The goal is to develop Finland’s largest VR game and grow the B2B VR business
MeKiwi, an Oulu-based digital agency and developer and publisher of virtual reality games, or VR games, recently raised 400 000€ funding to grow their VR business. The goal is to start developing the largest VR game made so far with domestic work and to strengthen the B2B business of the virtual reality unit.
One of the major investors of the total funding of 400 000€ was a Finnish family company Rela Invest Oy. Joonas Pöllä, CEO of the investment company, commented: “The reason we invested in MeKiwi was due to their excellent success with the release of the first VR game. We believe that virtual reality is the next big thing in technology, and the MeKiwi team convinced us with their expertise”. The funding will strengthen MeKiwi’s virtual reality unit and VR game production together with the VR game publishing business.
MeKiwi’s publishing studio VRKiwi is responsible for developing Finland’s largest VR game. Cave Digger 2: Dig Harder, is expected to arrive on the largest digital distribution platform for PC games on Steam next year as a so-called Early Access version. The game will later be published on PlayStation and Oculus Quest, which Facebook bought.
The game is a sequel to MeKiwi’s first VR game, Cave Digger, which also has a flat screen game version for players without VR devices. To date, Cave Digger games have sold nearly 50 000 units, which is a respectable number in the still relatively small VR game market of the 2018-19. Now the growth will be pursued with a product whose design focuses on the new generation of VR headsets. “Last year, the first fully wireless standalone device, the Oculus Quest, was launched, which the user no longer needs to plug into anything,” says Jani Kaipainen, MeKiwi’s Director of VR Production. “This made the price of the system more than half as cheap as previous computer plus VR headset systems.”
“With the release of Oculus Quest, there has been a clear increase in the total number of users of the devices. In 2019, about 4.3 million new headsets were delivered (excluding VR devices for mobile use),according to reports from trend following agencies, and this year the Covid-19 situation has also increased demand for VR devices,” Jani Kaipainen continues.
“Maybe it is because people are looking for new ways to spend time at home and they then decide to try VR headsets, now that their approachability has improved significantly with Quest. In addition, Facebook recently released a new second-generation Quest (Oculus Quest 2)that improves on its predecessor in every area.”
The company has also said that they already have the first two release agreements agreed with two international VR game studios. “The VR market in general and from our point of view looks better than ever before in my work history,” concludes Jani Kaipainen.
More information:
Jani Kaipainen, VR Producer