Billionaire Cuban invests in Omni One VR treadmill

Virtuix has presented a VR treadmill with the Omni One. The aim is to get gamers off the couch and get them to move. The idea behind it even seems to convince big investors like billionaire Mark Cuban.

The manufacturer Virtuix has presented a special gadget for gamers. The “Omni One” is a VR treadmill. The promise behind this is that you can move in all directions on the treadmill in your favorite game. This should make the game experience particularly realistic (immersive). In the MMO area, there are already first representatives with games like Zenith who want to offer a comprehensive VR experience in gaming.

All movements like kneeling or running backwards should be included in the game. In this way you should get the feeling of actually being in the middle of it all, as there are no movement restrictions as with normal VR, where you would eventually hit the room walls.

With an official campaign, the company has now raised around 19 million US dollars for the “Omni One”. Billionaire Mark Cuban is among the investors.

Who is behind the product? Virtuix is ​​already very successful with VR treadmills. With the support of major investors, Virtuix has already delivered over $ 10 million worth of commercial omni systems to event venues and arcades.

Billionaire Cuban is already actively investing in innovative ideas and technology

Who is this? Mark Cuban Star investor, owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks and one of the key “Shark” investors on the reality TV show “Shark Tank”. Online magazine Forbes estimates that Cuban is currently worth over $ 4.4 billion (via Forbes.com).

The investment in the Virtuix company and the presented VR treadmill indicates that Cuban sees potential here for the future of gaming. Because Cuban likes to invest in innovative and promising ideas:

• Just recently, Cuban invested several million US dollars in the startup company Phaidra, which develops AI for industry (via geekwire.com).
• Cuban has also been very active in crypto currencies for a long time. He recently added Polygon (MATIC) to his company’s portfolio (via markcubancompanies.com). This is a scaling solution for Ethereum.
• Cuban also relies on new kyrpto currencies such as Dogecoin (DOGE), which were more of a joke at the beginning. At the Dallas Mavericks you can already buy fan items with Dogecoins.

There is already a prototype of the “Omni One”, which the company has officially presented. We have embedded the official YouTube video here for you:

VR treadmill is for gamers, costs as much as gaming PC with RTX 3070

The VR treadmill is aimed primarily at gamers at home. Virtuix CEO Jan Goetgeluk stated in an interview:

Omni One isn’t just a next-level gaming device; it also keeps you in shape by burning calories while playing. Think of the Omni One as a peloton bike for gamers – and for parents who want to get their kids off the couch.

The Peloton bike is a fitness device that can be placed in the living room.

What does the device cost and when does it appear? The entry hurdle for the “Omni One” is set quite high. After all, whoever wants the device has to finance US $ 1,995. Alternatively, you can pay $ 55 a month. This means that the price is equivalent to a high-performance gaming PC with GeForce RTX 3070. For a gaming PC with RTX 3080, you currently (as of May 27, 2021) pay more than 2000 euros.

According to the manufacturer, the device will be delivered in the course of the year. There is also an in-house game store with 30 game titles. Virtuix developed some of them in-house.

With the Vive Cosmos, the manufacturer Vive had presented a VR headset which, with its comparatively low entry-level price of 799 euros, wanted to stand out from the much more expensive Vive Pro for around 1500 euros. For gamers who are willing to invest a lot of money in VR hardware, the “Omni One” could well be an alternative.

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