eSports and gaming bar chain Meltdown will be holding a series of virtual reality evenings in the UK, Germany and France.
Visitors will be able to try out the HTC Vive VR headset this month and next, compete against each other to win prizes and explores the possibility of using VR games as eSports.
The London, Cologne and Paris bars will be running a series of ‘VIVE Nights’ over the next four weeks, starting next Wednesday (November 16th) at 6pm, allowing gamers to try out the tech for free.
The VIVE nights will run on the following dates in the UK:
- Wednesday 16th November
- Wednesday 23rd November
- Wednesday 30th November
- Wednesday 7th December
Visitors will be able to play co-op sci-fi FPS Raw Data and face-off against hordes of robots.
Prizes up for grabs include complete HTC Vive setups with a Raw Data game key, as well as private Vive nights for winners and their friends and up to £50 to spend at Meltdown bars.
“The decision to collaborate with Meltdown highlights the possibilities for VIVE and VR in the eSports industry, and is perhaps no surprise given HTC’s partnership with Valve,” Meltdown said in a press release. “Owner of Dota 2, the most lucrative eSport in the world, Valve has already begun integrating VR into the game, with a much applauded Spectator mode available.
“This latest partnership will offer a unique opportunity for VIVE and Meltdown to assess the popularity of potential VR eSports with the eSports community itself.”
Jon Goddard, HTC’s European VR marketing director, 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.”
Meltdown attracts 40,000 gamers each month. The London bar is based at 342 Caledonian Road, London, N1 1BB.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
