Another World is an entertainment company specializing in virtual reality video games and experiences. The company aims to create new interactive, high-quality VR experiences in large arenas capable of hosting up to 20 simultaneous players. With a focus on high-level immersion for its players, high capacity, and low investment costs for partners, Another World is rapidly expanding. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Another World CEO Vasily Petrenko to learn more.
Vasily Petrenko’s Background
After college, Petrenko decided in 2014 to “play” business with his friends. Petrenko said:
“We were trying to find something new, literally got together every evening and came up with startup ideas. In June 2014, we heard about escape rooms. Before that, as a hobby, we wrote scripts and scenarios for comedy shows, so we really liked the idea of the entertainment business, where you need to invent a story and make people get into it. Again, you need to solve some puzzles there, which I really like.”
“We wrote the scenario, came up with riddles, and built the rooms ourselves. This was our first business. They were successful, so in two months, we returned all the money that we invested, and we began to get feedback from other cities from other people who wanted to build the same business. So, we found an escape room supplier company – Time Quest Lab. We did more than 400 projects around the world – building escape room locations for our clients, including scenarios, puzzles, decorations, electronics, software, design etc.”
Formation Of Another World
How did the idea for Another World come together? Petrenko shared:
“We were always searching for new ideas for our clients in the entertainment market and came up with the idea of VR. To be honest, we thought of virtual reality because we did not find anything interesting there. Everybody was talking about VR then, and we decided to see what was on the market.”
“The worst was the ‘simple’ VR with skiing or rollercoaster experiences. You put a headset on and go on a ride. You can find funny videos of how people are falling down while trying that because your brain is deceived, it seems to you that you are falling, although you are standing still. But two minutes of such an experience is not worth the dizziness and the two-hour headache afterward.”
“And then we saw the trailer for The Void’s product. It was told about the limitless VR – free roam when every movement of the body is repeated in virtual reality, and there is no ‘deception,’ which means dizziness does not occur. It seemed to us something from the future and that it would be interesting to make such a product.
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for Another World so far? Petrenko shared:
“The first testing of the games. I remember my own first emotions from the free-roam virtual reality. It was something different from what I experienced before. We added additional elements in the game that you could touch – and added those in our office. It was hyper-reality!”
“Then I remember how we tested our first game – it was a zombie shooter. There is a moment when the lights go down, and it is super scary. I invited my parents to try it. My mom was screaming a lot. They were impressed and once again realized that we were doing some special product. We are not playing games here.”
“And, of course, our first expo. I went to the exhibition, and people really liked our product. People were excited.”
“They liked it so much that two partners signed a contract with us. Even though there hasn’t been a game yet, by that time, we had only one short 2-minute demo. And we promised that by the end of the year, we would make a 30-minute experience game release. There were about five months left – and we were able to meet the deadline. We did it!”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have you faced in building the company and has the current macroeconomic climate affected your company? Petrenko revealed:
“Founders invested their own money in the project. We started the company in April 2018. And March 2020 was the first month when we made a profit and finally could stop investing money. But… Covid came. All our current locations were on lockdowns (we stopped getting royalty payments), and there were no new sales, of course. We had to find different ways to survive and continue doing the high-quality product without stopping the development.”
Core Products
What are Another World’s core products and features? Petrenko explained:
“It is our games, of course. We are always working on new content and developing different features. Right now, it is nine titles. We have two types of games: 1.) PvE (players versus environment), where customers are in one team trying to survive the zombie apocalypse, and 2.) PvP (player versus player), where you can compete with your friends and have fun in a team mode.”
“But also the big part of our product is the franchise package. We put a lot of effort into making marketing and design kits for our partners. We have business support trying to help all of our partners so that their arenas could be the leader of the entertainment in their city.”
Evolution Of Another World’s Technology
How has Another World’s technology evolved since launching? Petrenko noted:
“At first, it was a 4-player PvE game. Then, we tried to develop an interesting format so that the customers could come back and play more – this is how we came to the PvP-type games. Then we added more players – 8 people in one game. Also, reducing the hardware, no need to have a computer for each player, so the investments for opening the arena dropped by $20k. And finally, now we can put up to 20 players in one game simultaneously. We have highly realistic settings in VR with no computers, using only headset hardware.”
“And we did a big step from just a game to a franchise story. Right now, we have so many features to offer our partners. Not only the game’s content.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of Another World’s most significant milestones? Petrenko cited:
“To have partners in 28 countries. To have 150 partners in different cities. To raise the revenue of the headquarters company at least 2x every year.”
“The next goal is to have 500 arenas around the world by 2025. With at least 120 million US dollars annual revenue of the whole net of partners.”
Customer Success Stories
Upon asking Petrenko about customer success stories, he replied:
“We have one partner who opened our arena recently, in the beginning of 2023. He is from Uzbekistan, and the economy there is lower, so the ticket price is three times less than it could be in the US or Europe. But he has an average revenue of $23k monthly and is now looking to open a second location in his city. He actually has even bigger plans to conquer foreign markets and open an arena in expensive Dubai. Because he knows our product, and he is sure that he can earn even more in this type of market.”
Funding/Revenue
After asking Petrenko about revenue and revenue, he answered:
“The goal for 2023 is to have $1.7 million. And raise it to $11 million by 2026.”
“And yes, we are looking for investments right now, even though the company is operationally profitable, but we want to speed up and conquer new markets.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is Another World pursuing? Petrenko assessed:
“There is an estimate that the value of the location-based VR market in 2023 is $4 billion. It will be up to $14 billion by 2028, and we want to take 1.5% of it.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates Another World from its competition? Petrenko assessed:
“There are some challenges in this field. Existing free-roam solutions are very expensive to install. Companies who provide cheap solutions – reject the free-roam option, thus providing a less immersive experience. And only 4-6 players can take part in one adventure at the same time.”
“We are targeting the location-based VR mass market with a high quality, fast arena’s assembling, cheap product with a better business model. Because our arenas can fit up to 20 people simultaneously, imagine 20 players in one game; they can be divided into two teams and compete for the prize.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of Another World’s future company goals? Petrenko concluded:
“We started only in 2018 developing our first game. And now we have 9 titles in our library. Growing twice yearly with the revenue and the number of locations, despite the lockdowns in 2020, by the way.”
“We want to keep this pace of opening new locations and to have 1000 arenas by the end of 2026. We could become not only VR arenas but VR “cinemas.” We already worked with other types of content: training, educational.”
“We made our product so that more business owners can afford it. You don’t need to have 500k USD to start this business. Thus, arenas could be opened in every city, and thus, it will be available for more players. We want to make high-quality VR available to more people. Free-roam VR looks like something from the future. We want to make the future available for everyone.”
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