HTC’s out of home VR initiative is taking shape as the company officially unveils plans for Viveport Arcade in China and Taiwan and a partnership with Leke VR’s “offline content distribution system” in a thousand locations before the close of 2016 and thousands more by 2017’s end.

HTC continues to explore every opportunity to capitalize on its partnership with Valve, and its Vive VR system. In addition to launching its own proprietary VR content portal Viveport the company is investing heavily in the creation of virtual reality content with it’s ViveX program.

Now, HTC is looking to position itself as a potential leader in out of home VR entertainment sector with the launch of their new Viveport Arcade initiative alongside a newly announced strategic partnership with out of home entertainment specialists Leke VR, utilising their VRLe content distribution system. So what can visitors expect from the new “Experience stores”? This promotional video gives a quick look at the VRLe content delivery system as well as a peek at various arcade-style interactive experiences that could feature at the new Leke VR stores.

“This strategic partnership between Vive and Leke VR is a clear win-win for the both parties, while also helping to accelerate advancement of the VR industry as a whole in China,” said Alvin W. Graylin, China Regional President of Vive, HTC. “Leke VR has extensive offline channels, while we bring a broad range of high-quality content through Viveport Arcade that has been optimized for out-of-home entertainment. By combining resources, consumers, VR developers and VR arcade operators will all benefit.”

VR developers take note too, HTC are looking upon this new initiative as another channel via which to monetise your creations. Whilst Leke VR will provide the distribution platform, venues and facilities, HTC is in charge of curating and channelling content for users to play. “Vive will be in charge of operations management and market support for the content in order to ensure an optimized VR experience for consumers. The partnership also stipulates that different feature content will be recommended to offline users each season, multiplying the cash flow for content developers.”

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“The arrival of hundreds of premium Viveport Arcade VR content on the VRLe offline content distribution platform provides offline VR consumers with more diversified user experiences and brings the total number of titles available on the VRLe platform to 300,” saidEvan He, CEO and founder of Beijing Leke VR Technology Co., Ltd. “The objective of this strategic partnership between Leke VR and Vive is to jointly promote the development of the VR content ecosystem. With this major boost, the VRLe offline content distribution platform will seek to continue enriching user experiences and cooperate with more VR content partners set on revolutionizing the VR experience.”

The partnership is already in full flow with 1000 locations planned to be up and running across China and Taiwan before the close of 2016 and 1000s more scheduled to be brought online within 2017. An ambitious plan indeed.

Perhaps understandably then, HTC is keen to hear from developers and “experience store” (i.e. venue) owners to help them deliver. You can register your interest in the Viveport Arcade program by heading here.

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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.
  • Charles Tio

    Is it “Leke” or “Luke” VR? or are they two separate entities?

    • Kevin Williams

      Leke VR, who runs VRLe in China

      • Another thread elevated to star wars memes. Luke, May the force be with you. https://forums.oculus.com/community/discussion/comment/460252
        Kevin tried to warn darth luckey, uh I mean palmy, uh I mean sandals. The west could have owned this market if luckey and carmy had listened to Kevin and worked with more people instead of their greed now have them embroiled in reputation destroying lawsuits on theft and lies, instead china now gets to set the trail. And silly zuck using the Facebook shareholders meeting to attack trump was not very smaet, at least palmy tried to support make America great again.

        • Bryan Ischo

          What market could the west have owned? The VR arcade market? That’s a non-market destined for rapid failure.

          • Kevin claimed at oculus forums that the commercial market is what could have saved darth luckey. Darth luckey original “vision” for vr was a vr arcade facility, as documented years ago by palmy posts at mtbs3d. Denny unger (starseed) used to complain all the demo’s at the conferences were tightly controlled, short experiences. Everything worked, people didn’t get sick. That it would not translate well to home environments where there was less control. So what do we have now, oculus guardian issues where people get sick, punch their wifes jaw, etc, wells are poisoned, customers are permanently lost, hurting everyone in the industry. Why don’t you have a roller coaster in your backyard? Or a 40 foot imax movie screen? Or a 200 mph NASCAR track? Not practical, good vr in a commercial facility will always have certain advantages that can’t be replicated at home. Palmy and carmy spit on Kevin and others, handing the business to china with their ignorance and infighting. Why anyone would work with those clowns at this point is a mystery, they Rob, lie, cheat, steal, will rake anyone that trusts them over the coals, and for all their evil it didn’t get them anywhere but for things blowing up in their facebookulus faces. Now palmy sued into poverty, Kevin broke, carmack a laughing stock too dumb to bleachbit his hard drive properly during lawsuits, etc, while china laughing at all the clowns in the west who just handed it all away to them. At least trump just appointed a guy that will make it harder for china to railroad all these clowns like they have done. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-21/trump-appoints-death-china-author-peter-navarro-head-trade-office-hints-beijing-trad

    • Vance Fan

      Hi, I am Vance Fan of Beijing Leke VR Technology Co., Ltd. Any queries are welcomed , Email:fanzz@lekevr.com

  • nebošlo

    Looking forward to having the nearest one a short airplane trip away -.-

  • Zhizhong Fan

    Hi, I am Vance Fan of Beijing Leke VR Technology Co., Ltd. Any queries are welcomed , Email:fanzz@lekevr.com