Changing the game: Developers show off latest gadgets, games at GDC

Global Business

GAME DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE

The largest gaming conference in the world for developers, known as the Game Developers Conference or GDC is wrapping up in San Francisco. While many companies are focusing on bringing gaming into the home, others are hoping to bring it out into large public spaces.

At the Game Developer’s Conference, gaming becomes performance art. Creative developers show how a few sensors with a cardboard box and a colander can excite audiences in a public space.

Decades ago, video gaming crowds at shopping mall arcades led to big business – a far cry from today. But South Korea’s NEXPERIENCE believes it can help bring that same thrill back to the shopping mall with its motion simulators.

“We are focusing on the shopping mall to distribute our simulator and deploy our motion chairs, then the shopping mall and arcade center bring more customer to their places,” Yonce Kim, NEXPERIENCE business manager said.


Alternate game controllers found at GDC


Even Hollywood director Steven Spielberg – along with several studios – have raised $11 million to launch their first virtual reality storefront at a Los Angeles mall later this year.

And with Skonec Entertainment, it’s go big or go home with VR. They sell a complete package that includes motion capture markers, a computer and Wi-Fi system on the back.

Skonec’s technology will be arriving at amusement parks and shopping centers in Korea and Japan in the next few months. The company is also eyeing markets like China and the U.S..

At a time where more people stay at home to play games and shop online, transporting people into a full-blown, virtual world also offers hope at getting more shoppers back into real world-at the mall, arcades and amusement parks.


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