The virtual pet of the future may find a home in VR thanks to Windup Minds

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The virtual pet of the future may find a home in VR thanks to Windup Minds
Who remembers vpets? Sure, we don’t have enough apps like this on the best smartphones of today, but once upon a time time vpets — which is short for virtual pets — such as Digimon or Tamagotchi were a blast! And even though these communities are still going strong in 2023, the fact of the matter is that the vpet of the future needs to change.

So, how about a VRpet?

It only makes sense, right? Having a little creature that you can interact with through some of the best AR/VR headsets just makes sense. Not only that, but it would effectively take the beastie out of a tiny screen and bring it into your very own surroundings. Which is, after all, the basic plot of all vpets.

And you know what? A brand new startup studio, featuring talent from some of the most groundbreaking studios in the gaming industry, seems to have thought the same thing. Because its first funding round has just come to a close and the first order of business seems to be a next-gen virtual pet.

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The studio in question is called Windup Minds and it features developers from studios such as: Oculus, Niantic, EA, PopCap, Harmonix, Bungie and even more. Among these experienced developers are also the peeps behind Oculus demo-gems such as Dreamdeck, Toybox and First Contact.

The startup company is aiming at utilizing its gathered $1.6 million in making XR games and experiences, overall themed around virtual creatures and pets. And, yes, the team is very much inspired by Tamagochi, Sony’s Aibo and even Nintendogs.

Both AR and VR pose almost infinite potential when it comes to virtual pets. Anyone that has ever dabbled in vpets knows that they are pretty advanced and the communities are quite dedicated. Taking something this beloved into the next generation through XR tech is a wonderful thought and personally, I can’t wait to see what Windup Minds comes up with!
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