CharacterBank's goal to create 'VR's Mario'

gamesindustry.biz:

It's often hard to track the success of VR in part because it straddles the line between ubiquity and obsolescence. You'll find VR experiences in shopping centers and event spaces around the world, yet the market beyond one-off experiences showcasing the worth of the tech as a viable medium for long-form experience and interaction remains low.

Internal Meta figures place sales of the device at 20 million across all SKUs since 2019, with the original PSVR sales topping at five million units as of 2020 alongside the estimated 600,000 units sold to date as of May for PSVR 2.

These aren't bad numbers, yet it should also be noted that this places VR's market penetration far below that of the broader games industry, with just 1.3% market penetration in 2023 versus 45% for the broader industry, expected to rise just 0.4% in the next four years.

Still, this is a passionate and dedicated community of players, and many would argue that all the industry is missing is that so-called 'system seller', the unique project that sells the potential of the medium to the masses. Experiences like Beat Saber and Half Life Alyx are good, sure, but their appeal hasn't yet expanded beyond an audience of the already-converted.

There are a lot of companies vying to be the one who creates that medium-defining experience, and one Japanese company hoping to elevate VR by this metric is the Kyoto-based CharacterBank.

There's a few reasons why Japan seems like the perfect market to develop and perfect VR experiences for mass-market appeal. Particularly in Tokyo, the presence of VR centers from pop-up Evangelion simulators to spaces like Red Tokyo Tower are not only noticeably common, but popular with locals and tourists alike. Even at world-leading