AL-KHOBAR — Gaming has always been a favorite pastime of people in Saudi Arabia, for many it is a way to escape from one’s daily life and be immersed into an experience and story for a couple of hours a day. Well, as of today, Saudi Arabia has been given a new form of entertainment, and an amped up way of being teleported into a game, Xtra life, a first of its kind VR center, has officially opened its doors to the masses.

During the opening held in Al-Khobar, VIP attendees and guests were treated to what can only be described as an unparalleled futuristic gaming experience. Powered by the HTV Vive, a virtual reality headset developed by HTC and Valve, Xtra life introduces this technology to the Kingdom for the first time ever to provide users with the best in class VR. The HTC Vive uses "room scale" tracking technology, allowing the user to move in 3D space and use motion-tracked handheld controllers to interact with the environment.

Xtra Life boasts a jaw dropping 1,500M2 center divided across 4 fully immersive gaming genres; shoot em ups, sports, racing, and adventure games, so everyone will be able to find a genre that appeals to them. The center is expected to cater to approximately 360,000 customers annually, providing them with not only top-notch virtual gaming, but also exceptional hospitality and F&B services.

“Virtual reality represents a new era of immersive interactive entertainment, a fresh way of allowing people to experience things that were never before believed to be possible, coupled with Saudi Arabia’s extreme love for gaming, it only made sense that Xtra life was born and launched in the Kingdom. We hope to give people a place where they could feel like anything is possible, like they could be instantly transported to places they could only dream of and change their perspective of how they see modern gaming,” said eXtra CEO Mohamed Galal.

Commenting on the launch, HTC CEO Yves Maitre said, “we are so glad to be a part of the launch of Saudi Arabia’s first virtual reality center and to be the exclusive technology provider for Xtra Life. Our innovative hardware and software were developed for this specific purpose, to change people’s perspectives and introduce a new form of entertainment that leave’s them wanting more every time.” — SG