The visual entertainment industry and recreational industries worldwide are re-packaging their product and service offerings. Casinos and theme parks continue to embrace virtual reality (VR) as an integral part of their businesses. Traditional gaming cafes that faced inevitable collapse now have a lifeline, courtesy of the developments in VR.
Such businesses are under transformation to be better placed to serve the growing customer base of location-based VR lovers. This driving force is projected to be a multi-billion industry in the next four years, and players in the industry cannot afford to miss on the opportunity to grab a share of the market.
The future of the entertainment industry lies in the exploitation of the immersive power of location-based VR. The experience is optimized through the use of trackers, haptics, and backpacks that provide a real world-like VR experience.
Providing VR entertainment through location-based entertainment venues addresses the relatively high cost of the technology that often denies average consumers a chance for the immersive experience. A fusion between full-body VR and LBE VR not only holds a promising future for the entertainment industry but is also viewed as deus ex machina for the VR industry in general. The opportunity to get into the skin of the favorite character, or to travel through fantasy worlds increases the demand for VR applications and the VR market dramatically.
What are the Specifics of Full-body LBE VR?
The Use of Smart Wearables
Untethered backpacks let players move around freely. Due to the usage of motion trackers players are recognized and can interact with the objects within the game. VR headset in combination with other gear create a life-like sense of reality that ensures that the player’s body adjusts well, and they don’t get motion sickness. In the future, new devices will be developed, which will improve haptic feedback by enhancing primary emotions of anger, joy, and fear through stimulating body receptors with mild electrical impulses. This technology is now gaining momentum and will soon make VR experience even more personal, and deeply immersive.
Generally speaking,full-body LBE embraces you as a whole, both your body and mind and places them within a single reality, albeit virtual. The main goal is to properly bridge the mind and body through technology, to ultimately make them function as a unit - thus making the entire experience far more realistic and believable. It is simply the convergence zone of the virtual and real worlds.
Heightened Immersive Experience
The feeling you get by wearing the full VR gearset when playing is out of this world. You immediately believe the virtual world around you exists, and get a strong urge to dive into it head first to enjoy endless possibilities. With VR, you get to perform normal actions such as grabbing, holding, jumping, and running, but the experience is unparalleled, as you are no longer limited by the conventional laws and progress within the real world. Put simply, virtual reality is the only place you can own a functional lightsaber, board a spaceship, or fight the hordes of zombies.This is the reason full-body LBE VR is seen to be the future of the entertainment industry. Enterprises embrace VR LBE for its potential to offer totally different products in a very dynamic industry. For instance, Las Vegas is gradually turning into a VR hub by adopting the immersive technology to its landmark casino industry.
Regardless of the fact if you already own an entertainment business or just want to tap into it, LBE VR is the direction worth considering based on player feedback. The exploitation of the familiar and highly relatable gaming scenarios and characters creates unparalleled rush across the audience. After all, who wouldn’t want to physically join the Avengers team as one of the superheroes - and dive into the saving the world head first? .
Full-body LBE allows for the creation of cross-platform multiplayer VR experiences. The platform uses the body as a controller, making it the most intuitive and immersive interaction technique among VR applications.
Marvelous socialization experience
Traditionally, VR is associated with solo playing. People usually own a single VR headset at home, which limits them to one-person games, or online multiplayer immersion, still quite unfledged. Thus the socialization aspect has entered the VR arena, but before LBE VR, it has been but a vague simulation of real co-operation.Full-body LBE brings the social aspect to a new level, creating an equally entertaining immersive experience for several players at once. Being placed in an alien environment, having to solve puzzles and come up with a battle tactics on the spot - all of this lays out the canvas for a new communication and gameplay paradigm. The concept of shared fun has been integral to the entertainment sphere for a while now, and LBE VR brings it nearly to the ultimate form possible.
VR empowers people to interact in the circumstances untypical of the real world. Ever wondered who should be your first call for a survival team? LBE VR will let you test pilot the idea - without the actual apocalypse. But jokes aside, it is a brilliant social and team building experience, granting player synergy like no other.
The latter is largely stipulated by the believability of the environment. The more senses and body parts are involved - the deeper the immersion, and being placed in such conditions is a gateway to interpersonal interaction that can hardly be obtained elsewhere.
The game is highly interactive, so it strongly depends on the players' choices and actions. Hence, if they act differently playing the same game for the second time, the game will be as interesting and engaging as it was being played for the first time. Likewise, playing with new people leaves a giant room for new opportunities, thus making each playthrough truly unique.
The Concept of the Place
LBE is a prospective solution to big-budget the immersive experiences for VR entertainment enthusiasts. The experiences are designed to physically locate participants in custom-built rooms equipped with intelligent devices.LBE refers to outdoor entertainment, interactive multiplayer centers that are outside of your home. This makes them attractive to people who cannot afford to install VR technologies in personal residences.
The concept is also widely used across theme parks, including amusement parks, themed entertainment locations, and large scale places where you can engage in interactive multiplayer computer games.
The areas to invest in LBE VR are diverse. Almost any entertainment venue can benefit from augmentation of full-body LBE to enhance the immersive experiences of users.
Besides, according to Deloitte, the barriers to entry to this business are progressively declining.
Unlimited Options At Your Fingertips
Players have the option to jump into the skin of their favorite superhero, undertake a mission to save their favorite planet from annihilation, tour the galaxy with fellow stormtroopers, fighting monsters and solving puzzles. It is the ultimate way for a player to associate themselves with the world, characters, or scenarios they are fond of most. This creates a foundation for a very personal response, an emotional reflection, and synergy between a player and a game that is hard to achieve otherwise.
The best part about virtual reality is that anything becomes possible, and full-body VR makes gaming experience truly palpable.
Rivals Home Experience by Far
Some people may argue that they can get some of the games offered at LBE venues on their home computers or game consoles, though the cost of the equipment may be beyond the reach of the majority. The spatial requirements needed to set up the system is also a limiting factor to many. Therefore, LBE venues remain the only viable places where VR enthusiasts can get unlimited access to the immersive experience.More so, many venues add higher-level interaction elements that distance home experience even further from its location-based equivalent. For instance, some types of VR setups at LBE venues have multiple screens and tens of working controls.
Players are also often granted access to briefing/game planning stations, a printout of the score sheet, instant replay of their games, or can even enter tournaments for prizes. Most importantly, players get to interact directly with their teammates, opponents, and to socialize them in the unconventional landscape.
This social component is in fact key to the entire experience, and among the main factors that encourage people to return. The essence of this form of LBE is that solo playing is feasible - but is several times less exciting. The emotional resonance received upon the termination of the game often increases in proportion with the number of players. Likewise, the emotional (and social) footprint of the experience lasts longer if more than one player is involved.
In conclusion, full-body LBE must be on the strategic agenda of any VR entertainment provider. The growing number of people who prefer these outdoor entertainment venues for their unrivaled immersive experience represents a ready market with positive prospects.
Full-body VR technology remains quite expensive for individual users. On the other hand, an increasing number of VR customers are craving for an impressive experience that will swallow them whole. LBE VR venues remain the most viable to satiate hunger by investing in the technology.
Operators of LBVR venues must be apprehensive of the factors that drive the industry for their investments to succeed. For those interested in launching the VR LBE business, we recommend reading our next article, where we examine some of the important factors behind the growth of the LBE market.
Author: Giorgi Gulabyan
