Commentary

How e-sports drives immersive entertainment and vice versa

E-sports and immersive entertainment are emerging in tandem from all corners of the globe and are likely to impact other hospitality and retail landscapes.

Image courtesy of meleap Inc.

July 11, 2022 by Kevin Williams

As e-sports expands worldwide, it is impossible to ignore the symbiotic relationship between e-sports and the virtual and augmented reality technologies that increasingly support it. The more people engage in e-sports, the more they engage with VR and AR.

The symbiotic movement is driving the expansion of immersive entertainment globally and beyond just e-sports.

In Japan, Hado Arena: Toyohashi takes the Japanese-developed player-versus-player AR experience, developed by meleap Inc., and places it in its own permanent venue on the second floor of the Toyohashi store in Tokyo. The company produces sports that combine AR technology through a head-mounted display and arm sensor on a real-world court where players can freely run to compete.

The meleap AR PVP platform has generated interest through the holding of e-sports style championships, with cash prizes, and new teams will be encouraged to compete at this location.

Flagship venue announced

The company also announced plans to open Hado Arena: Odaiba to serve as its flagship location. The site will comprise four 1,400-square-meter full-size courts for players in groups of up to six to compete in 80-minute AR sports experiences. These spaces will also accommodate spectators and be configured for live streaming of the competition.

Located in the Aqa City Odaiba mall, venue will establish leagues based on the PVP experience and the promotion of championship competition. The game is already seeing international adoption, following the success of the Hado World Cup in 2019.

The company also signed an agreement with Tsutaya Bookstores to open one of several Hado Fields AR experiences within its stores, promoting both the AR sports and 5G connectivity.

This accelerated round of investment comes following last year's agreement between meleap and entertainment enterprise Horipro towards a business alliance. The operation is looking to grow the number of venues of what they describe as "techno sport" with 500 stores in the next five years.

The agreement will see the development of the Hado brand and player base, creation of new content to promote franchising and the hosting of new leagues.

Across the pond

Across the Pacific, San Francisco based Niantic Inc. has been working on its next AR mobile game following the billion downloaded "Pokemon Go" title.

The company launched "Peridot," a mixture of an animal collecting game, and "Tamagotchi," with players raising their virtual pets and sharing their offspring with friends.

Niantic has been working on this property for some time following the ignominious failure of the Harry Potter AR title, "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite" that saw the Warner Bros. licensed game shut down in January last year after only 18 months.

This was followed by an even shorter run for the Warner Bros. game, "Catan: World Explorer." The hope is that this new AR title will rekindle the magic the company saw with the Nintendo license.

This will be a very important game for Niantic, as it is important to prove that the location-based Pokemon AR phenomenon was not a one hit wonder.

Europe steps forward

In Europe, Mack Rides, based in Waldkirch, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, announced the latest implementation of its passive VR experiences for existing ride attractions, developed in conjunction with partner VRcoaster.

First off was the launch of "Amber Blake — The Chase" — a rollercoaster VR experience on the Europa-Park Alpenexpress coaster in Rust, Germany.

This was an in-house developed VR experience, created by Mack Animation and based on the popular property, Amber Blake, supporting the Coastiality app.

This was also followed by the announcement that the Liseberg amusement park in Gothenburg, Sweden would see its 116-meter-high free-fall tower supported by a unique immersive experience called "AtmosFear VR," with content developed in collaboration with VRcoaster and Quarry Fold Studio.

Both attractions employ Pico VR headsets supporting the VR app that marries the movement of the physical attractions with the virtual experience rendered within the standalone mobileVR headset.

Following this, MacKNeXT, also based in Rust, Germany, has grown from an in-house agency at Europa-Park to an international creator and consultant of theme park design and media-based entertainment. The company has been developing its free-roam VR experience brand "Yullbe" and has already launched at its Europa-Park permanent location and announced the opening of its second venue in Hamburg at the Miniatur Wunderland location.

Both sites will be running the "Yullbe Pro" and "Yullbe Go" systems, offering a selection of content including use of the property with "Amber Blake: Operation Dragonfly" on the "Yullbe Pro."

The "Pro" system had previously employed the Pimax headset with backpack, but that has now been replaced, for both the "Go" and "Pro" attractions moving to a new standalone VR headset.

The operation is moving forward with plans to deploy its free-roaming VR platform as a pop-up store in several European locations this year.

E-sports and immersive entertainment are emerging in tandem across the globe and are likely to impact other hospitality and retail landscapes.

(Editor's note: Extracts from this blog are from recent coverage in The Stinger Report, published by Spider Entertainment 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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