Slapshot City: ‘NHL Sense Arena’ Brings the Official NHL Hockey Experience to Meta Quest VR Today

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Apr 18, 2024

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The NHL playoffs are right around the corner. In only a matter of weeks, teams will battle it out for the Stanley Cup. But what if you could take the ice yourself?

NHL Sense Arena moves from App Lab to the Meta Quest Store today, bringing official NHL-licensed hockey to VR. Originally designed as a training tool, NHL Sense Arena now includes all 32 NHL teams, along with officially branded jerseys, locker rooms, arenas, and more. Take your favorite team through a full NHL season, or hone your skills with over 100 game-like scenarios and training drills. You can even put on the goalie gloves and test your reflexes in the net.

We caught up with Sense Arena Founder and CEO Bob Tetiva to chat about how NHL Sense Arena has evolved since its initial App Lab launch in 2021, an upcoming mode that will let you play through the actual Stanley Cup playoff bracket, stopping real-life slapshots as a goalie, and more.

Read on for the full interview, or aim your skates at the Meta Quest Store and go grab NHL Sense Arena—available as a one-time $29.99 USD purchase for hockey fans, or on an ongoing subscription basis (starting at $29 a month) for the Official VR Training Tool of USA Hockey.

How has NHL Sense Arena improved since its initial App Lab release, and are there any big features arriving alongside the move to the Meta Quest Store?

Bob Tetiva: We originally launched on App Lab in 2021 as a training tool, Sense Arena for Hockey. In November of 2023 we relaunched as an officially licensed NHL VR game, a major upgrade of the platform that turned Sense Arena into a true NHL experience—with officially branded locker rooms, teams, uniforms, arenas, competitions, and so on.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs is the climax of each season, and it starts in late April. No surprise then, our main new feature is the virtual run for the Stanley Cup, arriving April 29—just a few days after the launch on the Meta Quest Store—when the real Stanley Cup Playoff bracket’s first round gets underway.

Our brand new 12-month Game Pass (for a one-off price of $29.99 USD) allows hockey fans to compete in our NHL Season, the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and our Multiplayer mode. Thousands of players can now experience the rush of the playoffs from first-person, battling in a best of seven series dressed in their favorite team’s uniform, and facing off against the opposing NHL team from the real NHL playoff bracket.

Do you consider NHL Sense Arena more of a game or a training tool?

BT: NHL Sense Arena is primarily a training tool for hockey players and goalies, with 100+ drills that involve game-like scenarios, professionally designed training plans, and guidance- and performance-tracking tools. NHL Sense Arena is the Official VR Training Tool of USA Hockey.

Dedicated training is for very focused hockey players and goalies, though. NHL Sense Arena was originally created as a training tool, but we’ve always lived by the motto, “Training should be fun.” With that as our guide, we’ve implemented all the excitement of the NHL Season into NHL Sense Arena. In VR, players were able (and will be again during the next season) to follow along with the excitement and fun of the NHL Winter Classic, All-Star Game, Stadium Series, Stanley Cup Playoffs, and all of the real NHL events. NHL Sense Arena also includes multiplayer mode and community competitions.

All of this is based on game-like hockey scenarios, although NHL Sense Arena is not yet a “north-south” hockey game. Players can get in there, have fun, hang out, compete, and build their “status” as successful hockey players with trophies and achievements. We call it “Train like a Pro, be an NHLer!”

What’s your favorite position to play in NHL Sense Arena? Are you more of a forward? A goalie?

BT: All kids dream about being a goalie, standing in the crease in an NHL arena and facing shots from real NHLers. We hear this every day, and I’m no different!

In NHL Sense Arena, you can pick a special module called “Video Drills.” There, we have hundreds of videos of real NHL players shooting on-net. You see them skate in and take a slap shot, and right at the moment when they release the puck in the video, we replace the puck with a virtual one that travels towards the net, and you have to stop it! This feature is heavily used by many pro goalies in the NHL, including Joey Daccord, Devon Levi, Joel Hofer, to mention just three of them.

But the most popular mode, since the NHL relaunch, has been our NHL Season. Players love to immerse themselves in the role of their favorite NHL team—wear their uniforms, explore their virtual locker room, and compete against the league to take their team to the top of the standings! You can see the Leaderboards on our website.

What’s next for you now that NHL Sense Arena is on the Meta Quest Store? Any exciting updates in the works?

BT: Yes, big things are being released every three months. The major one we are working on now is our “Continuous Play” feature, which gives you the ability to move around the ice and play on a team with AI-based teammates. That is planned for the 2024-2025 NHL Season and will eventually replace our “skills-based” 2023-2024 NHL Season that is available now.

Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

BT: NHL Sense Arena comes in two modes—as a game for hockey fans, for a one-off $29.99 USD purchase, or as a legitimate and USA Hockey approved training platform on a subscription basis, which starts at $29 USD monthly. There’s something for everyone!

Okay, I think the Zamboni is done by now. If you’re ready to hit the ice, you’ll find NHL Sense Arena in the Meta Quest Store for $29.99 USD.