International Immersive Technology, Specialist, Kevin Williams of KWP, concludes his two-part feature looking at the explosion of “Pop-up” entertainment applications for the mall and retail landscape comprising virtual reality technology. Covering the deployment of this hardware into the markets new technology trends such as Tethered and Booth Enclosures, and the Entertainment Sites looking at expanding into this sector, with a conclusion towards the future.
Pop-up Deployment
Taking the installation of a virtual entertainment experience to the extreme, and we see the creation of a mobile VR attraction in a simple pop-up package. Developer BEC Rides, in collaboration with robotic arm manufacturer KUKA has released ‘Coaster BEC Ride 3P 6DOF’. The system offering three riders a virtual ride experience that can simulate any kind of experience, with the visuals supplied by mobileVR headset. The whole system deployed in a simple container. Offering the ability to drop a roller-coaster quality experience in a package that can be deployed in a mall venue.
Creating a dedicated VR pop-up enclosure for the shopping mall deployment has not been easy, and several importers of Chinese VR platforms have tentatively placed hardware in pop-up mall locations. This move mirrored the explosion in pop-up mall locations that were seen across China in 2016 onwards. But a fundamental aspect of deploying this hardware is the need to have appropriate content that meets the needs of the diverse audience. In China these pop-up mall locations soon fell out of favour unable to offer a quality of product and proved limited in repeat interest.
UK based IMMOTION – who have floated on the London Stock Exchange and has taken to the new VR entertainment opportunity in a unique way, looking at the deployment to establish an empire to support with unique hardware. IMMOTION has also created their own hardware and content after exhaustive location-testing, including the creation of their own flagship site in Bristol (under the IMMOTIONVR brand). Has developed a revenue sharing model that is gaining momentum, and has placed their installation in several malls, the company formulating a partnership with intu, owner managers of UK’s shopping centers. A move to continue the rollout of their VR brand.
Along with the deployment of the mixed entertainment VR offering IMMOTION has created a turnkey pop-up installation called ‘Coaster Park’ – offering a simple to deploy motion VR experience offering fun entertainment in a pop-up package for mall and entertainment venue installation. The company has also broadened their reach into the “edutainment” sector, creating a compelling version of their system for installation in Aquariums and Zoos.
IMMOTION has also partnered with gambling operator Rank Group Plc, to be one of the first to place pop-up VR entertainment installations in UK casinos – the Grosvenor Casino Manchester property showcasing IMMOTION’s ‘VR Racing Challenge’ – competitive virtual reality racing competition, that borrows heavily from the popularity of tournament based competition, riders sitting in their own virtual racing cockpits. This installation is the start of initial trails towards player response and if favourable will see a roll out across 53 of its Grosvenor UK venues. IMMOTION has also established hardware partnerships as we cover later in this feature.
Another developer that has looked at a turnkey, multi-player racing experience is VRX and their ‘RaceRoom’ attraction. The system able to offer four-networked ‘iMOTION’ racing seats, with players strapped to VR headsets taking part in intense racing competition. The system delivered as a fenced off standalone enclosure – including audience screens to draw players, the whole system acting as a stage. VRX has developed the system to include a simple turnstile operation, able to be used as a standalone attraction in a variety of locations.
Retail chains have been playing with VR pop-up promotions within their flagship venues as a means of marketing. A recent example of this is certain AT&T stores with the ‘Beyond The Wall’ – a Augmented Reality (AR) experience powered by Magic Leap headset, allowing users to experience the world of Game of Thrones. Two AR experiences were created as part of the licensing of the popular television series by AT&T. This fits into the “Retail-tainment” model, though has no actual revenue generation element, an expensive promotional tool. Magic Leap, keen to gain recognition for their AR platform working in collaboration with AT&T on several promotion on site attractions.
Tethered and Booth Installations
While the Pop-up autonomous standalone installations find a strong following in the changing landscape of the retail-tainment deployment of VR, there has also been an increased investment in the development of booth and enclosure style VR systems for deployment in mixed-use entertainment venues.
One of the most successful VR entertainment platforms seen recently has been the boom in the tethered enclosures – multi-player enclosures that use a tethered VR headset to allow players to navigate in the virtual environment. The leading provider of this genre is HOLOGATE. The German based developer with an order book groaning under over 323 sales (with of which some 256 in operation), has developed an enclosure system that offers four player action in a simple turnkey package. The company working with five different distributors internationally to place the platform with dedicated operators.
The tethered enclosure has seen other successful implementations, such as from VR Nerds – with their ‘Tower Tag’, that brought an innovative competitive, fast-pace VR experience to the market. The company has found incredible success with the installation of their six-players in total, tethered VR experience; in an intense competitive attraction – deployed as an enclosure installation at CA SEGA JOYPOLIS venues in Tokyo, as well as other installations.
Other developer has taken the tethered enclosure concept and developed their interpretation – which are finding interest in the entertainment facility scene such as Minority Media with their ‘Chaos Jump’ offering a compact footprint. Or the larger enclosure experience from VEX Solution and their ‘VEX Adventure’. The need for a turnkey deployment for amusement and entertainment placement shaped the design by We Play VR of their system, and with platforms from Escape Reality.
Another company that has deployed a VR entertainment platform for pop-up installation in high-foot traffic locations such as shopping mall, is YDX Innovation’ along with their ‘ARKAVE’ platform. Following testing at one of South Americans largest malls, (the Parque D. Pedro Shopping, in São Paulo), the company has now focused on rolling out pop-up operations with three systems already deployed. The company has also installed six of their arenas in the USA. As seen with other developers the company has signed a licensing agreement to incorporate a strong brand with their VR platform – and it was revealed that they had partnered with Walt Disney, on ‘Mickey Mouse – And The Golden Heart’ VR adventure, to be revealed later this year.
There are also several booth enclosures – building on the larger Omni Arena system we have previously covered – there are smaller deployments that offer locations of carrying capacity a chance to benefit from deploying this entertainment offering. A developer with a strong pedigree in establishing VR entertainment and attractions. The smaller ‘Jaluxi’ from French developer – a single player standalone booth enclosure that offers a versatile tethered VR experience, that can be configured for entertainment and promotional deployment.
VRstudios is known for their successful collaboration with Dave & Buster’s in the largest deployment of their commercial VR entertainment installation of some 140 simulators, across 125 locations. VRstudios has taken this proven experience and developed a cost-effective VR enclosure called the ‘VRcade Atom’. This ground-breaking enclosure uses wireless (untethered) VR headsets for two players, utilizing the Attraction Management Platform (AMP) running experiences from the company’s portfolio of VRcade wireless, multiplayer attractions expressly built for commercial VR entertainment, in addition to curated STEAM games. The AMP allows multiple platforms to be networked together, to increase the virtual player count in attraction titles that support the feature. A simple to install and operate turnkey package that can be easily set-up, or take-down, relocate and reconfigured.
Building on the development of dedicated partnerships towards driving business, and IMMOTION has partnered with US developer SURVIOS. The leading VR development studio, SURVIOS has recently raised some $50million in a latest round of funding that saw investment from MGM. In its partnership with IMMOTION, the companies have developed a multi-player VR enclosure platform based on the popular consumer VR game ‘Raw Data’, offering a free-roaming tethered game experience. The system has been added to the VR offering as part of the ‘IMMOTION VR’ entertainment zone. The company partnering with Waterfront, (the joint venture between owner of The O2, AEG Europe, and Crosstree Retail Partners), towards installing the pop-up 12-station VR arena into The O2, in London.
Entertainment Sites
An aspect of this explosion in “retail-tainment” has been the investment in “Eatertainment” offerings, and new investment. This has seen chains such as Gameworks receive new investment, partnering with professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management JLL. While the poster-boy for this sector, Dave & Buster’s has announced their return to the stock market with a planned flotation. Ardent Leisure Group invested significantly in their Main Event chain. At the same time, we have seen “Social Entertainment Hangout” – Punch Bowl Social entered a non-controlling $140million investment from Cracker Barrel – along with expansion roll out plans from Round One, and Main Event.
All these “Eatertainment” offerings have invested in some way with inclusion of a virtual reality component to their mix. Both Gameworks and Punch Bowl partnering with VRsenal to include a VR offering on their game floor, Punch Bowl going as far as to create the “Virtual Reality Parlour” for players to try out VR experiences – a semi-pop-up installation. As previously mentioned in this feature other entertainment facility business with a VR component are the Cineplex chain of REC ROOM sites – that included the first of the pop-ups from The VOID (covered previously).
In Japan the latest mix of an entertainment venue with VR, MR and a dedicated hospitality element was launched in July from BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment – the leading amusement, consumer game publisher and toy producer launched their latest interpretation of their VR ZONE projects, creating ‘MAZARIA’ – opened in the in Sunshine City, Ikebukuro, Tokyo. With some four dedicated zones that allow guests to try some of the latest VR experiences based on properties based on PAC-MAN and even Godzilla. All encapsulated in a facility seen as an Amusement Theme Park (ATP) fitting into a conventional retail unit arrangement.
Other Asian developers that have been involved in exploring the Arena-Scale VR LBE scene have also seen much investment action. Japanese developer Tyffon, a recipient of initial Walt Disney investment, has recently raised some $7.8million Series A round of funding – this investment will see a major roll-out of their chain of ‘Tyffonium’ venues, with a first US location. The experience offering more of a couples-based next-generation walk-through horror attraction, and fantasy adventure using backpack PC’s.
While Hong Kong-based Sandbox VR, with several Asian based facilities, offering their unique mix of backpack PC VR blasting action, supported by greenscreen video capture for guest takeaway – has seen a massive infusion of capital. The company announced they had received $68million in Series A round of funding, (including investors such as Alibaba). This investment has gone to roll out their plans in the West with the first American facility openings. And just as we went to the wire with this report, it was revealed that the operation had partnered with CBS Interactive to launch their first Wester IP based VR experience with ‘Star Trek Discover: Away Mission’. The backpack PC VR adventure will see six-players involved in a rescue mission. This will be the second Star Trek based LBE VR experience in the market following behind Dave & Buster’s and ‘Star Trek: Dark Remnant’, launched this year across their 140 simulators.
These two examples however are focused on permanent facility offerings – though as can be seen previously in the report, the permanent LBE VR business model has come under serious stress testing. It would be expected that as seen with other providers these options will be looking hard at offering a pop-up variant to their permanent retail facility installation.
In Conclusion
For the retail sector, the opportunity to enter the entertainment market has seen a land-grab towards investing in the leading exponents of this hardware. The opportunity to jump on the bandwagon early with what many are seeing as the interactive equivalent to the theater business. Expect in the coming months to see further major investments towards being the first to grab the largest part of the market, all working to deploy this latest immersive entertainment as a move into the “experience economy”.
This is the conclusion of this two-part feature on the explosion in LBE VR platforms with a new focus on deployment in the mall and retail sector. For more information on this sector, Kevin Williams will be presenting an exclusive Masterclass on “Immersive Entertainment” in the market, during the RLI Connect Global, 5-6 May 2020. Please watch this space for more information on how you can book to attend.
About the Author – Kevin Williams – a leading specialist in the digital Out-of-Home entertainment industry, through his consultancy KWP Limited, specializing in interactive entertainment. Coming from a long career in the theme park, amusement and entertainment software industries, being an ex-Walt Disney Imagineer. Well known for his news service, The Stinger Report that has become a-must-read for those working or investing in the international market. Along with this, he is also a prolific writer with regular columns for the main trade publications in this market, along with presenting numerous conference sessions on the sector and its global impact. He is also the co-author of the only book on this aspect of the market, “The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier” – currently working on the next edition, schedule for publication soon. Kevin can be reached at kwp@thestingerreport.com.
