Company
Developed W. Industries (named after its founder Dr. Jonathan D. Waldern) and later renamed Virtuality Group Plc. The company was backed by Lord Wolfson of Wembly Group Plc, who with Apax Venture Capital company, were majority shareholders. There were five group subsidiaries. In 1997, rights to the entertainment machines (but not the Virtuality brand) were sold to CyberMind UK in a breakup of the group owing to a dramatic slump in demand for the expensive (then $65,000) theme park and Arcade machines, causing the manufacturing division (called Virtuality Entertainment) insolvency. Thereafter CyberMind UK was sold to Arcadian Virtual Reality LLC in 2004. In Australia, Fun City Entertainment Complex in Sunshine, Melbourne Victoria is the only venue in Australia running the SU 2000 models and is an agent for the sale and support of the Virtuality entertainment systems. During the company sale, Dr Waldern purchased all IP consumer technology rights, in addition to all Virtuality brand rights other than entertainment machines. In 1998 he launched a ($299) consumer VR display in partnership with Philips Electronics (under the brand name "Scuba") and also Takara, Japan. Combined, over 55,000 headsets were sold mostly in Japan.
The company is currently working on next generation optoelectronics technology and applications including applications for Virtual Reality.
Read more about this topic: Virtuality (gaming)
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