YEI’s 2nd attempt at Kickstarting it’s wearable motion control technology, PrioVR, has been greeted warmly, with it’s new (albeit lower) goal being reached in less than 24 hours of launch.

The Suit Is Back

It’s been a long road to Kickstarter success for YEI Technologies, the inventors of the PrioVR motion control / capture system. We’ve been following them for some time now and were a little upset to see them fail to reach their last Kickstarter campaign’s goal back in September of last year. Defiant, Paul Yost, CEO of YEI, proclaimed to us later that PrioVR was “too good to give up on” – the promise was that YEI would regroup and give the campaign another shot very soon.

Last month at we ran into Paul again at CES 2014 and not only were the team’s spirits seemingly rejuvenated, the latest version of the PrioVR motion control suit was being demonstrated and was garnering lots of very positive attention. Paul once again vowed that they’d be back with another Kickstarter, early in 2014.

Last week, that campaign started and, with a more modest (down from the last campaign’s $225k) but still healthy target of $75,000, met the goal within 24 hours. It seems that previous backers were quick to turn out in support once again. Also, the new Kickstarter video – featuring the new Zombie game built with PrioVR suit support, and a reworked set of reward tiers, seems YEI have managed to make things a whole lot more attractive to backers this time around.

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The suit is of course an intriguing prospect for gamers, but it’s the ability to offer an extremely low-cost but effective motion capture system for independent developers that offer the campaign a boost in my opinion. In any case, with 43 days of the campaign left to run as of writing, the YEI crew are home and dry. It’ll be interesting to see how much beyond the campaign’s previous finishing total of $113,199 the team manage to raise and what stretch goals they may announce to maximise on the campaign’s success.

Backers can look forward to receiving their rewards shipping around June this year.

PrioVR Kickstarter

Full Disclosure: YEI Technology is running a PrioVR ad on Road to VR.

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Paul James
Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • Kemic
    • Paul James

      Thanks Kemic added. Although, you could say we had it covered with the ad. ;)

  • Outer

    With all this tech being developed, honestly feels like the carts being put before the horse all across kickstarter. There are so many different tracking solutions and vr headsets coming out that one has to wonder will game developers actually support this massive plethora of devices?? I mean, just look at how often the PC is neglected, and the exclusives between PS and Xbox.. I feel like were gonna end up with a whole lotta brilliant, yet unsupported, redundant tech in the next few years.

  • Pontianak

    I like this technology they are developing, but I’m not certain where I would use it in my apartment or home so much. Not enough room to move around in a VR environment with this, which is why I bought the Omni instead. This would be better in a arcade setting perhaps?

    • Michael

      This is why they are offering the upper body kit as well. You can walk around in the omni and interact with your hands. This tech has a lot of possibilities if done right. Virtual offices and getaways, 3d sculpting and then printing, and the two nunchucks allow you to move around without having to actually move. I do think that some discussion should be opened on making a small, light, backpack computer for this type of tech, but that is a different discussion. With good ,fast sdk integration this can open doors to many imersive setups.