Peloton launches new Lanebreak feature, where fitness meets gaming
Ever wanted to play a video game while riding your bike? Now you can.
The idea behind the Peloton bike is to create an immersive experience for your at-home fitness. With the company’s latest feature, Lanebreak, Peloton is taking this immersion to the next level, by introducing a gaming feature.
Lanebreak is Peloton’s newest feature and the first attempt at gamified fitness. Peloton explains that the feature gives members a “deeply-immersive gaming experience that combines animation, music and reward incentives into a fun, cardio workout”.
The Lanebreak feature essentially acts as a game during a Peloton workout. Riders are challenged to select a level and then ride their bike according to the animated game.
To encourage extra effort, riders will need to vary their speed and resistance to get the highest score possible. In the game, riders control a virtual bike and gain points for various levels and bursts of output that support each lane change.
Throughout the gameplay, riders will get to listen to music playlists, to encourage their cycling performance. While riding along the virtual track, riders will also be able to switch lanes by turning the resistance knob left or right.
Currently, the game is only available in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, and Australia. While Peloton hasn’t provided any information on rolling it out to other countries, we expect that it will.
It’s certainly an interesting attempt at further immersing the at-home fitness experience. As Peloton said, an interactive fitness game like this is something new, so the company is clearly aiming towards the future of fitness.
As for how well the game will work, you should expect pretty decent performance. Peloton’s normal experience syncs pretty seamlessly to your movements on the bike, so the game should too. Of course, this isn’t a typical video game, so bear this in mind if you use the Lanebreak feature.
Connor Jewiss
