In Russia, since the beginning of the year there has been a 24% increase in the number of companies in the field of virtual reality, which work in franchising, said the expert portal Franshiza.ru Anna Rozhdestvenskaya.

Such dynamics, she said, can be explained by the emergence of projects on the market, which can be used in shopping malls in small areas up to 15 "squares". Their average price does not exceed 1,5 million rubles, writes Inc. Russia. Previously, the most popular were full-fledged VR-parks with an area of 150 square meters, and their opening required up to six million rubles.

Franchises with a small area of points could become popular due to the fact that the parent companies have realized what business model will be more sustainable, the founder and CEO of virtual reality parks network ARena Space and ARena Lab Vasily Ryzhonkov said. Also, new technological solutions, such as autonomous helmets, reduce the cost of opening a point for the company or a potential franchisee. According to him, investment in game development for a few years dropped from 500 thousand to 200 thousand dollars, and to open a single point with 6-10 autonomous helmets may require about 4 million rubles.

Companies that operate in this industry (mostly VR gaming clubs) are developing both small arenas and large parks. Franchise projects along with brands offer equipment, appropriate software and game licenses. Some of the players are engaged in virtual educational projects. Huawei predicts that the market of virtual and augmented reality in Russia will grow by 37% on average every year and will reach 7 billion rubles by 2025.

According to Rozhdestvenskaya, today most new offerings in the industry are without a registered trademark, and under franchise often sell equipment and a starter set of games without further support and regular content updates, according to the publication.

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Author: Ksenia Gustova