Several companies and brands have already begun to see the potential available in location-based virtual reality (VR) experiences and facilities. Some high-profile entertainment companies have begun to invest in this area, including SEGA, HTC and IMAX. VRNISH, a directory of location-based VR centres, has now published a white paper report about the emergence of location-based VR entertainment.
VRNISH was launched earlier this year to provide a resource to catalogue the locations of various location-based VR centres around the world. Since that launch VRNISH has been researching the emerging Location-based entertainment scene, speaking to various operators, content creators, hardware manufacturers as well as studying articles and other white papers published by other organisations.
The white paper aims to explain the current state of the VR industry, specifically the location-based Vr market. Its goal is to provide in-depth analysis of the challenges faced in the industry as well as the opportunities afforded by the technology and its ongoing development.
“When we launched VRNISH, in June 2017, we were driven by a strong belief: VR locations have a pivotal role to play in evolving VR from a cool but nascent tech novelty to a mass-market entertainment platform. This belief is now shared by the vast majority of the VR community”, says Bertrand Wolff, co-founder of VRNISH.
The white paper, titled ‘VR Location-Based Entertainment: The Catalyst of VR?’ can be downloaded for free from the VRNISH website by filling in a short form. A PDF copy of the paper will then be sent to you.
VRFocus will continue to bring you news on new developments in the VR sector.
Virtual reality (VR) has already seen significant use in education, allowing students to travel to distant countries, or explore the solar system. Also seeing significant growth is location-based VR, which Noitom specialises in, and are combing out-of-home VR with educational VR for its new product, Alice Space.
Alice Space was created as a complete hardware and software package catered towards an ‘edutainment’ market. Alice Space is themed around space exploration, an area where VR has seen some excellent experiences. Alice Space is designed to be marketed towards places such as museums and science centres, to offer immersive and educational experiences to visitors.
The hardware features a high-fidelity optical-inertial tracking, with VR goggles and backpack PC assembly. Up to six players can be involved at once, with tracking space of 7m x 10m. Noitom have formed a partnership with Australian company Opaque Space to develop and release new content for the platform. Opaque Space have an established relationship with NASA which allows them to create accurate and immersive experience themed around space exploration.
“Our goal in creating this mixed reality, multi-user platform was to bring fantastic, unattainable experiences to a mass audience. And what is more fantastic and unattainable than being able to walk on the moon?” says Roch Nakajima, President of Noitom International. “With Alice Space – theme parks, museums and edutainment facilities get an affordable, long-term, turn-key solution that can be monetized while delivering a unique experience anyone from 9 to 99 will never forget.”
Alice Space is available for pre-order, with the first versions slated for release in January 2018.
VRFocus will continue to report on Noitom’s location-based VR projects.
Mexican beer brand Corona is joining with several other makers of alcoholic beverages in using virtual reality (VR) as a means to market its product and bring unique experiences to its customers. The company’s current aim to to reconnect people in Mexico City with nature.
Mexico City is one of the world’s most populous cities, home to over 20 million people. As a result of geography and restrictions of money, most people in the city have little opportunity to get outside the city and experience nature. Corona are using VR to change that.
Creating a VR installation, Corona have combined theatrical tricks with VR to give visitors the feeling of being immersed in nature. Using sand, heat, wind and scents, Corona have created an experience that lets users travel along a virtual path from the lush jungle to an unspoiled beach.
“The inspiration for this project was to alleviate a tension for people and that required us to go beyond traditional advertising,” said Thiago Zanettini, Global VP Corona. “We leveraged cutting edge technology in a meaningful way to bring to life the brand’s purpose. To live up to that purpose, we hope to do more initiatives like this next year in our homeland of Mexico and beyond.”
Corona’s ‘Secret Paradise’ VR installation was created by Wieden+Kennedy and the Department of New Realities. The event is being held at the Gral Prima in Mexico City and is due to continue across two weekends.
VRFocus will continue to report on new applications for VR technology.
Virtuix are probably best known for creating the virtual reality (VR) motion treadmill, the Virtuix Omni, but the company is also involved in location-based VR, and today the company has announced the launch of Omniverse, a content delivery and arcade management platform for use by commercial Omni operators.
At launch, 15 VR titles will be available through the platform, including titles such as Affected – The Manor, Karnage Chronicles and Primordian. Virtuix are planning on continuing to add titles to the platform over the coming months.
“We’re very excited about both the quality and quantity of games launching on our Omniverse platform,” says Jan Goetgeluk, founder and CEO of Virtuix. “We’ve collaborated with some of the world’s top VR content providers to make sure we offer an exceptional set of experiences to our customers, including fast-paced multiplayer first-person shooters, fantasy RPGs, and even casual games offering relaxed exploration. Omniverse transforms the Omni from a standalone hardware input device to an exciting and complete VR entertainment system for our worldwide customers.”
In addition to the VR content, the Omniverse platform also offers a custom interface where players can preview, launch or switch games without needing to remove the headset. The platform also enables operators to pre-set gameplay time for customers and manage multiple Omni devices from a single device. Gameplay is automatically tracked to facilitate accurate pricing and payment.
“Omniverse represents an opportunity for us to launch our game on more than a thousand commercial entertainment systems at once, without the hassle of individual licensing agreements,” says Mark Paul, Co-founder of Fallen Planet Studios, developer of the VR horror hit Affected – The Manor. “We are excited to release Affected on the Omniverse platform and reach a worldwide audience in places that we hadn’t been able to capture before.”
VRFocus will continue to report on new developments in the VR sector.
Originally founded in 2016, the aim of VRrOOm was to bring virtual reality (VR) experiences to a broader range of people, along with helping to accelerate the growth of the VR market. In furtherance of that aim, VRrOOm is launching a syndication program called Speedr to help make high-quality VR experiences available to all.
Founder of VRrOOm Louis Cacciuttolo believes that location-based VR outlets are the key to bringing VR to a wider audience, and in order to further the efforts of location-based VR, Speedr is hoping to offer a syndication of quality VR content to make is available to various VR outlets. The company also hopes this will spur further development of high-quality VR content for location-based VR, since there is more likely to be a guaranteed market for it to be sold to.
Cacciuttolo said: “Speedr is meant to accelerate the growth of the VR entertainment market by bridging the numerous gaps existing between VR content producers / developers, distributors, technology or equipment suppliers, and the audience. We believe that physical outlets providing quality VR experiences are the key to unlock the market and we want to help our Location Based
Experience (LBE) partners succeed.” he continued, “VR is taking too long, and Speedr is born to make it happen faster. Industry professionals are suffering but few concrete steps are taken to tackle the immediate causes of the issue. Speedr is like a spider building a net to link all VR entertainment industry actors together, in order to attract a larger audience with better offers across a stronger and wider platform, as soon as possible.”
VRFocus will bring you further information on Speedr and VRrOOm as it becomes available.
A UK-based company Frontgrid has teamed up with a business specialising in simulations called Simworx to create a new location-based virtual reality (VR) attraction that simulates the experience of paragliding.
Paragliding is a type of extreme sport, often seen at beach resort locations where tourists can be towed at speed behind a speedboat, paragliding involves wearing a harness and a parachute-like sail to catch the wind. The new attraction, named ParadropVR, recreates this experience, using up and down motion simulation as well as visuals with sudden drops and deceleration to accurately recreate the experience of piloting a paraglider.
The ParadropVR ride also features an interactive videogame element that can be controlled by the user, where points are awarded for flying through certain targets, with more points being awarded for accuracy.
Fronrgrid are planning on offering multiple theming and content options to potential buyers, as well as a modular construction option to offer better hourly capacity throughput and lower operating costs. The creators have designed ParadropVR with the aim of the attraction being easy to install in a variety of locations, such as theme parks, shopping malls, cinemas and bowling alleys.
CEO Matt Wells commented: “Our mission is to create world first, iconic adventure experiences with strong brands and protectable IP, underpinned by disruptive, high growth, high return business models. We are delighted to have partnered with Simworx, a world leader in its field, to create and bring to market the first of our experiences. And of course we are excited to be launching ParadropVR at this year’s EAS. It’s a totally new concept and I’m sure it will create much interest among operators when revealed at the show.”
VRFocus will continue to report on new location-based VR attractions.
At the debut of a secret installation of selected VR attractions operated at a popular family entertainment location in the capital, Digital Out-of-Home Entertainment specialist and VRFocus columnist Kevin Williams gives his report after he becomes one of the first to experience the setup.
The speed in which the deployment of VR in the out-of-home entertainment sector has caught many by surprise, and only a matter of weeks after reporting on VR arcade DNA VR opening in London, we have gained exclusive access to the first deployment of BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment new immersive entertainment concept with the test-opening of VR ZONE Portal London.
Enter London’s latest VR experience. [via KWP]
BANDAI NAMCO’s VR ZONE concept has gained great interest from the international media following the second opening of their virtual reality entertainment facility concept in Japan. VR ZONE SHINJUKU, opened with a two-story 3,500 square meters facility in July of this year. Comprising some 15 activities (12 of which are VR based), the VR community was wowed by the level of immersive engagement achieved, and big properties deployed – including the appearance of Mario Kart Arcade GP VR.
The Japanese toy, game software and amusement conglomerate following the successful launch of their VR ZONE experience has now an interest in establishing this brand, promoting the Project i Can initiative they have created – and amongst the fanfare for the launch of the Shinjuku facility, it was revealed to selected media that this was the beginning of a major roll-out of facilities. The company planing both standalone VR ZONE and smaller pop-up attraction VR ZONE Portal locations; and rather than just looking at Japanese installations, the company was in full swing to open VR ZONE Portals in Western cities such as New York, Las Vegas, Dubai and London.
Jump forward to August 2017 and BANDAI NAMCO made good on this promise with the opening of ‘VR ZONE Portal London’. As part of the Portal phase of the VR ZONE, the virtual reality attractions are pop-up installations within an already existing entertainment sites. The London O2 venue, in the centre of Greengage Peninsula, saw their Hollywood Bowl entertainment facility play host to the West’s first installation.
Once known as the Millennium Dome, The O2 Arena (or simply ‘The O2’) is now the hub for entertainment in Greenwich area of London. [via KWP]Inside at the VR Zone Portal London venue. [via KWP]
Guests to VR ZONE Portal London were required to book to play the VR games at the reception, also used for the state-of-the-art bowling lanes, but unlike the other video amusement games and prize machines that are paid for with coins. This first Western test location offered two of the previously seen VR ZONE games to play. Either playing Hospital Escape Terror (short hand for the original titled Horror Real Experience Room Escape Ward Ω), or the anima mech game Argyle Shift. The players paying £7.99 ($10) each, and allotted a slot to play their respective games.
These are English translated versions of the original Japanese release, running on the HTC Vive headset, and borrowing heavily from the BANDAI NAMCO amusement industry track record. The VR systems using elements from previous amusement pieces construction in their design. Two enclosures of what are called “Immersive Horror Rooms” sit at one part of the area, running Hospital Escape Terror – a game that sees two wheelchair riding “Test Subjects”, navigate a body strewn abandoned hospital evading psychotic assailants and avoiding traps.
Hospital Escape Terror – Players positions inside the enclosure. [via KWP]
While in the other part of the area, running on what was labelled a “VR Cinematic Attraction”, was Argyle Shift – a VR game offering offers two networked motion cockpits allow players to take control of their flying experimental mech power suit, accompanied by a voluptuous co-pilot, dropped into a mass battle with enemy mech’s in the skies and on the ground.
Argyle Shift – The unmanned cockpits… [via KWP]Argyle Shift – Players engage in combat. [via KWP]
These games offer a compelling VR experience if slightly shorter than expected, both, had a “To Be Continued” screen at the end of the game; a possible nod to future updates perhaps? These VR experiences lent heavy on the competitive two-player element as championed by BANDAI NAMCO’s Project i Can initiative. The area offering disposable Ninja Masks for hygiene purposes with regards the public’s use of the VR headsets.
The author – with hygine mask – about to enter battle on Argyle Shift. [via KWP]
Overall, an interesting first choice in VR games to bring from their selection of 12-experiences developed so far, and obviously at this point no word on future games that will get the Western translation and be shipped over, though expectations are high that the Nintendo first co-developed VR experience Mario Kart Arcade GP VR, is in the frame.
A tantalizing first taste of the amusement sector’s deployment of VR into the mainstream Out-of-Home entertainment sector. Far more than just a ‘VR Arcade’ approach utilizing consumer games in a commercial entertainment setting, the VR ZONE Portal offers the expansive amusement operator industry – comprising family entertainment centers such as seen with Hollywood Bowl, or the likes of Dave & Buster’s in the States – a means to drop an exclusive pop-up VR experience into their mix.
Expect to read more news of developments in this sector being covered at the dedicated conference taking place in Las Vegas on September 13th-14th 2017, the Future of Immersive Leisureevent will provide much more information on other new developments that will hope to shape this aspect of the market. VRFocus a media partner of the event, and will be covering developments in coming reports.
Anything Star Wars related tends to be big news, so today, location-based virtual reality (VR) specialist The VOID has revealed a major announcement. In partnership with Lucasfilm and ILMxLAB, the company has unveiled Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, an immersive experience that’ll feature at The VOID’s two new experience centres in the US.
These two centres will be located at Downtown Disney at Disneyland Resort and Disney Springs at Walt Disney World Resort, opening this holiday season.
ILMxLAB, created the experience, in collaboration with The VOID, putting guests directly into the iconic Star Wars galaxy. Using The VOID’s own custom built, untethered VR system – as used in the Ghostbusters: Dimensions experience – attendees will be able move freely throughout the multi-sensory experience as they interact and engage with friends, family and Star Wars characters.
“At The VOID, we combine the magic of illusions, advanced technology and virtual reality to create fully immersive social experiences that take guests to new worlds, said Curtis Hickman, co-founder and chief creative officer at The VOID in a statement. A truly transformative experience is so much more than what you see with your eyes; it’s what you hear, feel, touch, and even smell. Through the power of The VOID, guests who step into Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire won’t just see this world, they’ll know that they are part of this amazing story.”
“At ILMxLAB, we want people to step inside the worlds of our stories, explained Vicki Dobbs Beck, executive in charge of the division. Through our collaboration with The VOID, we can make this happen as guests become active participants in an unfolding Star Wars adventure. By combining Lucasfilm’s storytelling expertise with cutting-edge imagery, and immersive sound from the team at Skywalker Sound, while invoking all the senses, we hope to truly transport all those who experience Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire to a galaxy far, far away.”
As the company continues its expansion, earlier this year The VOID appointed former Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic CTO, Cliff Plumer, as CEO. While in July it joined the Disney Accelerator Program.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of The VOID, reporting back with the latest announcements.
Whilst most discussion in virtual reality (VR) is about the big name head-mounted displays (HMDs) out there – PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and smartphone-based HMDs such as Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard and Daydream there are of course a great many other headsets out there doing their own specific thing. One of those is the StarVR HMD belonging to Starbreeze AB, perhaps better known as videogame publisher and creator Starbreeze Studios.
Unlike its contemporaries however the StarVR headest and Starbreeze’s focus is more on the event spaces, Digital Out-of-Home Entertainment (DOE) – although that’s not to say they are ignoring the home market – a vision brought to life back in May with the reveal of Storm, an immersive multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) for StarVR that was in development. Whilst details about Storm‘s future are understandably vague considering what was shown was purely the envisioning of the concept that doesn’t mean the firm isn’t moving forward by degrees with it’s VR vision.
Their latest move sees Starbreeze complete the acquisition of Enterspace, a fellow Stockholm-based tech firm founded in 2016 that focusing on larger scale and multi-user interactive experiences in VR, such as their debut experience Ringwalker. The move was first confirmed last month, and sees Starbreeze take control of the location based company after a deal involving over one million B-shares being issues in Starbreeze AB, the majority of which are with Enterprise’s founders (Staffan Klashed, Daniel Arnberg and Olof Englund) and a cash payment of 3 million in Swedish krona (SEK).
How exactly Enterspace’s acquisition factors in to Starbreeze’s future plans remains to be seen, however Enterspace is set to launch a VR Experience centre in central Stockholm later this year, which is set to include 9 600 square feet of VR experience space.
VRFocus will bring you more information on the developments with Starbreeze and StarVR as it becomes available.
In the second part of his feature, (click here for part one) looking at the impact that the movie business and prominent Intellectual Properties (IP) have in steering new commercial entertainment VR business. Digital Out-of-Home entertainment (DOE) industry specialist Kevin Williams charts the major develops shaping this emerging new sector. One of the technologies gaining a strong interest from the deep pockets of this sector is the untethered backpack VR experience (Arena-Scale VR). The technology seen as the perfect medium to immersive the guest in the selected movie IP like-never-before, even some investors seeing this as a natural successor for the representation of the movie experience.
One of the most promoted developers of this approach has been The VOID, championing their ‘Hyper Reality’ concept. After many twists and turns the company opted to enter the race by presenting their technology within the Ghostbusters: Dimension attraction. Sony Pictures in partnership with operator Madame Tussauds investing in a walk-through waxwork attraction with a backpack virtual reality (VR) experience in support, commissioned from The VOID. The whole experience created as part of the marketing effort for the reboot of the famous Ghostbusters franchise, with the 2016 film.
The opening of the New York venue, though critically acclaimed and reported as seeing crowds, has yet to see the proposed roll-out at other Tussauds venues; but The VOID has opened a standalone Ghostbusters: Dimension attraction at JBR’s The Beach in Dubai. With a third installation charted for their new flagship entertainment facility in Utah, Nevada, scheduled to open to the public in July.
The growth in interest in movie properties having their own backpack VR experience was evident during CinemaCon 2017. New start-up Nomadic is an immersive entertainment company creating tactile VR adventures, and promoted at the conference their backpack VR experience (Arena-Scale), aiming to occupy a 20-foot-by-30-foot space. Not only seen as “Lobby Entertainment”, but targeting the existing screening rooms (auditorium), to be appropriated as standalone entertainment offerings with their own recurring revenue stream.
Major movie IP’s that have embraced Arena-Scale VR technology have started to reveal their plans thick-and-fast over the last few months – major movie studios such as 20th Century Fox, through their theme park arm (FoxNext Destinations) revealed that they are in the process of developing a 2,000 sq.,ft., multi-player VR experience based around the Alien movie franchise. FoxNext working to develop a ‘free-roaming’ VR experience undergoing secret testing. This new development building on the work creating a free cinema pop-up 360-degree VR journey called Alien: Covenant in Utero; the promotional lobby entertainment developed by FoxNext VR Studio in partnership with AMD Radeon and DELL.
Another major movie franchise receiving VR attraction investment was revealed to be in develop in partnership between Hasbro and DMG Entertainment, (through the recently established DMG VR division). The planned Transformers Experience Center is based on the popular Transformers IP that over the last 30-years has expanded to include comic books, animated series, films, video games and consumer products, the recent film properties generating $850 million internationally. The first interactive Transformers digital simulation experience center, scheduled to open in China this summer.
The application of arena-scale VR has been charted beyond the cinema landscape, with already Zero Latency establishing a growing number of locations for their multi-player backpack VR platform. The game system complimenting family entertainment centers and karting locations. A constant iterative process the operation launching their last multi-player backpack experience called Singularity with a play duration of 30-minutes in this space station exploration narrative. While at the same time announced that they were working on eight-player simultaneous experiences – while also planning to open the largest free-roaming virtual arena in America in the Boston-area later this year, and Philadelphia in 2018.
As previously reported the Asian amusement scene has jumped into out-of-home VR applications with both feet, in Japan investment in this approach has increased and Zero Latency, saw the first commercial installation of their system through a deal with SEGA at their JOYPOLIS site. Building on this, and a new location for Arena-Scale VR experiences opened within the brand new ‘SEGA VR Area’ location – taking over the top (6th) floor of the famous Club SEGA Akihabara amusement venue in Tokyo. The venerable Japanese amusement factory the latest to dip their toe into the waters of dedicated VR based out-of-home entertainment.
The first VR installation in this new space sees SEGA partner with Korean based Skonec Entertainment installing their new Mortal Blitz For Walking Attraction – a three player, backpack VR shooting experience, (using the Pimax 4K headset), opened to the public at the end of May. This destination facility approach following the work that the other amusement powerhouse BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment achieved with their first VR Zone: Project i Can temporary installation; BANDAI announcing that they will be opening a second version of their temporary VR Park in a matter of months in the Tokyo area. (Editor’s Note: For more about this check out two recent VRFocus stories about the experiences on offer including ones based on Mario Kart, Neon Genesis Evangelion, the Gundum franchise and Dragon Ball Z.)
Underlining the interest in using VR as an audience experience akin to a movie theatre or planetarium approach, and Japan has seen the launch of the VirtuaLink. A pop-up paid entertainment experience that has multiple guests sharing a virtual space, with a specially created 360-degree 3D video. Several locations around the Tokyo area will be turned into viewing theaters accommodating some 26 special seats (Wonder Pods) – the VR experience presented on Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) Playstation VR head-mounted displays (HMDs). The concept the closest seen to being a ‘virtual-planetarium’ experience, constructed by Konica Minolta Planetarium Corporation.
From those commentators entrenched outside of the out-of-home entertainment business, we have seen some wild and contradictory statements regarding the perceived impact of this business on the application of their hopes for VR – statements ranging from if VR is confined to public spaces there is a risk of stunting the growth of the medium, too comments that state to love to see these types of themed [VR] centers popping up around the world. A level of ignorance of the DOE market revealed in superficial research of the scene.
This confused speculation, illustrates the disquiet by some as their promised consumer sector slows, in the shadow of the growth (and revenue generating) out-of-home adoption; best illustrated by the growing numbers of consumer platforms pivoting to destination application. Along with HTC, we see OSVR (The VOID, Zero Latency) and StarVR (IMAX VR) deployment in VR arcade settings; it was recently announced in Japan of the new Virtual Gate platform developed by Techno Blood; allowing VR content to be enjoyed at the countries host of Internet Cafes, the platform partnered with the once consumer facing FOVE eye-tracked HMD – already operational at 33 net cafes in the country.
The commercial entertainment industry has proven an uncomfortable enigma to many that had previously invested in a promised consumer approach to VR. To educate and promote, the Digital Out-of-Home Entertainment (DOE) sector has invested in a unique conference in September, partly supported by my consultancy (KWP) and a major exhibition organizer. Based in Las Vegas, the Future of Immersive Leisure convention will bring together operators of the latest immersive entertainment technology, as well as developers of the hardware, and investors shaping the latest developers.
This new event will be the launch-pad where several new projects will reveal their thinking behind entering the commercial entertainment against previous interest in consumer investment. It is the ability to have direct access to the revenue stream, and a believable business model that has drawn both established operations and new start-ups to the DOE business for VR. Expect reports on the build-up to this event and industry developments in following columns.
Their latest move sees Starbreeze complete the acquisition of Enterspace, a fellow Stockholm-based tech firm founded in 2016 that focusing on larger scale and multi-user interactive experiences in VR, such as their debut experience Ringwalker. The move was first 
The application of arena-scale VR has been charted beyond the cinema landscape, with already 
The commercial entertainment industry has proven an uncomfortable enigma to many that had previously invested in a promised consumer approach to VR. To educate and promote, the Digital Out-of-Home Entertainment (DOE) sector has invested in a unique conference in September, partly supported by my consultancy (KWP) and a major exhibition organizer. Based in Las Vegas, the