Swedish Startup Brings In-App Purchases To VR Gaming

Sweden’s Resolution Games launched on Thursday a virtual reality adventure fishing game Bait! on the Oculus VR Store for Samsung Gear VR, becoming the first game maker to bring in-app purchases to the keenly-followed emerging market of VR gaming.

In-app purchases have been crucial for some of the biggest success stories in mobile gaming with Supercell and King mastering the free to play gaming market, optimizing these additional sales to hooked players.

Interest towards VR gaming is sky-high after Samsung launched its Gear VR and every Tom, Dick and Harry tries to jump to VR bandwagon, at the same time there is very little to do with the ultra modern VR headsets.

“There is a lot of interest. 2016 is the year when we start to see more hardware, but at this point there is still very little content,” Tommy Palm, founder of Resolution Games, told ArcticStartup in an interview. Palm is a former games guru of King, and Resolution is his fifth startup.

The studio raised $6 million last August in the largest single investment round for any VR gaming company. The round was led by Google Ventures and other backers included Creandum, Initial Capital, Bonnier Growth Media and Partech Ventures.

In the game players are transported to Bait! Island to help their boss catch a rare fish as they try to save the faltering aquarium where they work. Players catch a lot of different fish and make friends with the locals – and struggle to keep loyalties to both the new friends and the boss.

“Bait! had an almost instantaneous relaxation effect. Once you get started and cast your first line, everything else in life disappears and you’re truly in the moment – I bet my pulse even went down,” Maarten Noyons, founder of IMGA (International Mobile Gaming Awards), said in a statement.

Resolution Games has so far 16 people who are working on further improving Bait! with local versions, but the firm is also hiring to fill its second games team. Yes, like in most (if not all) gaming firms, the next one is in works. And yes, Tommy does not want to name it, yet.