“Being healthy doesn’t have to be boring, it can also be fun. We see a future where parents will say to their kids, ‘Why don’t you go play video games outside?”‘ laughs Christopher Olympo, co-founder of Arcadia.tv, a small company And medium-sized already have a foothold in the future.
The sentence leaves much more thought that video games, for several years, chime in with a sedentary lifestyle and poor health. Arcadia.tv He wants to change all of that.
The 10-employee company, which relies on investor support, including Kibecor, is working with virtual reality, sports and video games. We mix everything together and get a product with strong growth in demand.
“We combine the best of physical and digital sports, e-sports. “We are using virtual reality to create the sport of the future that we would like to see in the Olympics someday,” Christopher says.
The latter brought together friends, obsessed on the edges, to found the company in 2019. Other co-founders include actor Eric Johnson, then Jeremy Schulzberg, who worked at Sonders, and finally Guillaume Côté, a former Vrvana, who has since been acquired by Apple, which is the architect behind the operation. The whole.
“We remade basketball, but we changed reality. So the players have superpowers, there are obstacles to avoid, and you can eliminate the opponent with fireballs,” explains Guillaume.
Looking for players
Arcadia.tv has created a platform where the game can be deployed outdoors, in a large enough place, using simultaneous cameras and headphones. Players are tempted as in traditional sports.
“We made sure that people could play together. So, if you touch the person in the digital world, you will also touch the person in the real world,” says Guillaume.
Arcadia.tv has recruited (and continues to recruit) athletes and video game players to form a league. They compete in this virtual reality and become “super players”. Matches are presented after the event and are intended to retain an audience fond of this product.
But this is the first stage. One day, people will be able to come and play different sports in Arcadia,” Christopher says.
crowded place And LeBron James
SMEs have already succeeded in seducing the giant Warner Bros. and creating an experience similar to the one in the movie crowded place Where players compete in the arena.
“LeBron James even made a post about us. We are in discussions to get him to try the game,” Christopher Olympo confirms.
The latter notes that the company was developed in Montreal and took advantage of the city’s ecosystem.
“Everyone thought it was impossible. When I said this in California, I was told I was crazy. I talked about it with Guillaume and he told me, We’ll try to build it. Worse, we’ve shown we’re not crazy,” he says proudly.
