AEXLAB, the studio behind VR shooter Vail (2024), announced it’s opened a crowd-investment campaign to support ongoing development of the game. Additionally, the studio revealed the multiplayer shooter has generated over $5.5 million in revenue to date, owing to its 300,000+ unique players across PC VR and Quest platforms.
Unlike typical crowdfunding campaigns, which promise a product in exchange for startup funds, the Miami, Florida-based studio is pursuing the equity crowd-investment route to fund ongoing support of Vail.
Similar to how Virtuix supported the production of its Omni One VR treadmill in 2023, AEXLAB is seeking individual investors looking to purchase common stock in the company. The studio says on its invest page that it’s now accepting minimum investments of $1,000 from individual investors, noting that its share price is currently $36.52.
Notably, shares in private companies are usually illiquid, meaning there is no ready market to buy and sell them like in public stock exchanges. Recouping on that investment requires one of two major scenarios: the studio is acquired by another company, or the studio launches an initial public offering (IPO), both of which are considered long-term exits; the studio notes in its FAQ that this can typically take “approximately 5-10 years” or longer.
While it’s anyone’s guess just how fast XR will grow, it’s clear AEXLAB is reaching out primarily to individuals who are not only banking on explosive growth in the XR industry in that time frame, but also betting on the company’s ability to successfully navigate that growth.
“We’ve built something extraordinary with your support, and it’s important to us to give longstanding community members like you the chance to be part of this next chapter,” the studio says. “This is your opportunity to join us as we scale VAIL VR to heights previously only dreamed of.”
How high can Vail go? Since its launch on SteamVR and Quest earlier this year, the game has keyed into a unique free-to-play/paid hybrid model, offering up its Citadel location for free, including 1v1 battles and a playground to test out its various systems and weapons, while selling access to the rest of the game, which includes the full slate of multiplayer modes. By all accounts, it seems to be working.
At the time of this writing, the game currently sits at a [4.8/5] on the Horizon Store for Quest from over 13,000 user reviews, and a ‘Very Positive’ overall user score on Steam from over 2,300 user reviews.
