It now turns out that Berlin-based virtual reality company, Cybermind Interactive Europe AG has no plans to develop the Elysium virtual reality system and bought it only because it came as part of the package when it bought the European entertainment business from Virtuality Group Plc (CI No 3,218). Cybermind had the manufacturing contract for Virtuality’s location based entertainment systems and bought up the remaining stock and spare parts. It will now continue to develop these systems, but using open standards rather than the proprietary software and hardware that Virtuality relied on. Cybermind has a close working relationship with Retinal Displays Inc, the Silicon Valley company that conducted the management buyout of Virtuality and is working closely with it to develop a new entertainment system that will be displayed at the IAPPA conference in Orlando, Florida this November. We have decided to stay in the virtual reality market, despite the problems it has faced, said Holger Timm, founder and president of Cybermind. Because in the future there will be less competition. Cybermind was established in 1993 and is now publicly listed on the Berlin stock exchange. It has subsidiaries in the US and Far East and its interests include internet cafes, game centers and multimedia hardware and software development.
