Peloton
Peloton has added running games to its repertoire.
The latest: The digital fitness company released Lanebreak, a fitness gaming experience, for its smart treadmill, Peloton Tread. It’s an extension of its 2022 release for Bike, with some adjustments for form factor.
- Users score points by calibrating treadmill incline and speed to match animated on-screen visual cues.
- Workouts range from five to 30 minutes across all difficulty levels, with soundtracks spanning a variety of genres, from pop to metal.
- New running-specific features include updated avatars, pace-based difficulty options, and an auto-incline ability that adjusts to on-screen hills.
Between the lines: While its instructor-led, boutique fitness-style content is the “golden goose,” Peloton desperately needs more active users of its hardware. And its continued foray into gaming x fitness signals an attempt to attract a new kind of customer.
Game on. To date, the exergaming scene has remained TBD. But, revived by a VR gaming industry projected to hit $53B by 2028, the race to rule gamified fitness has picked back up.
- In March, UK-based Quell raised $10M in a Series A for its immersive fantasy game experience that uses your body as a controller.
- Earlier this June, Zwift launched handlebar mounted gaming controllers called Play compatible with the pilot of an arcade-style gaming mode.
- This year, VR exergaming platform FitXR and gamified rower Ergatta scaled up efforts to reach new customers in Europe and beyond.
Meanwhile, Meta’s acquisition of fitness app Supernatural and Apple’s recent release of the Vision Pro headset prime both behemoths to expand their own vertically integrated offerings.
Takeaway: Companies are upping the ante on immersive exercise in hopes of widening appeal beyond the prototypical customer and convincing more consumers to get moving. But, experience is everything — and for companies like Peloton developing games as a side quest, Lanebreak Tread may be as tough a sell as the pricey treadmill itself.
