A partnership has been signed between HTC and esports bar franchise Meltdown which will see bar patrons given the opportunity to try out and compete against one another on the HTC Vive from November 16th. 
Not all Meltdown bars are part of this testing phase for these, which will be known as ‘Vive Nights’, and the first night will be for those in London, Paris and Cologne. The aim will be to see how VR can work with esports right now, and how players take to it.
Survios’ Raw Data, an FPS made for VR, will be the feature title during the initial series of events. Players at the first Vive Nights can partner up to try Raw Data in co-op mode, there’ll be prizes up for grabs including HTC Vive setups with Raw Data, private Vive nights for winners and their friends and Meltdown bar tabs.
Jon Goddard, Marketing Director, VR Europe at HTC said: “We’re really excited about our partnership with Meltdown, which will allow even more people to experience Vive. “We understand that Vive is an expensive purchase, and to truly convince people of the possibilities that room-scale VR allows, they have to try it. Not everyone can get to the big gaming conferences, so by partnerships such as this, we’re continuing our mission to make Vive accessible to everyone – from gamers, to tech and entertainment enthusiasts alike.”
Sophia Metz, Founder of Meltdown, added: “Virtual reality is the future of gaming, and we are thrilled to be able to offer this immersive experience to our customers thanks to the HTC VIVE.” Meltdown has a host of locations across Europe, the first of which opened in 2012, and earlier this year it was announced that entering America and Asia is very much on the cards.
Esports Insider says: The potential of VR in esports is huge, and whilst many are of the view that it’s not quite there yet, testing this out at a bar should sound like a fun idea to a great many. Based in London we’re looking forward to these Vive Nights already.