LET’S GO FOR PLAN B

Ludus is the oldest of all of them. Created in 2011 by four computer scientists from Deusto (Jon Iñaki Martínez, Mikel Cearsolo, Mikel Calvo, and Jon López de Guereña) to produce video games, it has ended up specializing in training that uses Virtual Reality. This is what is being called a “pivot” today: when a company starts with one specific project, but soon realizes that the best business opportunity is in another field.

Three of the four founders of Ludus, which was first called Pulsar Concept, worked for one of Bilbao’s legendary video game start-ups: Ludei. After a disagreement with their boss, they decided to step out and try to make it on their own. They made some video games like Pelotari, but they soon realized that it’s very difficult to make money in the short term in that field.

If they kept doing what they really liked, they were going to starve. In addition, there were already many other companies doing the same thing, so it was extremely difficult for them to stand out. Then, one fine day in 2013, at a fair in Amsterdam, they met Palmer Luckey, one of the founders of Oculus, a start-up that years later would be bought by Facebook for 2 billion dollars.

WHAT DO I KNOW? WHAT IS NEEDED? WHAT CAN I OFFER THAT IS BETTER?

The idea of developing multimedia products that could only be enjoyed with a special headset excited them. They started testing and found that the potential was particularly great in the training sector. And, since they were in the Basque Country, they decided to take the industry approach.

“We were strong, technologically, and we were looking for something that would set us apart and that couldn’t be easily copied,” explains Cearsolo, one of the four founders of Ludus. It was he who had previously worked for CIE Automotive (a Basque auto parts manufacturer) and initially came up with the idea of applying Virtual Reality to the industrial world.

You have to remember that at that time there were already simulators for training, such as for flying planes or driving trains, but they required large machines that occupied enormous spaces. The headsets they had seen in Amsterdam (which are relatively common today) would make it possible to democratize this type of training and apply it to new fields.

SEE THE OPPORTUNITY AND DIVE IN

They spotted an opportunity in Occupational Risk Prevention, which, in practice, saves lives, and they developed their first products in this area. But their first clients (the Port of Bilbao and the Goverment of Biscay’s Fire Department) asked them for something a little different: a virtual training environment based on simulations of situations that could arise in real life.

The idea was to simulate fires or accidents so that the firefighters or the port emergency services could act as they would in a real situation. With the help of the VR headset, users could train on an ongoing basis and more economically than when a single simulation or drill is carried out.

From then on, the business began to grow, non-stop, first with the support of private investors, and recently with that of different venture capital funds. Today, with its own platform, which allows its products to be adapted to the needs of its clients, Ludus’s almost 50 employees work for 150 companies and institutions in 18 countries, mainly in Latin America.

And, after so many years, this company from Biscay has become one of the main content factories for the metaverse – without even using that term. Their tools and avatars are similar to those offered by the big VR software creators.

Virtualware has an even longer history, having come into existence in 2003 with three computer scientists at the helm who had trained at Deusto alongside several professors enthusiastic about the multimedia field. “We didn’t have the DNA of entrepreneurs, but creating our own company was the only option we had to avoid moving to Madrid or Barcelona”, explains the company’s CEO, Unai Extremo.

IN CONSTANT EVOLUTION

Virtualware decided to specialize in carrying out Virtual Reality projects based on more conventional hardware; generally, large screens. The simulation of museums and real estate developments represented a significant part of their work, which, at that time, could be enjoyed without the need for a special headset.

In the last few years Virtualware has taken two significant steps that are bringing it even closer to what is now called the metaverse. Firstly, the creation of a proprietary platform that simplifies and speeds up the workflow in Virtual Reality projects. Secondly, the establishment of a spin-off specializing in remote patient rehabilitation.

This latest project, headed up by the Basque-Canadian David Fried, is fully integrated into the metaverse, using tools such as cameras, sensors, and remote controls. What began with the help of the Biscay Multiple Sclerosis Association as a therapeutic video game has ended up as a medical device that uses Virtual Reality to help patients improve their physical and psychological states.

Oroi – a project promoted by two former students studying for Mondragon University’s Entrepreneurial Leadership and Innovation degree (LEINN), Jorge Maylin and Iñaki Aramburu – also falls inside the healthcare field.

Focused on the elderly, its aim is to stimulate them intellectually so as to delay cognitive deterioration.

ON THE CUTTING-EDGE OF THE METAVERSE: BEYOND THE RECREATIONAL SPHERE

These cases of applications from Biscay for the metaverse show that this is an area in which we can talk about a reality and not just vaporware (despite it being so abundant in the technological world). These are industrial and medical uses in which mixing the physical and virtual worlds provides real value.

The headset connects the user with a different environment so that he or she can interact with it, using means that are readily available. This is ideal for everything related to training in the use of sophisticated devices (as happens at any factory), and with situations that are not common, but for which one must be prepared (such as a fire).

Just as the metaverse that is talked about in the media projects a person into a rather imaginary virtual universe, the more industrial variant of the metaverse recreates objects that exist, and anticipates real events. Mere entertainment (sometimes enhanced by online purchases) stands in contrast to professional use, in which value is provided to the user in terms of training or recovery from a physical problem.

And there is a broad spectrum; thus, no one should be surprised if soon we have many start-ups of this type in Biscay. Just think about the maintenance of all kinds of machines, as well as training for the use of vehicles, which are all becoming more sophisticated each day in terms of performance and quality requirements. The cost of training is reduced, the chances of making mistakes decrease, and efficiency increases; in general, by being able to learn from each other through the Big Data left by all digitalized activities.