VR Arcade Business in a Box

You’re thinking about adding a VR Arcade? That’s great. We’re here to help and we’re well positioned to do so. In fact, it is our purpose is to help facilities understand and profit from Virtual Reality. While we’ve built a myriad of ways to do that, this is the one we refer to as our:

Business in a Box

This “high touch” solution will take care of virtually everything you need to get up and running with your own branded VR Arcade quickly.

We start with Space Planning where we work with you and the blueprint of your facility to place your VR Arcade in a spot where players will be able to comfortably play AND your other customers will be able to view this attraction. Placement is super important for three reasons:

It’s almost as fun watching as it is playing,
You need to make sure participants can play safely.
The booths don’t interfere with each other.

VR is almost as fun to watch & film as it is to play!

The next phase is all about the Hardware. It’s no secret that we use the HTC Vive so your customers can enjoy the best VR experiences on the planet. But the VR Headsets is only one part of the hardware equation.

You need high end gaming computers. We start by Procuring those. We’ll take care of the selections, ordering and the initial Configuration. This means we install all of the software and drivers you’ll need to run VR and get your computers ready to go.

We have an entire page dedicated to what our proprietary VR Arcade Management Software does, so you can check that out at your leisure. In short, it is designed automate many of the processes inside of your arcade so you don’t have to be. One very important aspect is how it manages the Licensing fees every month so your arcade remains compliant.

You’ll always know which games are hot and which games are not.

Here is where we really shine…the Installation phase. We will ship all of the computers to your location and get them paired up with monitors and the VR headgear. While we don’t handle the physical build out of the space, we do handle just about everything else. We will make sure that each booth is setup and optimized for the best play experience. This includes setting up all of the equipment while making sure that the sensors are placed in a manner that eliminates interference.

Part of what makes our installation so excellent is that we spend a portion of that time Training you and your staff on how to operate your new VR Arcade. We provide you information that will help you excel at Customer Experience. This starts with helping customers get into the goggles and explaining game play and goes all the way through best practices for Marketing and Operations.

Once your facility is setup and tested we go through one more phase and help you with Game Selection. Our Software runs in dozens of VR Arcades around the planet and we have collected vast amounts of data on which games do best. We’ll take the time to understand (or help you define) your ideal client and we’ll make sure you have the right games available for them. This is important because if you give customers too many choices, they spend a lot of their time just figuring out what they want to play. Neither you or they want to pay for that time.

Getting your facility setup and operational is really just the beginning of our relationship. As a client of Private Label VR you will be invited into our exclusive PLVR Club. There you will find access to all of the information, products and support you need to grow your brand new business.

If you’re interested in learning how we can get you all setup with your own branded VR Arcade, contact us.

June 13, 2017July 16, 2017

Why a VR Arcade as a New Attraction at Your Bowling Center?

We had such a blast at this year’s Bowl Expo that we have decided to hit a few state level shows. Send an e-mail with the subject line of “State Shows” to find out if we’ll be at a show near you. Thank you BPAA. Awesome time!!

This post was originally written for the good people stopping by booth 916 at the world’s largest bowling show, #BowlExpo17. We wanted to be able to answer one very important question for you…

Should you consider a VR Arcade as a new attraction at your bowling center?

At every show in every year it’s always the same thing. Maybe it’s not the same THING, but it’s the one thing. That one MUST HAVE new experience that will help drive customers to your venue. Want to know what is so cool about this years?

It’s the one attraction where your customers can play mini-golf, experience the feeling of rock climbing. drive any kind of vehicle you can imagine or shoot and be shot all inside of a 10’x10′ space. This, and so much more is the promise of Virtual Reality.

Please note: experiencing VR images on a 2 dimensional flat screen (like your phone or a monitor) is like saying you understand how hot boiling water is while in a Jacuzzi. That said, here are just a few of the dozens and dozens of experiences that already exist:

Like Glo-Golf with better ROI and less space

Climbing Walls will seem easy after this VR trip.

When was the last time you drove a train?

If you like “shooters” there are sooooo many options.

This was my favorite shoot em up in VR

These Zombies will only TRY to eat you in VR

You can be a Pirate? In Space?? Yes Please!

You can really get a workout in these experiences.

Want to run the ultimate obstacle course?

And this is barely the beginning. With over 60 (and growing weekly) licensable titles your customers will have so many great reasons to keep coming back for more.

What does VR gaming look like?

VR Gaming is like nothing you’ve ever experienced. And the only way to truly get it, is to slap on a pair of High End goggles connected to a super fast computer. That stuff your friend was showing you connected to a phone shouldn’t be called VR.

Although it looks totally lame in 2D relative to what’s really happening, check out this video of me playing a fun bow and arrow game in “The Lab”:

Should we be working together?

We came to #BowlExpo17 to find forward thinking centers that want to make this a reality for their customers. We know that bowling centers and VR are a tremendous match. If you are wanting a new attraction for your center, look how easy we make it to work together.

We have two options designed to get you operational based on your business’s level of tech know how and available time. The “VR Arcade Business in a Box” option takes care of your every need concierge style. The “Assisted Do it Yourselfer” plan gives you (or your smart techs) the information and training they need to get your VR Arcade up and running. Both of these plans come with our amazing VR Arcade Management Software that will help you manage your arcade and the game licensing costs.

As our valuable customer you’ll become a member of the PLVRClub where you’ll find all kinds of best practices, content and special offers. There is also a forum where you can interact with other VR Arcade Owners who bond together over their desire for all of the VR Arcades to succeed.

In short, VR Arcades will pop up in your town faster than escape rooms did. You may be in a perfect position to open the first one in your area with little alteration to your existing center. If this is something that appeals to you, be sure to contact us!

June 5, 2017September 7, 2017

5 More Things VR Arcade Owners Must Consider

Helping New and Future VR Arcade Owners

So this part two of a blogpost that would have been waaaayyyyyyy too long for one post. If you want to see the first five things I suggest, you should click over to 5 Things VR Arcade Owners Must Consider.

Since the list isn’t in any specific order you can stay here and read these five first:

VR Arcade Marketing Ideas — Marketing for your VR Arcade

6. How you will market your VR Arcade

It doesn’t really matter what your business is…you have GOT TO figure out how you will let the public know about it. Virtual Reality Arcades have it easy. Why? Because it’s sooooo visual. There are plenty of cool pix and great videos already on the web. As if that wasn’t enough you can always create new content every time a new customer comes in (be sure to get them to sign the video release form).

Setup a YouTube channel. Make sure you have a Facebook place/page setup. Instagram and Snapchat can both be great vehicles to gain exposure for your new attraction as well. Make sure you have an e-mail newsletter and SMS Marketing solution too. I could go on, but you should check out this post about Social Media Mastery for FECs for now.

7. VR Arcade Management Software

VR Arcade Management Software can be something as simple as a “Game Clock” and as complicated as the tracking of each play by game, by booth, by day and making sure the developers are paid for their work. That last part is important and will be the reason some VR Arcades get shut down…not paying their game licensing fees. A good software can also provide you with a leaderboard, a rewards program, an in goggle game selector and more. Actually, if you want to check out a good VR Arcade Management Software, you could just click that link. We’ve got you covered.

We can help!! — Please Operate Your VR Arcade Legally

8. Are you going to operate your VR Arcade legally?

This is just between us. You don’t have to answer or comment, but you do need to think about this…seriously. IF you are running a VR Arcade and NOT paying for the minutes that your customers rack up you are doing one of two things:

1. You’re only offering your customers FREE experiences which is better than nothing, but certainly not giving them the best available.

2. You are cheating the system.

Video Games are a lot like movies. You can’t just go to best buy, pick up a blue ray disk and then start selling tickets to people to come watch. Go read point #7 again about how our software helps with licensing.

9. How do you get more referral business

The single best way to get more referrals is to ask for them. When do you ask? When people are at the height of excitement. AKA right after they finish their time having a blast in your place. But here’s the thing, it’s awkward to be like “can you refer 10 of your friends who might like to come play”. An easier approach is to encourage people to share their experience on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or others. Simply have them write a post and tag themselves at your location and give them a pretzel, or a cookie, or 3 tokens or 2 minutes of VR or whatever you want. You will be amazed at how often people do this. Especially if you give them their “gift” on their next visit. See what we did there?

Oh yeah, and of course our software has a rewards program…see point 7.

10. What will you charge for your VR Arcade?

Man, isn’t this the $100 question on the list? Well, maybe not $100, but like $60…for an hour. I can’t tell you what to charge but hopefully I can give you some ideas. VR Junkies, our sister company and largest VR Arcade group in the U.S. charges $1.00 a minute and $45.00 an hour if they buy in bulk. I’ve heard of other groups charging $25.00 for an 8 minutes experience and I’ve seen places do $10 for 20 minutes. You’ve really got to know your demographics. It makes sense to set your price and give people 2 for 1 time for their first experience. That way you’ve set your value AND rewarded the early adopters. It’s always easy to lower your prices…raising them is another story.

So that’s 10 things you need to be thinking about. Okay, well it’s 10 if you went to the other post called 5 Things VR Arcade Owners Must Consider.

What did you learn?

What did I miss?

What will you do differently?