Force Field VR raises €1 million in funding
New money will support Landfall developer's further activities in high-end location-based VR
Force Field VR has raised €1 million in additional funding to support its activities in the market for location-based VR experiences.
The Amsterdam-based studio came out of Vanguard Games, the developer of the mobile titles Halo: Spartan Assault and Halo: Spartan Strike. Force Field was established as a separate venture to explore the potential of the emerging VR space, and the two companies eventually merged in April 2016.
Force Field is the developer of Landfall, an Oculus-funded Rift exclusive that won many fans among game critics. It also made the Samsung Gear VR title TERM1NAL, and it has another six projects in various stages of development.
According to CEO Arthur Houtman, the company has "two strategic directions: the development of high-end location based VR and the creation of a series of unique new IPs for the home VR market." The €1 million in new funding has been earmarked for location-based VR. At Quo Vadis this year, Force Field co-founder Martin de Ronde said that the company had a team of 80 people, and is still turning a profit in a notoriously difficult market. They key to stability, he said, is in diversity.
"Our risk management was literally, 'let's make sure we don't put all of our eggs in one basket,'" he said. "Don't just work with one hardware manufacturer, work with multiple; don't just work with one genre, work with multiple genres; and don't just work in one type of industry, games, but also look at location-based entertainment in VR, theme parks, business-to-business assignments for brands, and also get our feet wet with AR.
"We're really hedging our bets, and I think that's necessary. One studio picking one game and putting all of your money into that? You might as well go to a casino and put everything on number 27 at the roulette table."