Inspired by the warm welcome given by the market to Division Plc, W Industries Ltd, Leicester’s virtual reality supremo, is changing its name to Virtuality Group Plc and plans to go public by Christmas. The listing will be handled by stockbroker Beeson Gregory, and no value has yet been put on the six-year-old company. Turnover rose 200% to UKP5.3m in the year to December 31 1992, with most growth coming in the US and Far East, and the firm made its first pre-tax profit, of UKP214,000. Virtuality produces fully-immersive virtual reality systems, which it calls Location Based Entertainment Systems, and sells them into arcades and shopping malls. An average system costs between UKP25,000 and UKP40,000. It has also sold into other markets, such as education, medicine and telecommunications, and claims to be negotiating with several hardware manufacturers which, if successful, will lead to a significant increase in production. It provides the software and peripherals such as helmet and gloves, under the brand name Virtuality. Customers include Edison Brothers Mall Entertainment Corp, Dentsu Prox, MCA/Universal Studios Corp and Family Leisure & First Leisure Ltd. The firm kept a low profile until it signed that deal with Sega Enterprises Ltd in June worth UKP2.3m for the first two years, and UKP1.3m annually thereafter. Virtuality is licensing its operating system for Sega VR, a virtual reality arcade game to be released in 1994. Sega expects 2,000 units to sell each year. Virtuality founder and managing director Jon Waldern said It’s not a huge contract for us, although it is very important. Waldern was doing a PhD in virtual reality at Loughborough University when he developed a virtual reality workstation. He then spent two years with Human Computer Interface Consultancy Ltd and set up W Industries in 1987, choosing Leicester as the European base because it’s cheap. He has subsequently opened a sales and marketing office in St Louis, Missouri, fortunately on flood-free high ground, and may eventually start software production from Tokyo. Waldern owns 15% of the company, while London investment house Apax Partners & Co Ltd paid UKP2.4m for a 67% stake in 1991, and other management share the remaining 18%. Virtuality hopes to raise about UKP10m through the listing and will use the cash to pursue its licensing strategy through packaging its technology more commercially.
Miniaturised headmount
Its licensing covers four areas: virtual reality personal computer boards for converting the computers for virtual reality use; real time operating systems to drive virtual reality applications; software tools to design virtual reality applications, which can interface with standard computer-aided design systems; and peripherals like visors, helmets, cabinets and joysticks. Visette, a miniaturised headmount display unit, will be available next year, Virtuality says. Long-term, the company hopes to supply the industry standard tools for virtual reality, a market worth very little now, but which is conservatively estimated to be worth $500m by 1997. And that figure excludes home entertainment systems which will start to use virtual reality on the current 16-bit games-playing systems and will use it even more with the advent of 64-bit machines, started by 3DO Co and Atari Corp with its Jaguar system due out this year (CI No 2,238).
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