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I guess this might be an effective way to get someone into working out, but ultimately it's just a gimmick similar to those late-night products that generally don't do much. I'm a bit of a fitness buff, I've been working out pretty my whole life. I guess the things that jump out at me that are off: 1. I wouldn't personally say 'we hate working out'. That to me is the wrong message. Working out is rewarding and worthwhile, for me it's something I look forward to every day. If you want to aim your messaging at people that feel that way, then say it that way - 'If you hate working out, this is for you!'. I'm not wild about that messaging either but at least it's not coming from the founders which to me is a big turnoff. 2. This is not a full body workout. There appears to be no leg resistance and/or emphasis on leg training. I would be careful in how you present this in your messaging. 3. I would position this as an intro to working out and partner with someone (if you can) like AthleanX.com which is are science based / physical trainer designed full body workouts. The reason I would try that is because you will likely have 2 outcomes of your users. Outcome 1 - they'll play it for a while, feel good about themselves and stop, or they'll maybe finish the full game experience, and stop. Outcome 2 is someone that really gets into this, sees some transformation of their upper body and wants to move on to a 'real full body workout' (which sorry this is not). That kind of partnership would be a win-win for both parties because it's a bit tough to jump right into a typical full body workout (esp. the AltheanX stuff which is really aimed at elite athletes), and having something like this as any easy onboarding process could be pretty cool. It would also be beneficial to have the expertise of a high-end, well designed full body workout help guide future workouts for your product. Right now, it really doesn't look like the movements, or punching is all that varied. 4. I also have a VIVE/VR setup and like others, I use that as part of my workout; in my case it's more a post-workout workout. I don't expect it to really develop muscles, or improve my cardio all that much, but it's a nice way to burn some extra calories and get some cool hand-eye coordination / dex training into your workout that is otherwise hard to come by (Space Pirate Trainer, Pistol Whip, Beat Saber for example). Either way good luck, I do think the future of fitness is in some form of VR, AR + interaction/gaming. |
To your first point, you're right—this is definitely not true for everyone. As a keen cyclist, I can say that getting out on my bike is definitely something I look forward to, too (less so now that London has returned to being one big puddle, but still)! We'll look into adjusting this to be more open-minded. You're also correct that, at present, it's not a full body workout. We're currently expanding the range of movements you can perform in the game to make it much more dynamic, including ducks and dodges, thereby providing a more complete experience here.
I love the idea of partnering up with a company like AltheanX. We're definitely keen to get people working out, and we know that our product can't be a replacement for a full gym, so partnerships seem like a brilliant way to provide a more complete workout.
Lastly, we too have enjoyed our experience with VR workouts. One of our early tests was to include wrist weights with games like Beat Saber, which makes it a much more challenging proposition. One problem that I'm sure you've encountered too, though, was that once the action got intense, we found the headset to be too sweaty and cumbersome for the experience to stay enjoyable for long. That's actually one of the big reasons why we started with a more traditional screen-based setup, but as VR lovers ourselves we're definitely keen to move into this space as people's adoption and comfort when using this amazing technology increases!