Peloton announced that it has developed a fitness video game, claiming that connected fitness is an opportunity to open up the power of gaming to a new audience.
Peloton has been busy releasing new features in the past few months. The latest addition to its fitness program is a fitness video game called Lanebreak, which marks the company’s first step into the gaming world. The company announced Lanebreak on Tuesday, 20 July 2021, on its official website.
Lanebreak leaves the classic instructor-led classes that Peloton is known for. The concept seems similar to typical rhythm games, except instead of tapping one’s screen, users are encouraged to pedal at a certain cadence or resistance on a Tron-like virtual highway. The resistance knob lets the user pick between lanes, with the easiest lane on the left and the hardest lane on the right. Each lane features various challenges, such as filling up gauges or breaking obstacles, that are synced to the beat. “Pickups” are points that a player can collect when they stay on the right track while matching a song’s beat and tempo.
“Streams” are visible vein-like objects that appear in various lanes that give players points based on how well they match a cadence. Another challenge is the “breaker”, which is an object that require players to reach a certain output in a song to build up to a certain level of power. There also seems to be a social element in the game, as players allegedly can redeem points and challenge other members.
On its official website, Peloton stated, “We believe that connected fitness is an opportunity to open up the power of gaming to a new audience. Building off of what works in Peloton classes, games allow us to provide distinct visual feedback to players as they take a workout. Just like Alex Toussaint would challenge you to finish the last 30 seconds of a tough interval, games offer a way to not only cue you to do so, but to reward you in real time for your actions. These types of interactive experiences may be new for many members, which is why we landed on music as our core tenant. We found it was a powerful thread between something people already understood and enjoyed and a format they may not be as familiar with.”
Just like the Peloton classes, users can choose between different workouts, difficulty levels, duration, different music genres, and playlists before starting the game. Lanebreak is now available on Beta to approximately a thousand users, while the game is set to officially launch in early 2022.
