“Zero Latency very much started in a garage with just a concept – basically, to prove that we could start making virtual reality something that you can actually walk around in, rather than something where you were tied to a PC and you couldn’t move anywhere at all, which was certainly the case with the early VR headsets,” says Scott Vandonkelaar, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and co-founder of Zero Latency VR.
“It was all about bringing that freedom of movement into a virtual world – that and being able to shoot zombies; that was pretty much priority one at the start!”
Offering free movement in virtual worlds helped Zero Latency VR stand out in the market, but adding a social element to its games was what really shifted the company’s offerings into high gear, Vandonkelaar continues.
“When we added two players and that social aspect kicked in, it was like 10 times the experience of what it was to be just a single player. So we rapidly cottoned on to the fact that if we wanted Zero Latency to be successful, it had to be social. You’re playing with your buddies, you’re having an adventure. You want to be a hero. That’s really what’s driven the business and promotes everything we’ve ever done – making it as smooth as possible and as easy as possible to get into a virtual world and have fun with your friends,” he tells ArtsHub.
Today, Zero Latency VR is the world’s largest free-roam VR network, with more than 140 venues across 30 countries offering thrill-seekers the chance to live out their heroic fantasies – allowing them to battle zombies, pirates and robots, and solve gravity-defying puzzles. And to celebrate the company’s first decade of operations, Zero Latency VRis offering 20% off all experiences from 13-30 June.
Pursuing customer joy
Tim Ruse, another of Zero Latency VR’s co-founders and the company’s CEO, stresses that while Zero Latency may have grown, it remains committed to its core values: “And one of those values is championing the customer. We describe that as the relentless pursuit of customer joy,” he explains.
“It’s the way we live our lives and the things we enjoy. Like, when you have downtime and want to do something fun, you always want to be doing it with friends – you want to be doing something social and sharing an experience with someone. Looking at the stats, we’ve had over a million sessions run [in the past decade], and I’d say barely a handful of those have been with only one player, big groups are the most common, because people just love sharing experiences with others, so you get to talk and laugh about the experience together afterwards.”
Participating in a Zero Latency VR experience sees players moving freely through expansive and stunningly detailed virtual worlds, communicating in real time and working together in games that are akin to cinematic adventures. These experiences are a mix of original in-house creations and collaborations with major entertainment partners – ranging from Zero Latency’s own IP to blockbuster titles like Ubisoft’s Far Cry VR and Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine.
Vandonkelaar says he, Ruse and fellow co-founder Kyel Smith (Zero Latency VR’s Chief Operating Officer) refuse to rest on their laurels – and notes that their proven platform, coupled with growing demand for high-quality shared experiences, means that Zero Latency is continuing to expand its partner network around the world.
“The way we handle the player experience, the way we handle movement, the way we handle game mechanics is really cutting edge, and we want to keep pushing that. We’re always asking ourselves, how can we push this? How can we make it better? How can we bring in even better IP? How can we make the game feel even more seamless and make it more expensive? I think that those sorts of core principles are what drive us to expand and continue to bring really interesting companies to the table wanting to either buy systems or expand in terms of bringing their IP onto the platform,” says Vandonkelaar.
From Melbourne to the world in a decade – and beyond
When asked to reflect on the first 10 years of Zero Latency VR and the company’s achievements in that time, Ruse returns to the all-important customer experience – and the numbers that reflect people’s engagement with the company’s platforms around the world.
“One of the things I still have to get my head around is the scale of how Zero Latency is growing, which is definitely a massive highlight for me,” he says. “In the early days, as our player numbers were approaching nearly 100,000 people, I was very excited for that, because I could visualise the Melbourne stadium here, the MCG, which can fit about 100,000 people – and that is a huge stadium. So, 100,000 people, wow, I can kind of visualise that, and that is a lot of people. And we now have 100,000 people play Zero Latency every single month – and that still seems absolutely wild to me.”
Vandonkelaar acknowledges that the company’s growth is grounded in continual technical innovation, deep alignment with the experience economy and a licensing model designed for global scale and local impact.
“Everything in the early days, in terms of taking something that was very much an out there idea at the time, and working together with a couple of great people and turning that into a reality, was a highlight. It was really exciting to take something that is in your mind and turn it into something that’s a world first and world-class. To open the first-ever virtual reality venue and see it become a mainstay of the entertainment industry, is incredible,” he says.
But like Ruse, Vandonkelaar returns to player enjoyment as one of his most important metrics of Zero Latency VR’s success – with overtures from other companies following close behind.
“Having people come through and learn how to play and then take those headsets off and be absolutely amazed by that sensation of immersion, of being able to walk around and explore – they’d never experienced anything quite like it,” he says.
“It’s a very, very different experience to looking at your phone or sitting on your couch watching TV. It’s just been so gratifying to birth something like that and to see people love it – and then for people to approach us from all over the world – MGM Casino, Sega in Japan, to name a few companies from the early days who came to us to say, ‘We like your product, you’re the best in the world at doing this, do you want to bring it to our jurisdiction?’ It really is gratifying and it’s been super exciting to be part of that.”
Perhaps the most exciting part of Zero Latency VR’s journey is that the next 10 years are just beginning. With new experiences, new technologies and new partners joining the movement, Zero Latency is doubling down on what it does best: delivering the most exciting, immersive entertainment available today.
“We’ve got some tasty morsels that we can’t share yet,” Vandonkelaar teases. “What I can say is that just as the technology on the platform and experiences we’re driving with it have evolved in the last 10 years, I can see so many more new things that we can develop over the next 10 years.
“I truly believe we’re working towards some extremely powerful and even more mind-bending experiences that people just would not believe, even if you’ve tried Zero Latency before. And if you have, you’re going to want to keep doing it again. That’s the goal. That’s what we’re building. It just keeps getting better,” he concludes.
Celebrate Zero Latency VR’s 10th birthday with 20% off all experiences from 13-30 June.
