I’m back after a short break for the holidays. I’ll be switching the cadence of this newsletter to bi-weekly to make room for new blogs on my Bob Cooney site, covering the broader topics of immersion, technology, and reality. 

I also launched a new blog on communication and relationships with my partner, Kylie Savage. You should follow it here if you want to take your personal relationships to another level. And who doesn’t want that? (I promise you’ll love it.)

If you think location-based VR is just games, you’re missing a massive opportunity. Scroll down to One Big Thing below…

New Developments

Sony Unveils Their Downloadable Theme Park Vision

Sony Electronics offered CES attendees a proof of concept video showing their next-gen immersive concept. A room surrounded by LED walls with surround sound, haptics, scent, and other atmospherics playing Playstation 5 games. Sounds like a downloadable theme park. 

One of the pillars of Sony’s creative entertainment vision is the idea of narratives everywhere. Where stories from Sony are transformed across new and exciting mediums, this was the concept beyond the poorly conceived Wonderverse project in Chicago. That flailing project hasn’t dissuaded them, though. They’re taking bad business models to a whole new level. 

It’s almost like someone high up in the company said, “Someone, combine all the tech we have into a new location-based entertainment system. I don’t care what it costs!

This proof of concept project combines Sony Crystal LED panels, surround audio, vibrating floor, scent, and atmospherics to fully immerse you into the world of a video game, The Last of Us. It used content from the PS5 game, so players could step directly into the story and experience it in a completely new way. 

If ever an experience cried out to be in VR, this was it. Seeing zombies on a big screen isn't the same as having them crowd into your personal space like in a VR headset. No matter how big, a screen can only be so immersive when there’s visible space between you and the environment. The early challenges of VR technology have companies scrambling for alternatives and over-investing in technology that doesn't offer the same bang for the buck. The new headsets with inside-out tracking changed the game, but someone forgot to tell Sony. Anyway, check out the video; it looks cool. 

FECs and Arcades

Cat Café Game Room: Where Feline Friends Meet VR Fun
A new Cat Café Game Room blends cuddly feline companionship with cutting-edge VR gaming, offering a truly unique entertainment experience. Read more

What You Need to Know About Sandbox VR’s New Funding and Its Implications
Sandbox VR has secured new funding, signaling major expansion plans and advancements in location-based VR entertainment. Read more

Museums and Science Centers

Virtual Reality Brings Auschwitz to Life at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage
New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage is using VR to provide an immersive and educational experience of Auschwitz, preserving history in a powerful new way. Read more

New Research Reveals Demand for VR Access to Museum Collections
A recent study highlights the growing demand for VR access to museum collections, showing how virtual experiences can expand global engagement with cultural artifacts. Read more

Art, Music, and Culture

Virtual Reality Meets Tradition at the Ethnographic Museum of Kruja in Albania
The Ethnographic Museum of Kruja in Albania is blending VR with tradition, offering visitors an interactive journey into the country’s rich cultural heritage. Read more

The Last Battle on the Prairies: An Immersive Tale of Indigenous Valor
A new VR experience brings to life The Last Battle on the Prairies, showcasing the bravery and resilience of Indigenous warriors in a deeply immersive storytelling format. Read more

Travel and Tourism

VR on Waves: Discover the New Attraction on Spectrum of the Seas
Royal Caribbean’s Spectrum of the Seas now features a cutting-edge VR attraction, giving passengers an immersive virtual adventure while cruising the open seas. Read more

One Big Thing

VR is Exploding in this Location-base Entertainment Segment

While on our holiday break in Melbourne, Australia, I attended the grand reopening of the immersive Van Gogh exhibition at The Lume. The Lume is one of the original dedicated immersive projection locations. It was started by Grande Experiences, one of the pioneers of immersive digital storytelling. They also have a location in Indianapolis. 

Van Gogh Alive is the most visited immersive experience in the world. But it, like most of the projection-mapped experiences, is showing its age. Customers want interactivity, and passive screens, no matter how large, get stake quickly. To combat that The LUME added some new interactive elements. One of the popular ones was this 5 minute drawing experience, which was basically some easels, pencils, paper, and a YouTube video on a loop showing people how to draw like Van Gogh.

To attract a new audience, Grande Experiences partnered with Univrse out of Barcelona to add a new virtual reality component to the exhibit. (Disclosure: Univrse is a client of Bob Cooney, who owns the VR Collective and writes this newsletter.)

Univrse is the same company that developed the Erica Lust erotic experience I wrote about in the November 11th edition of this newsletter. If you missed it, it’s worth a read; it’s my most commented-on post. The new Van Gogh VR experience is called Finding Vincent. And it might be the best free-roam VR storytelling I’ve done where nobody takes their clothes off. 

The experience takes visitors on a historical recreation of Theo, Van Gogh’s younger brother, as he searches for Vincent after his infamous run-in with Gaugin when he cut off his ear and was sent to a mental hospital. Visitors overhear conversations and find documents that offer clues to Vincent’s whereabouts. The relationship between Vincent and Theo is heartwarming, and the experience is quite moving. Univrse designed an experience that makes it feel like you’re wandering around inside Van Gogh’s most famous paintings. It felt like a micro version of Meow Wolf. 

I interviewed about a dozen people who went through the experience, and their responses were overwhelmingly positive. One woman was brought to tears. The age range of participants was from about five up to 80 years old. Many groups were going through with 3-generations of family members. Here’s one of the interviews.

The Arbitrage of Virtual Reality

The Immersive Van Gogh experience lasts about an hour, and the Finding Vincent VR experience ads about 15 minutes. It costs an additional $20 per person on top of the $40 regular admission (Australian Dollars.) The cost of an extensive projection experience costs many millions to build out. At over 20K square feet, the rent cost alone is massive. The VR experience took up only 2500 square feet of the exhibition. They ran it with about 3-4 employees, and I witnessed up to 20 people in the experience at a time. They had about 30 HTC VIVE Focus 3 headsets for the entire operation, which cost well under $100K to deploy. 

So for those of you that are mathematically challenged:

• Increase of experience length = 25%

• Increase in ticket price = 50%

• Increase in space = <10%

• Increase in Capex = <5%

Considering the outsized impact of the experience and the rave reviews, with the development and deployment costing a fraction of the projection experiences, it’s no wonder immersive experiences are increasingly turning to virtual reality to increase customer engagement and satisfaction. 

Over the next few years, you will see an ever-increasing number of free-roam VR experiences in art and cultural touring exhibitions, museums, and cultural centers. You will also start seeing longer interactive VR experiences that act as anchor attractions, replacing the passive projection experiences. Customers expect interactivity, and VR is perfect for delivering on those expectations. 

Felix and Paul recently announced a new Immersive Space adventure called Interstellar Arc, opening at Area 15 in Sept. At over 20K square feet and two years in development, it promises to be, ahem, stellar. Eclipso has six dedicated free-roam centers, each encompassing 10K square feet. Excurio’s Horizons of Khufu is running at about a dozen sites, with reports of more than 200K tickets sold in its year-long run in Montreal at C$40 per ticket. 

Pay attention to this space. Part of the reason I write this newsletter is to highlight how VR is used in different LBE centers. I don’t want you to miss out on this trend. Art, culture, and storytelling are the future of VR. This is why I’ll be moderating a powerhouse panel on the topic at the VR Arcade and Attractions Summit. The Agenda is up on the website, and tickets are on sale.