“Guys, cover me while I take the point”Thiago says to his companions. “Careful, there’s one behind the back wall!”Tom answers enthusiastically. Before announcing two seconds later: “He got me, I’m dead.” » In the middle of a futuristic spaceship, two rival factions exchange intense fire: one defends an area it has captured and the other attacks. Everything is happening very quickly. Gabriel aims and shoots, Thibaut jogs behind him, while Maxime attempts a discreet incursion into enemy territory.
The immersion is such that we almost forget that all this action is not actually taking place in a machine floating in space, but under the virtual reality (VR) headsets worn by five young people, who for half an hour trample the white and black floor of a hangar of about 1,000 square metres, lost in an industrial zone of Val-d’Oise. We are in the town of Beauchamp, inside a room called EVA, for Esports Virtual Arenas.
“This was a laser game that went bankrupt due to Covid,” tell him World Bastien Mignon, the manager of this establishment that offers its customers shooting video games (FPS, for example), first person shooter) in virtual reality. Its owners, who also own a trampoline park and a children’s play area located a few hundred metres away, were seduced several years ago by the concept of the French start-up EVA and opened as a franchisee in 2021. It was then the first venue to offer this innovative offer.
Since then, around thirty brand stores have opened in France and twenty-five more are planned before the end of the year. “We are aiming for 100 theatres for the entire French network by the end of 2025”“Explains Jean Mariotte, co-founder and president of EVA, whose turnover is expected to reach €8.5 million in 2023 (excluding franchises). Since its launch in 2018, the young company has shown ambition: in addition to exporting, it is investing in e-sports and plans to launch a new game in the hope of opening up to a wider audience.
Monthly “battle pass”
The clientele at EVA Beauchamp, open seven days a week, is already quite varied, according to its director. “On Wednesdays and weekends it is quite family-oriented but there are also friends who come to play with each other”Bastien Mignon points out. The players, whose average age remains young, “around 30 years”sometimes they come here on special occasions. “We organize our birthdays there”confesses Tom, 18 years old and passionate about licenses Obligationswith his forehead still damp from the sweat accumulated under the virtual reality headset.
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