster's will make it easier for creators and location operators to get the scale they need to make money.
"D&B has a great platform," said Primus. "Now we're building something similar for that platform, so there's some standardization."