Commentary
Immersive attraction innovation: A grass roots, global movement
The creative players in today's immersive entertainment scene emerge from a variety of disciplines and present dynamic concepts, hoping to sow the seeds of new entertainment paradigm.
November 6, 2023 by Kevin Williams
The trending technologies of immersive experiences are represented today in many variants. It has spawned a global movement of developers seeking to create the experiences that will take immersive entertainment to a dominant position in today's amusement and entertainment industry.
Virtual reality and the application of head-mounted display technology continues to dominate the field. However, dark rides and theater attractions are playing a bigger role, judging by some of this year's product introductions.
A recent sampling of trade shows across the globe yielded a massive crop of players striving to make their mark. Following is a sampling:
- Europa Park in Rust, Germany recently drew interest with Sally Dark Rides' "Uncharted: The Enigma of Penitence," following the developer's success with "Sesame Street Mission" at PortAventura World in Barcelona, Spain.
- Brogent Technologies, based in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, has introduced its "i-Ride" dome flying theater property, along with several successful simulator attraction installations. The company is also working to deploy its "miRide" racing 6DoF simulator platform, with aspirations to open their own e-sports venues.
- West Midlands, U.K.-based Simworx, a provider of 3D and 4D media based attractions, introduced its "Metro Mayhem" concept, alongside and its "Pegasus" flying theatre, offering a scalable, dynamic ride seating system.
- Elsewhere in the U.K., thejuice, a Manchester based provider of content design and development, has also released flying theater content enabling a full turnkey package using either existing films or creating custom made content.
- Red Raion, an Italy based creative studio, has introduced 4D and large format films that are appearing in Chinese VR installations. The company has partnered with Guangzhou, China based Owatch (Guangzhou Steki Amusement Equipment Co. Ltd.) on its VR Series 2.0.
- Wave Italy — Immersive Racing, based in Fiorano Modenese, Italy, has introduced monocoque F1 racing simulator and its design focused "Ghepard Maranello" GT sim system. This is a system aimed at prosumer and center deployment. The company is active in the e-sports national scene with its own "Wave Italy Racing Team."
- ImSim, a Portugal based designer and manufacturer of racing simulators, has expanded beyond a selection of compact race sim platforms and is exploring flying and even roller-coaster simulator deployment — all with a commercial and prosumer variation.
- Germany based developer ViPa Evenmodule has introduced a selection of simple and highly mobile attractions, one such being a motion-base racing platform that also supports virtual reality racing.
- Hologate, known for its Hologate Arena and Hologate Blitz platforms, introduced its "TowerTag Battlezone," part of its VR 2.0. investment into next-gen experiences. One of the big presentations is "Hologate HyperGolf," a full interactive, digital scoring and futuristic golfing experience. The company has completed development of its neon infused golfing system — with its nine high-tech courses and illuminated ball.
- FuninVR, based in Guanghzhou, China, introduced an unusual personal locomotive "Virtual Marine" system where players strap their feet into the unit that physically turns and steers the player round the virtual environment, via shifting their body weight.
- Modimage, based in Picardie, France, introduced an inflatable motion-base VR system called "Rafting Adventure" and a Jurassic Park inspired motion VR capsule — all using Meta Quest 2 headsets.
- Metaverum/NDK Attractions, based in Istanbul, Turkey, introduced a "Santa Clause Sleigh VR Simulator," also using Quests.
- Split Light Studio, based in Poland, introduced VR 4D ride film properties, including "Motoride," "Pirates 3D" and "Solar System" — on a motion seat with physical effects.
These players emerge from a variety of creative disciplines to present dynamic concepts, hoping to sow the seeds of new entertainment paradigm.
(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.)
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.
