Commentary

Global immersive attraction barrels forward, finds new funding

New media platforms are attracting significant investment, challenging the traditional amusement and attraction sector to stay relevant.

Credit: Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg.

September 13, 2021 by Kevin Williams

Global immersive attraction development continues, finding new funding sources.

MackNeXT, the immersive technology division owned by the Mack family, was linked in announcements to Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany. A purpose-built space would house the VR attraction once completed for the German park. Detail was limited, other than the face the attraction would be open by early 2022. However, additional information revealed that MackNeXT would launch its second free-roaming VR experience, "Yulbee," at the Wunderland location.

At the same time, a new free-roaming VR experience based on a major consumer game IP was revealed: "FarCry VR," the latest entry into the LBE scene, released by Ubisoft and developed in partnership with Zero Latency. The partnership has developed a VR arena-scale version of the popular game content, created for up to eight players and using VR PC backpacks and HP Reverb G3 headsets.

Zero Latency announced that 33 of its 45 venues had been upgraded to the new game. The 30-minute game has teamwork as a major element in the shooting action. This is a project that saw Zero Latency and Ubisoft working with game development studio nDreams, and we now wait for a slew of successful releases to offer their experience and skills to creating the compelling action experience essential to LBE VR content.

Mobile LBE VR ahead

The "Army of the Dead: Viva Las Vengeance: VR Experience" is a mobile, temporary location-based VR experience. And it is scheduled to open across several U.S. cities in the coming months. Starting in New York, then Los Angeles, and then plans for Las Vegas and Washington, D.C. — along with European cities London and Paris — with more locations being planned. This is an example of the return of the promotional pop-up VR experience. The new "Army of the Dead" experience hopes to leverage the popularity of VR experiences along with the new show.

The recent few months have seen an explosion in investment into the out-of-home entertainment landscape. Much has come from firms that can see the opportunity which lies ahead of the sector, once the lockdown has calmed and the public starts to experience the "super staycation" that many observers expect to befall the industry in the coming months and years.

The investment factor

A snapshot of the current major investment announcements includes the news that The Dollywood Co. is involved in a serious round of investment to grow the resort, park and entertainment operation. This investment drive is already seeing a $500 million plan over the coming 10 years into its expanding portfolio in lodges and resorts.

Investment firms are looking with great interest at the opportunities in entertainment operations which are away from the larger tourist venues, and more towards regional operations to catch the "staycation" audience.

This was illustrated by the news that private equity firm Fruition Partners had signed an agreement to partner with The Track Family Fun Parks (known as The Tracks) — an iconic family entertainment operation in in Branson, Missouri.

Another major investment was announced from a new immersive experiential developer and operator. Illuminarium Experiences secured $100 million in initial funding, driven by the latest significant investor, Eldridge. Illuminarium represents an ambitious global experiential entertainment company, deploying a chain of immersive entertainment spaces using the latest projection technology. Partners also include RadicalMedia and Rockwell Group.

The first site is opening soon in Atlanta, with Las Vegas and other prime cities (including London) due to see venues opening.

Major rebound expected

The investment to open new facilities and build on the experience gained towards maximizing position as the market rebounds was evident across a majority of announcements during the recent months.

The Japanese powerhouse, Round1, which operates entertainment facilities in Japan and America (45), revealed they will be opening their first Round1 entertainment venue in China, located in Guangdong Guangzhou City.

It has been having access to new investment, to grow market position as the global sector emerges, that has seen unique means to generate investment capital.

VR specialist Virtuix had succeeded in raising $19 million but, unlike others using venture capitalists, the company attracted this through some 6,500 investors via SeedInvest, an online investment platform. And it is this consumer investment opportunity that some have now turned to. This happened initially through crowd sourcing, but now with more consumer-focused investment promotion tools.

One such example is cinema chain AMC. After seeing its fortunes controlled through blockchain citizen investment support, the company hopes to continue to feed from the public goodwill and, with the departure of its Chinese key investor, Wanda, the company is now creating its own online investment platform aimed at the public called "AMC Investor Connect" — a loyalty program for investors who are not venture capitalists. Depending on the success of this retail investment raised, others will be sure to emulate this approach.

One of those companies that has embraced the crowdsource funding route to market is YAW — the motion seat start-up placed its latest design on Kickstarter and saw some $2.7 million in investment raised from the public backing the campaign.

YAW's arcade variant

In an interesting development, YAW confirmed they would also be looking at a VR arcade variant of its system — called the "YAW2 Pro Arcade." The system incorporates the normal features of the consumer system, but also includes compatibility with the leading venue software management platforms such as SpringboardVR, Private Label and VivePort Arcade, and even the CenterEdge management software.

YAW also revealed a price of $4,500 for the arcade variant, claiming a ROI achievable in six weeks at a 60% capacity. How well the new hardware will be able to stand up to commercial deployment has yet to be seen in the field.

Electronic Gamebox, the start-up behind the projection enclosure social entertainment experience, has raised some $11 million towards a rollout plan for its concept of what it calls an "interactive digital smart room."

This is the latest U.K. social entertainment tech company to see an opening in the U.S. leading to attracting serious interest from the financial investment community.

Electronic Gamebox is focused heavily on the use of the concept to revive the retail area, and saw investment from Brookfield Asset Management, Index Ventures and ActivumSG — promoting a plan to build some 1,000-plus venues based on the concept before the end of 2026. Sites in discussion include Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles.

These staggering amounts of money reveal the landslide of investment that is being made in this competition and new media platform — and places into context the opportunity in the investment market to grow new disruptive business, and how much the traditional amusement and attraction sector will have to play catchup to stay relevant, if not just hope to survive.

(Editor's note: Extracts from this blog are from recent coverage in The Stinger Report, published by KWP and its director, Kevin Williams, the leading interactive out-of-home entertainment news service covering the immersive frontier and beyond.)

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About Kevin Williams

Along with advisory positions with other entrants into the market he is founder and publisher of the Stinger Report, “a-must-read” e-zine for those working or investing in the amusement, attractions and entertainment industry. He is a prolific writer and provides regular news columns for main trade publications. He also travels the globe as a keynote speaker, moderator and panelist at numerous industry conferences and events. Author of “The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities,” the only book on this aspect of the market, with the second edition scheduled for a 2023 release.

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