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“No words or explanation can do justice to the experience that Free Roam VR offers” – Parineeta Rajgarhia, Zero Latency VR

“No words or explanation can do justice to the experience that Free Roam VR offers” – Parineeta Rajgarhia, Zero Latency VR

In a conversation with Parineeta Rajgarhia, Zero Latency VR we talked about Zero Latency VR, infrastructure involved, future of VR in India and more.

Parineeta herself experienced VR a few years back and was so blown away by it that she went on set up Zero Latency VR in Mumbai after that. And hence, before diving deeper into the topic we asked Parineeta to take us through the journey of experiencing free-roam VR with Zero Latency a few years ago to now setting up one India.

She replied, “The chance of trying Zero Latency was led by my passion to travel and try new experiences in Bangkok in January 2019. We were there for a family holiday when I planned to try this, and I was blown away! It was an unbelievable experience as to how it would transport a person to a completely different world – one minute they were living in their world and the next minute they’re lost in the world of VR. I had never tried anything like this before and made me think that India was definitely missing out on an experience like this. Indians need experiences like this to enjoy on weekends and a change from usual dinners, movies and theatres. It was something revolutionary and VR is the future, hence it made business sense too. Incidentally, being the wife of an avid gamer, added to my confidence that the concept was the future of the burgeoning gaming culture in India, and which better city to start from Mumbai”

We asked her, what makes Zero Latency VR from other traditional VR Arcade zones.

Parineeta said, “Unlike traditional VR, Zero Latency’s VR experience allows the players to move around freely in a space of ~2000 sq. feet and play along with their friends and family in the same game. It is an active social experience where the body is the controller but your mind believes it is real. It is a much more immersive experience that allows up to 8 players to be together talk and coordinate with each other in their avatar form! Further, with the incorporation of the social element in our games, we have both co-op games as well as player vs player games which takes VR gaming in the country to the next level!”

Reception (Source: Zero Latency VR – Mumbai)

Being able to freely explore the VR world while not being held back by the immobile equipment is a interesting idea. We were curious and wanted to know more about the “free roam”, so we asked her what this “free-roam” virtual reality is and how it works.

Parineeta explained, ” ‘FreeRoam‘ is a term that refers to the ability to roam freely. Virtual reality transports users into a virtual world undeterred by wires, where they can roam freely in a warehouse scale-space unconstrained by cables and other immobile equipment. In free-roam virtual reality, perceptual tricks such as “Change Blindness Redirection” are used to create the illusion of a virtual environment larger than what is physically available. Players’ physical locations are tracked using motion capture technology, allowing for accurate generation of in-game virtual locations for their avatars. Proximity sensors are used to warn players about potential dangers and keep them from leaving the physical play area.”

Parineeta also told us about the how infrastructure is a challenge in running such a project.

Infrastructure is the main challenge in setting up a project of this scale“, she said. “The biggest challenge being the right space! Imagine finding a space of 2000 sq feet pillar less area (almost the size of a tennis court) in the heart of a city, that was the toughest, to begin with! The other challenges being importing the equipment from Australia, setting it up according to the requirements laid out by the parent company at a certain temperature and 24/7 high-speed internet for the smooth running of the games!”

More than 2000 sq feet pillar less area to roam. Part of the Zero Latency VR experience
VR Arena (Source: Zero Latency VR – Mumbai)

She further also talked about the manpower involved. “Manpower in our case are our Game Masters”. They bring the experience to life right from helping the players to choose the games, explaining them and making them play and ultimately have the best time ever. With the concept being completely new to the audience, we need to make sure that we choose the right game masters who themselves understand the tech and the concept well to further help the players.”

We put in an extraordinary effort in selecting them she said. She also mentioned that she personally is involved in the “process of selection and training” of ‘Game Masters’ from time to time.

Playing games in VR is fun, but one might think that over time the experience might become stale, so did we. We asked Parineeta, how often are new games added to the VR ? And which developers they come from?

Parineeta answered, “Zero Latency’s philosophy around adding new games has been to attract people from all walks of life to enjoy the Free Roam VR Experience. We want people to enjoy it as an experience with friends and family and hence when we launched Zero Latency in Mumbai in 2019, we had almost 4 games that were a mix of both mind-bending games as well as intense shooting games! As the demand and market for e-sports was progressively picking up in India we launched the e-sports Player vs Player version of Zero Latency’s game “Sol Raiders” at the beginning of 2020. With the rising demand from kids (below 13 years) to try Free Roam VR, there was a new game “Mission Maybee” launched in 2021. Mission Maybe is targeted at kids of 8-10 years and it was launched by Zero Latency Inc in partnership with Dark Slope Inc of Scary Girl VR. Further, zombies being the favorite theme of players in India and globally, there was a new game “Undead Arena”, a sequel to one of the most loved games “Zombie Survival” in 2021 by Zero Latency, Australia. So, there has been almost one if not two games launched every year and the global company is dedicated to offering these new games through tie-ups with other developers globally or in-house innovation!”

Parineeta also mentioned a new game ‘Far Cry VR’ in partnership with Ubisoft Inc. “Overall we believe that new games will be constantly added not only for the gamers but to let everyone explore and enjoy the Free Roam VR experience, which is the future!” she said.

VR is often referred to as The Future of Gaming” but the affordability, equipment involved & the amount of space it takes as compared to other gaming experiences is holding it back. “What are your thoughts on this?“, we asked Parineeta.

“Yes we do believe that VR gaming would be the highest growth driver for the gaming industry in the years to come but the factor that restricts the adoption of VR in gaming is the cost and the absence of social experience”, she said. “There is intense competition among players (HTC, Facebook, Google, Sony) in the VR gaming market to provide cost-effective VR headsets and penetrate the market to increase the consumer base. Further, millennials and Gen-Z are more attracted to premium VR gaming experiences that offer heart pounding lifelike experiences in simulated setup along with their friends.

Hence, for VR to become the mainstream in gaming we believe companies need to shift their offerings to the active and social gaming experience, that is a step ahead from the current individual and stationary concept of VR gaming companies that focus on VR gaming arenas and free roam VR experiences for people to enjoy the experience along with their friends and family would be the leaders in the segment.

Further, with age and gender not being a bar anymore to enjoy such experience, we believe there is a huge opportunity that lies ahead for the VR gaming companies.”

As we are amidst a world-wide pandemic right now, most of the areas in Maharashtra are under strict lock-down due to the severity of the situation. We wondered what that means for business? How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the company?

Parineeta gave us some insights. She told us, Zero Latency Mumbai was opened in August 2019 and within 8 months of operation we were shut for almost the next 8 months! “We were open for the next 4 months again when the second wave kicked in and it is getting tough to find our feet now”, she said. With gaming and VR experiences being a nascent industry in India, there is little coverage on the impact on entertainments formats like ours compared to other options like movies and theatres.

In the current scenario too, entertainment was the first to shut and last to open which has made it tough to get people back after a break. Further, being a start-up has its own challenges which restrict our ability in terms of marketing spends to bring back the customers. In a format like ours, where we can hold private sessions of max 8 people at the same time (thereby creating a small social bubble) and every piece of equipment being sanitized after every gameplay (even pre-covid) needs to get across to the customers. We understand that risk is limited in our arena but we have to give the customers the time to make an informed decision and hence, getting back the footfalls has been quite challenging.

For the revival, we need support from all stakeholders in the system and with the damage being so huge, the road to recovery looks slow.

VR Donning room (Source: Zero Latency VR – Mumbai)

The situation right now looks pretty bad worldwide, so we asked what the post-pandemic plans for the company are.

“As we believe, customer is the king; hence their safety will be our priority. We will be re-opening following complete sanitization protocols and we plan to continue holding private sessions only with prior appointments”, she said.

They will also be launching ‘Far Cry VR’ when they reopen.

Then we asked Parineeta, “What according to you is the future of VR in a country like India?

She replied, “The global VR gaming market size (2019) was estimated at ~USD 12 billion and expected to grow at ~30% CAGR from 2020 to 2027. Further, The Asia Pacific dominated the market with a ~40% share of global revenue and is expected to do so for the next 5-7 years. Within the region, South Korea and India are expected to witness remarkable demand for VR games led by the higher disposable income of these countries and technological advancements in the gaming and entertainment industry.
Further, Indians are now ready and waiting for global experiences in gaming to set foot in India. E-sports, which is the new rage in the Indian gaming arena will now set foot in the VR gaming industry and there is a huge potential there.

Being in the 4th industrial revolution, where technology is the king and India is leading the world in fintech and many other areas, I think VR gaming is still at the tip of the iceberg not only in India but globally too!”

On an ending note we asked Parineeta if she would like to give a message to our readers that are interested in the VR Gaming world and want to dive deeper into it.

Here’s what Parineeta had to say:

“No words or explanation can do justice to the experience that Free Roam VR has to offer, you might have tried VR and gaming of all sorts, but what you are still missing out on is “Zero Latency”.
This moment you’re living in your own world, the next you’re lost in ours. You know you’re just visiting, but your mind is convinced otherwise. Your heart is pounding, the adrenaline is flowing, you try to remind yourself that these worlds aren’t real… but the feelings definitely are.
One moment is all it takes to be completely consumed in a world that will blow your mind forever. #Explore #Play #Conquer”.

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