SPREE Interactive, a specialist in commercial VR attractions has signed its first, exclusive licensing partnership with VR Nerds to distribute the world’s first all-in-one mobile VR eSports experience for Tower Tag.
Tower Tag is currently the largest VR eSport game in the world, with over one million plays to date. The partnership will see the creation of a new SPREE Arena, in which up to eight players will be able to compete against each other or work as a team against a team of AI bots.
The licensing partnership is one among a suite of new updates for SPREE Interactive which in November 2020 secured a seven-digit investment of an undisclosed amount from two strategic and two financial investors. The firm will use the latest investment to expand its global operations.
Among its objectives is to tap int the growing demand of shopping centres across the US to diversify their offering as an impact of the coronavirus pandemic. With over 3 billion gamers globally by 2023, the global gaming market is estimated to reach $92.31 billion in the next six years. Meanwhile, esports revenues are estimated to reach $1.5bn by 2023.
Combined with the need for retail destinations to diversify their offering, SPREE Interactive believes there to be a lucrative future in combining all these elements.
“Covid has fueled even more demand from shopping malls which now desperately need alternate revenue streams and innovative ways to utilize the floor space especially with foot traffic fluctuating and increasing in various markets,” said Jonathan Nowak Delgado, founder and managing director, SPREE Interactive.
SPREE’s products deliver one of the highest ROI in the industry. Operators are recouping their investment in less than six months generating additional revenue with an average of 2,500 plays per location, per month, boosting ticket sales and revenue for its enterprise clients like Family Entertainment Centers.
Founded in 2017, formerly known as Holodeck VR, SPREE Interactive enables their clients, global entertainment retail chains, to successfully re-attract players into their locations.
SPREE has previously billed its content strategy as ‘the Netflix of the hyper-immersive social virtual reality experiences,’ through which it will enable third-party content developers – such as VR Nerds – to develop for its open platform.
SPREE Investor, Stephan Berendsen, founder and managing director of the Germany-based firm, Berendsen Holding GmbH said: “Having sold my own company to Disney 15 years ago, I know what it takes for a company to become attractively scalable and profitable – and SPREE has the potential for both.”
SPREE’s founder and managing director Jonathan Nowak Delgado, concluded: “In order to continue to be on the forefront of the VR attractions industry, we will continue to build upon proprietary, patented sensor fusion technology, strategic partnerships and cutting edge content distribution platform as we plan our Series A round later this year.”
