Although there seems to be a genuine interest in VR arcades, things are not necessarily as cut-and-dry as they may seem. Bristol’s VRX Gaming was forced to close up shop just three months after opening its doors. This is not a prominent sign by any means, as it is expected most VR arcades will face similar struggles in the near future.
Bristol VR Arcade Shuts Down
It is rather apparent the coming years will be crucial for the VR industry. While industry experts still predict major growth, the reality may work out very differently. Not all companies will succeed in the long run, with many of them expected to fail in the coming two to three years. Bristol’s VRX Gaming is a clear example in this regard, as the company has not had the best three-month period.
More specifically, the VR arcade opened its doors earlier in 2019. At that time, there was a lot of genuine excitement regarding this particular venture. VR arcades have become a lot more popular on a global scale in the past few years. However, it seems the VRX Gaming venture hasn’t gone according to plan in the slightest. Things even got so bad the team has been forced to shut down its venture altogether.
VRX Gaming’s Callum Urquhart explains:
“The rent was actually fairly reasonable but we couldn’t negotiate the business rates or service charge, which were both very high. Those three rates combined meant we had to pay more than £2,000 for a tiny place, which is idiotic. If we had known the costs beforehand we simply wouldn’t have opened there. High rates are crippling small businesses such as mine.”
Even as a company operating under a temporary license, VRX Gaming was not able to solve these problems in a prominent manner. As such, the only option was to shut down the project after just three short months. For now, there is no indication the business will be resumed in the future, which is not entirely all that surprising.
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