Brogent Technologies Inc (智崴資訊), a manufacturer of theme park rides and flying theaters, is looking to tap the virtual reality (VR) e-sports market by leveraging its expertise in building 4D motion simulation systems.
The company last week unveiled Lightning Wings (閃電對決), its new competitive gaming title where players don VR headsets and pilot giant robots in battle.
Players must also wrestle with simulated motion feedback as their virtual cockpits heave and yaw with each maneuver in heated combat.
Photo courtesy of Brogent Technologies Inc.
Compared with sport titles with keyboard-and-mouse controls, the combination of VR and 4D motion simulation makes a much more compelling spectator sport experience, Brogent chief executive officer C.H. Ouyang (歐陽志宏) told an investors’ conference in Taipei.
“We’ve had a captive audience during a Lightning Wings tournament held at the Vision Get Wild exhibition in Kaohsiung last week,” Ouyang said.
“Much like the leap from feature phones to smartphones, we believe that VR and motion simulation is the future of e-sports.” Ouyang said, adding that the company would continue to seek partnerships to develop more titles and e-sports events to create monetization opportunities.
Ouyang was upbeat on earnings this year, as the company expands its flying theater offerings.
While the company has achieved market dominance with i-Ride, its premium flying theater system, Brogent is planning to launch m-Ride, a more accessible variant at half the price before the end of this year, Ouyang said.
He said that m-Ride takes only eight months to set up and is designed to be portable and suitable for short-term installations, such as exhibitions, while i-Ride takes 14 months to set up and requires 15m-high venues.
Despite its lower pricing, m-Ride installations are still expected to maintain favorable margins of 20 percent, Ouyang said, adding that its top-of-the line i-Ride costing between US$5 million and US$20 million per facility accounted for 90 percent of total sales as of the end of the first quarter this year.
The company, which has sold 29 ride installations to theme parks around the globe, expects to see significant growth in recurring revenue from content licensing and maintenance as it sets up its 100th installation in the next three to five years, he said.
Brogent reported that net income in the first three months dipped 15 percent annually to NT$37.98 million (US$1.27 million) due to higher research and development costs and foreign exchange losses. Earnings per share were NT$0.86.
Sales during the period rose nearly 10 percent annually to NT$350 million.
Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽) shares surged to a seven-month high this week after local media reported that E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) had outbid CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) in the financially strained insurer’s ongoing sale process. Shares of the mid-sized life insurer climbed 5.8 percent this week to NT$6.72, extending a nearly 18 percent rally over the past month, as investors bet on the likelihood of an impending takeover. The final round of bidding closed on Thursday, marking a critical step in the 32-year-old insurer’s search for a buyer after years of struggling to meet capital adequacy requirements. Local media reports
US sports leagues rushed to get in on the multi-billion US dollar bonanza of legalized betting, but the arrest of an National Basketball Association (NBA) coach and player in two sprawling US federal investigations show the potential cost of partnering with the gambling industry. Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, a former Detroit Pistons star and an NBA Hall of Famer, was arrested for his alleged role in rigged illegal poker games that prosecutors say were tied to Mafia crime families. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was charged with manipulating his play for the benefit of bettors and former NBA player and
The DBS Foundation yesterday announced the launch of two flagship programs, “Silver Motion” and “Happier Caregiver, Healthier Seniors,” in partnership with CCILU Ltd, Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation and the Garden of Hope Foundation to help Taiwan face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The foundation said it would invest S$4.91 million (US$3.8 million) over three years to foster inclusion and resilience in an aging society. “Aging may bring challenges, but it also brings opportunities. With many Asian markets rapidly becoming super-aged, the DBS Foundation is working with a regional ecosystem of like-minded partners across the private, public and people sectors
BREAKTHROUGH TECH: Powertech expects its fan-out PLP system to become mainstream, saying it can offer three-times greater production throughput Chip packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) plans to more than double its capital expenditures next year to more than NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) as demand for its new panel-level packaging (PLP) technology, primarily used in chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has greatly exceeded what it can supply. A significant portion of the budget, about US$1 billion, would be earmarked for fan-out PLP technology, Powertech told investors yesterday. Its heavy investment in fan-out PLP technology over the past 10 years is expected to bear fruit in 2027 after the technology enters volume production, it said, adding that the tech would
RSS