Regular readers of VRFocus will know that manufacturers of virtual reality (VR) peripherals have come up with some inventive solutions for moving about in virtual worlds. One such controller is VirZOOM, a bike which users pedal to control their movement. Pre-orders for the device launched in December 2015, and at next weeks Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) VirZOOM Inc. will officially unveil its product on the HTC Vive booth.
Shipments to customers who pre-ordered VirZOOM are due to begin this month, with the system including the VirZOOM Bike Controller, the VirZOOM Arcade suite of VR exercise games downloadable from the Steam Store, a free PC game controller emulator, a free SDK for the Unity game engine, and free integration with the Strava fitness app.
“We’re thrilled to finally be able to show off our market-ready VirZOOM VR game system after years of design, engineering, and polish by our veteran development team with feedback from over 60 alpha and beta sites,” remarked VirZOOM’s Co-Founder and CEO, Eric Janszen. “E3 attendees who try VirZOOM at HTC Vive’s booth should plan to be astonished.”
“By combining interactive entertainment with the areas of health and fitness, VirZoom is uniquely poised to introduce VR to a broad range of audiences. HTC is excited to partner with VirZoom at E3 to showcase the variety of experiences available for Vive,” said Ryan Hoopingarner, Director, Product Marketing – VR, HTC Vive.
VirZOOM is compatible with a wide range of head-mounted displays (HMDs) including HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR. The device retails for $399.95 USD and can currently be purchased from virzoom.com. Next month other online retailers will begin stocking the controller and later this year VirZOOM will be heading to retail stores.
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