In an open letter to the location-based entertainment/virtual reality community, chief business officer Michael Festa acknowledged the challenges facing the sector and offered trends and information to help the industry move forward.
“The last four years have been an incredible privilege for me. I contributed to the birth of an industry, launched nine games into the market, built and ran a VR arcade, and visited at least a hundred other arcades across the world. I know what the frontlines look like and it’s been humbling to see so many entrepreneurs put everything they have into making something this special,” said Festa.
“That’s what makes this incredibly difficult time even more difficult for me personally. I have tremendous respect for what everyone in the LBE VR community has sacrificed to make it this far, and COVID-19 has jeopardized that in many ways.
“It is important to me SpringboardVR has an open & transparent communication channel where we can share trends and information on how we are helping the LBE VR community get through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the coming weeks and months, Springboard will be sharing data around what COVID-19 has looked like through the lens of an LBE VR platform that manages hundreds of venues worldwide.
The first of these is the results and analysis of an Operator Survey Springboard launched at the start of March to monitor reactions to the Covid-19 crisis, and can be viewed here.