The sky is the limit for Ctrl V, a virtual reality arcade, that is expanding its presence across Canada and the United States.
The concept, which started June 2016, describes itself as the world’s first and largest virtual reality arcade franchise system.
“Offering a one-of-a-kind, welcoming, and professional experience, we use top of the line equipment and a library of experiences that suit every desire and genre,” said Robert Bruski, CEO and Co-Founder.
“The Ctrl V brand is the stamp of approval in VR, ensuring that virtual reality gaming is a premiere and memorable experience. Growing across multiple countries, Ctrl V is actively expanding and looking for people that suit the DNA of a successful franchisee.
“This is a brick and mortar facility where literally everyone can come in and just experience VR. If you’re a person that likes gaming or shooting Zombies, we’ve got that. But way beyond that there’s so much more. We do a lot of corporate events. We do birthday parties. We do date night. We had our second marriage proposal in VR this past August. We get schools or home-schooled families come in to learn chemistry, astronomy, biology on VR. We’ve got escape rooms in VR. We’re big with the autism community because VR provides a lot of relief for people with autism.
“We’ve got senior citizens. We’ve got this 93-year-old that comes in with his great grandson to play a par 42 mini golf course or someone who wouldn’t be caught dead in a bikini is now swimming with whales or hanging out with gorillas. So we have all this experiential stuff as well. It’s really for everyone. Sports. It’s all there.”
The first location was in Waterloo. There are six locations today – Delaware, Texas, Waterloo, Guelph, Lindsay (Ontario) and Red Deer, Alberta. Prior to the pandemic lockdown, it had 25 locations.
“A lot of businesses took a hit and the vast majority of the VR arcade industry shut down but we had such a solid business model that we were able to make it through. So now we’re back in the growth mode,” said Bruski. “We have a massive pipeline. So there’s a lot coming.
“From a growth potential standpoint, I know it sounds super cliche but it really is limitless. And the reason I say that is because nobody else is really doing this and those who are trying to do it aren’t doing it very successfully. Literally every market is sort of open to us.”
Bruski said the aim is for about 4,000 square feet for its locations.
“From a Canadian standpoint our big focus is on a lot of the cities in Ontario. There’s the Greater Toronto Area. I don’t know if downtown Toronto would be very successful but the suburbs like Mississauga, Etobicoke, Richmond Hill, Markham, Brampton, Vaughan, Pickering, Ajax, Oshawa. Everything that ecompasses the Toronto area,” he said.
“We do have one coming to Barrie which isn’t really considered Toronto but is kind of close. And then further from Ontario we have the peninsula there where we’ve got Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton – Hamilton could probably handle two locations – then we’ve got London and down towards the border around Windsor and northern Ontario of course as well where we’ve got Sudbury, Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie. We’ve got the entire East Coast that’s available to us. Probably one or two locations in each one of those provinces. Winnipeg will probably be the only location we’d open in Manitoba because of the population density. Saskatoon and Regina in Saskatchewan. In Alberta, we’ve got a heavy focus right now in Edmonton. And B.C. is sort of the same scope as Ontario. Probably not downtown Vancouver but suburbs around it. And we’ve got a focus on the U.S. as well. The most thriving economies in the U.S. right now are Texas and Florida. But there’s a number of other states we’d like to go into.”
Bruski said VR is becoming more and more popular.
“It’s absolutely compelling. It’s almost hard to describe. You need to try it to understand it,” he said. “But from the standpoint of Ctrl V that’s becoming and is actually incredibly popular.
“We use VR as a tool. We don’t consider ourselves as a tech company. It’s a tool and we use it to deliver incredible experiences.”
