Peloton launches Lanebreak video game for bike owners

Platoon has been busy in recent months, releasing new features to a stable clip. The last? A beta of the fitness video game called Lanebreak which marks the company’s first foray into the game.

Lanebreak departs from the classic instructor-led courses Peloton is known for. The concept seems similar to your typical rhythm games, except that instead of touching your screen, you are prompted to pedal at a certain cadence or resistance along a Tron-like a virtual highway. The resistance button lets you choose between the easiest lanes on the left and the hardest on the right. In each lane there are also various challenges (i.e. breaking obstacles, filling gauges, etc.) that are in sync with the pace. For example, “pickups” are points that a player accumulates for staying on track and matching the beat and tempo of a song. “Streams” are visible “veins” that appear in various lanes and award players points based on their correspondence to a range of cadence. Finally, “Breakers” are items that require you to reach a certain output within a limited amount of time, like two bars in a song to reach a certain level of power. There also seems to be a social element, as users can redeem points and challenge other members.

As with Peloton courses, users can choose from different music genres and playlists, workout types, difficulty levels and duration. Right now, Lanebreak is only available in beta for around 1,000 users and details, appearance and mechanics may change as the beta opens to members this winter. (The game is slated to officially launch in early 2022.) That said, you’ll need to own a Bike or Bike + to participate.

If you’ve been paying attention to what Peloton has been up to lately, It’s not surprising. The company also recently relaunched scenic rides and races, which allow users to virtually train with their favorite instructors in exotic locations. Gamification has always been part of Peloton’s DNA with rankings, badges and news features like Strive Score. Lanebreak seems to be an extension of all of these.

“Content, especially our instructor-led content, is at the heart of Peloton. We continue to build on that to move us forward, but the reality is people want variety, ”David Packles, Peloton senior product manager on Lanebreak, told Gizmodo.. “People are looking to Scenic Rides, Scenic Tracks, Just Ride and Just Run as a way to change the routine. We have always asked ourselves, “Is this it?” What other formats could we actually experiment with? ‘“

Packles also noted that although they are still in the early stages of development, the intention is for Lanebreak to have a minimalist feel, be heavily music based and have good replayability.

“The novelty and continued growth of our library is a fundamental tenet of Peloton, so we will make sure to add levels regularly. [for Lanebreak]”Packles said.” This is something we will continue to evolve our library for, just as we would for our Peloton library. ”

It makes sense. Peloton is the de facto leader in the on-demand training space, and if you’ve ever met a die-hard Peloton fan, they certainly have a favorite instructor. (Cough, Cody rigsbycough Sam yo, cough.) That said, instructor-led classes just aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. Packles says the hope here may be to appeal to a wider range of people who might be into fitness games, but maybe not Just Rides or traditional classes.

There’s also the fact that more people became interested in fitness games during the pandemic. For example, it was almost impossible to find copies by Nintendo Ring shaped adventure during the first days of confinement. Supernatural on the Oculus Quest was another popular choice. VR Fitness in general has been called one of the 2021 Upward Fitness Trends. Peloton, which has also reaped the benefits of the home fitness craze, seems like a natural fit for some sort of game element given that all of its gear comes with big, beautiful displays.

While the beta is currently focused on Bike and Bike +, Packles hasn’t ruled out bringing something like that to the tread (once, you know, reminders are sorted).

“We think creating experiences at the intersection of fitness and play is a very exciting space,” Packles said. “And it’s certainly not limited to cycling. We are currently focusing on cycling, as this is our first foray into this world.

Peloton also recently announced that it was building a $ 400 million factory in the United States This, combined with recent rumors that Peloton may be preparing for rerent your own laptop, suggests the company is optimistic about its future, unfazed by the bad press surrounding the pandemic delivery delays and the recent recall of its treadmills. There are currently more than 5.4 million Peloton subscribers, and the community is extremely loyal.