TWO gaming enthusiasts have opened the city’s first virtual reality cafe.
The brains behind the concept are college friends turned business partners Mark Mansour and Gianandrea “Gian” Manfredi, who are the founders of GOVR Brighton.
The pair are on a mission to make virtual reality (VR) gaming, which is often considered expensive and exclusive to gaming fanatics, both accessible and affordable.
Two years ago, Mark and Gian ran the first Brighton Virtual Reality Gaming Night at the Lord Nelson Inn.
After receiving numerous invitations to host more gaming nights from different companies, Mark, 28, said: “We thought we could turn this into a business.
“When we first started hosting gaming nights we brought our own personal computers and two VR headsets. We were encouraged by the people who enjoyed our events to set up GOVR Brighton in the summer of 2016.”
After running many pop up events in more than 18 venues across Brighton they finally found a home above Presuming Ed’s Coffee House in London Road.
Mark added: “Sometimes VR gaming can feel impersonal so we picked a cafe, which is a casual setting.
“People can interact, play a game, have fun and enjoy a cup of coffee.
“VR gaming can be costly, normally companies charge about £40 an hour. We charge £15 an hour.
“VR gaming can also be seen as exclusive so we have games that people can sink their teeth into, including Skyrim, Fallout 4, Tilt Brush and Brighton-made MakeReal’s ‘Loco Dojo’.
“We encourage everyone to visit the cafe and play some games.
“It’s a great opportunity to meet people.
“Sometimes people don’t have the technical skills to set up VR gaming in their homes so at the cafe, people don’t need to worry about setting up any equipment.”
Gian, 30, said: “At the moment, you’ve got the people doing their best to bring down the entry cost of VR and on the other side you’ve got a lot of people still finding it too expensive or complicated to access VR.
“In the middle are the VR arcades.
“What we’ve been saying with our pop up VR events is that you can deliver high-quality VR experiences in an affordable and inclusive way.
“The new VR café venture is our opportunity to prove it and at the same time shake things up a bit.”
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