February 27, 2021
01:15
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The company from Mouscron which offers to play Mario Kart for real attracted 55,000 visitors in 2019. Three new branches were created in 2020; two more will follow.
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Until last year again, it was necessary to go to this industrial zoning in the Mouscron region to take part in this experience of a new kind that is karting in augmented reality.
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Now the concept has spread. BattleKart has just opened in 2020 new antennas in Courtrai, Bispingen (Germany) and Tours (France).
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Two others are also during gestation, including one in Flanders always and the other in Spain, on the Fuenlabrada side, 20 km south of Madrid. Regarding the latter, the Covid crisis on the other hand got the better of the local project leader and therefore forced the little Belgians to set out again in search of a candidate ready to bring to life a concept hosted on a floor developed expressly for him in a shopping center. to be born.
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It is this is the culmination of long-term work for Sébastien Millecam. And for good reason, it had been five years since the founder, an engineer by training, worked on finalizing and simplifying the product imagined during his studies. And this, in order to make it easily franchisable. After all, BattleKart is the story of a success, with some 55,000 visitors in 2019, in a place that is quite remote.
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Concept unique
The concept is simple and awesome at the same time: at the wheel of an electric car, the participants can indulge in a whole series of games projected on the ground in real time. Pilots for a day can immerse themselves in a life-size Mario Kart, in a revised and corrected version of the famous mobile game Snake, in a football game or even in a Splatoon remake where you have to cover with colored ink the surface of a giant checkerboard before the others.
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To make it all possible, 36 sensors positioning work by track. The system returns the results real-time location of karts 270 times per second, enough to allow instant interactions between reality and virtual. A real technical feat.
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Obviously, the coronavirus crisis has been there, hitting BattleKart for nearly six months in 2020; when 2021 “starts badly”, emphasizes Sébastien Millecam. “Fortunately that we had accumulated a lot of cash in recent years, which we have been able to devote to R&D in recent months, because the aid we have been able to receive is ridiculous. “
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Son hope? “Be able to restart”, simply. “We’re ready.” New openings could also be studied later, “but in a pragmatic way, and depending on when and at what rate we can reopen”.
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