The Stinger Report #1272 - A Decade of VR Entertainment

Over the past decade, the VR sector has evolved significantly, particularly in location-based entertainment (LBE). Charting early innovations in 2015, like 9D pods and motion simulators paved the way for free-roaming multiplayer experiences and VR roller coasters, with major players such as MACK Rides and Merlin exploring VR integration. Despite ambitious projects and initial hype, many early VR attractions faced operational challenges, leading to a shift towards more reliable, cost-effective solutions like headset-based experiences. Today, the focus is shifting from VR’s novelty to free-roaming, immersive mixed reality (MR) and broader XR applications, emphasizing sustainable revenue and technological maturity—marking a pragmatic evolution of the industry.

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Transcript

Why A 10-Year Look Back Matters

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This is the Stinger Report, issue number 1272, A Decade of VR Entertainment by Kevin Williams. With the momentous changes in the consumer VR sector, a question was raised about how much has changed over the last 10 years regarding the commercial application in location-based entertainment. With this special report, we jump back in time to look at how much has changed since a decade of reporting this latest phase of VR adoption. A decade of development. We have seen several consumer VR media sources suddenly discover that LBEXR is a thing and exists. Many pretending surprise when they had been instructed to ignore the LBE sector as they were being supported by consumer VR investment, while others are truly surprised that there was a VR scene outside of their goldfish bowl coverage of the consumer sector. As an occasional writer that has attempted to wave the flag of LBEXR in this scene over the years, it was an interesting exercise to go back to coverage we submitted over 10 years ago and see how it compares to the current business. The consumer VR news site, Road to VR, RTVR, commissioned a report on the VR Tech seen at the then 2015 IAAPA Expo in Orlando. This would be edited down and turned into the Virtual Reality Dominates at Amusement Ride Expo feature run and still archived by the service. RTVR is one of a handful of early VR news and review sites to have survived the turbulent past decade. The majority have fallen by the wayside as consumer VR funding dried up, and as stated by the heads at Meta Reality Labs recently, the gravy train had ended. By 2015, the LBEVR scene was poorly reported in the consumer VR media, with some even attempting to deny it was even a thing. A need by the early consumer VR sector to dominate the narrative, avoiding any other aspects of the immersive technologies. Other VR tech getting in the way of the mega investments consumer VR game studios were hoping to achieve. During this time, for the Stinger Report owners, KWP, to be given a pulpit to explain the world outside of the febrile consumer sector was an honor, and that this coverage has still been archived offers a fantastic snapshot of a past decade of innovation.

IAAPA 2015 And The VR Invasion

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VR invades the show. The 2015 International Association Amusement Parks and Attractions, IAAPA, expo followed a familiar format for those of us that have covered the event regularly. But the big difference was a clear invasion of VR immersive thinking in the innovation that was present. IAAPA is always a trend center for the innovation in the attraction and amusement scene. But that year's show was feeding off the hype train that had been the explosion in all things VR, following the Oculus Kickstarter and Dev Kit, DK1, along with the sudden investment by the consumer electronics industry in VR, such as with the launch of the Samsung Gear VR. Leading the charge on the show floor was the appearance of what would be defined as the 9D VR egg-shaped pods. These would get their name from the first Chinese exporter of the systems into the West, 9D Technology. These were simple 4DOF motion base with cocoon-shaped pods and used an array of Chinese VR headsets of varying quality, running simple CG ride films. This would be what we like to call the phase one period of VR adoption, and the simple ride films would enthrall a generation of casual VR users visiting pop-up installations that housed these 9D pods. An aspect of the market that continues to this day, though the sophistication of the ride experiences and headsets has moved on. 9D technology would be consumed into the mass of Chinese VR developers that we reported on in our recent Asia Amusement and Attractions Expo, AAA 2026. Companies such as OWatch, Movie Power, Oculeap, and Fun in VR, the successors to the 9D Revolution. While in the States, you can still see the latest interpretation of the Motion Pod-based VR experience at venues seen across numerous malls, such as the XWorld 360 chain of venues in Las Vegas, still using original 9D pods, while companies such as Emotion have over 140 installations of their high-end interpretation of the pod-based VR immersive experience, aimed more at zoos, museums, and aquariums. The company recently partnered with Merlin Entertainments to install at selected Sea Life Aquarium sites. Back at IAAPA 2015, and Chinese developers attempting to come up with their interpretation of the next phase in VR headset development was a common aspect of this period. On the IAAPA show floor from 2015, exhibitor OCT Vision revealed their OCT Vision VR Head Mounted Display, HMD, a system the company envisaged would be suitable for commercial attraction deployment as part of a grand initiative. An interesting wide FOV concept surpassing the then crude DK one, but a system that would vanish in obscurity like so many early designs of the period. The big attraction demonstrator at that year's show was from MediaMation and incorporated VR front and center. The Reactiver had an ATV mock-up with motion, having riders viewing a virtual landscape while driving the all-terrain vehicle. The demonstrator was clearly riding the VR bandwagon and was less than a fieldable attraction, but marked the investment made by MediaMation into VR development. The company would go on to attempt other VR attractions before reverting to its more familiar 4D and dome business. A more cost-effective approach was presented from industry newcomers Rylix. The Brazilian company at the time had been riding the VR Fervor and developed a mall pop-up VR amusement piece. A low-scale alternative to the 9D approach, the non-motion cabin had two users wearing Samsung Gear VR smartphone headsets and watching a selection of CG VR ride films, and it would be this lower-cost application that would prevail. Rilex still going strong in the current market has upgraded their experiences and their headsets, along with creating a more compelling version of their non-motion cabin, Rilex Coaster VR, including their latest variant with a mounted shooting VR game experience. For many amusement distributors,

From Pods To Free-Roam Breakthroughs

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the hardware seen as an entry-level VR experience for wavering operators. One of the major innovations for the emerging technology on the 2015 show floor was from Zero Latency, another newcomer but a growing powerhouse of innovation. The company brought an early prototype of their free-roaming VR multiplayer experience. Using Sony Electronics-based tracking and backpack PC power plant, for those lucky enough to try the closed booth show demonstration, they were witness to the next phase of VR development. Zero latency would go on to refine their technology and launch a franchise business, numbering now some 150-plus venues globally. The crude backpacks and Oculus headset would be replaced for HTC Viv and Pico's defining free roam VR. An example of how conceptual innovation revealed at the Orlando show can go on to father an industry and an empire. Another example of the planting of a seed that would go on to grow a mighty oak was seen with the consumer game publisher developer Ubisoft taking a space at the IAAPA 15 show, presenting an invite-only concept demonstrator of their Raving Rabbids 4D virtual reality ride, a 4D ride film turned into VR and incorporated into a D-Box motion seat experience. The consumer company looking to promote their IP into the attractions business. But the ride proved so compelling that it would later be turned into a standalone amusement piece through a partnership with LAI Games, and so was born Virtual Rabbids 5R. The game would go on to sell thousands of units and define how VR could make bank within the commercial amusement landscape and father a plethora of emulators. Some ten years later and Ubisoft have returned to the well, hoping to strike gold again with their new partnership with LAI and the launch of their new interactive ride, Ubisoft All-Star VR. These motion ride, tethered VR experiences were the defining aspect of this phase of VR utilization in the entertainment scene. Another company that would go on to originate the VR sim approach that exhibited a decade ago was Talon Simulation. The company employed the unique atomic motion platform to create a compelling VR motion simulator that could be configured for racing or flying. The company would go on to develop this platform and see commercial, government, simulation success, as well as continue to invest in LBE applications, most recently launching their TX3 motion-based platform looking at adoption in amusement and attraction venues. But as with much of the innovation at IAAPA, the new trends were being revealed off the main show floor. One of the largest theme park ride manufacturers, MacRides, had in 2015 instigated a far-reaching project to develop VR roller coasters based on technology. A 2014 startup based at the University of Applied Sciences in Kaiserslauten, Germany, had researched into theme park rides and virtual reality. Using the technology of the time, Samsung Gear VR, the group, now under the name VR Coaster, had developed a means for the movement of the ride vehicle to be tracked by the VR content on the headset, so moving the user in the virtual space corresponding to the movement of the ride vehicle. Working in collaboration with the team, MacRides would go on to acquire VR Coaster and combined, would propose rolling out VR-infused coaster and drop tower attractions. IAAPA 2015 was the show where attending leading park operators would be presented with what MacRides envisaged would redefine the attraction's landscape. The Orlando area Fun Sport America's Flying Freedom Roller Coaster taken over for a private event during the show, where VIPs were given a demonstration of the VR system in action. Installed by VR Coaster, the system rocked modified gear VR headsets, running a virtual experience in sync with the motion of the coaster. The experience even included an interactive

VR Coasters Meet Operational Reality

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element where players could shoot the futuristic robots before the full momentum of the coast ride kicked in. This period of the emergence of the hype cycle for all things VR in attractions saw VR coasters actively patenting and policing what they felt would be a tectonic shift in how park guests experienced extreme rides. Expectations that all major theme parks would include a VR element to their rides. Major IPs were signed to be incorporated into these digital VR coaster experiences, and the launch of the first attractions at parks was scheduled for the following year, after behind closed-door meetings with key operators. Attraction adoption of VR. Away from the buzzing IAAPA, 2015 show floor, and the attractions industry was deeply invested in applying the fledgling VR technology to what they felt was going to be a new generation of successful attractions. We would see the development of the MM company MM1 360 VR Motion Arm Experience, a concept that would see much publicity, but would eventually fizzle out due to poor management and unfeasible operational requirements. While developed VR attractions in 2015 were seen as the new hotness, with Merlin Entertainments doubling down in investing in this new genre. First, the company would field at their Alton Towers theme park in the UK, Galactica, the groundbreaking fusion of a 840-meter roller coaster and gear VR headsets, a unique real-time VR experience created that mapped to the ride envelope of the coaster. Merlin would also launch in 2016 the Darren Brown's Ghost Train at their other venue, Thorpe Park, this time using more advanced PC VR supplied from the newly launched HTC Vive platform. Guests immersed in a virtual tube train and experience real and virtual hauntings. Highly ambitious projects, Merlin would learn painful lessons on the realities of deploying VR into the attractions scene. Overly ambitious Galactica would see rider complaints about its comfort and durability on the high-speed coaster, eventually being quietly removed after less than nine months of operation. While the highly promoted Darren Brown's ghost train would open to mixed reviews and continue operation, it would eventually be totally redeveloped addressing early VR issues, and then quietly sidelined and closed as interest waned. Merlin were not the only theme park operators experimenting with VR attractions that decade. Working with Mac Rides's new operation, we mentioned earlier, Six Flags Entertainment, rolled out the following year of 2016, VR Drop Tower and Roller Coaster Attractions, based on the popular Superman comic book IP. Three of the chain's parks would have these rides installed as additional price items, using the Gear VR headsets and VR Coaster integration firmware. This would be a hard baptism of fire for the technology, and while some praised the immersion, there would be others that suffered difficulties in operation, or with the motion sickness it induced. The early Gear VR was clearly not the ideal immersive platform, no matter how some tried to deflect the issue. Six Flags, like Merlin and other early VR ride adopters, would eventually quietly drop, making the VR option available to riders and end the trial. A move accelerated by Samsung's surprising abandonment of support of the Gear VR platform some twelve months later. However, interest in the immersive technology showed no signs in slowing. It was the need to find the best application of VR to suit the needs of the out-of-home entertainment market. The large audience throughput of theme parks seemed to make the practicalities of VR headset operation near impossible, not to speak of the hygiene regimen needed. But Universal slash Nintendo would eventually work out these issues and launch the AR headset-based Mario Kart, Bowser's Challenge Attraction, in 2021. From the previous decade, trial and error seemed to define the deployment of VR into the attractions and amusement sector, as illustrated from the view from IAAPA 2015. VR was also being extensively deployed as a marketing tool, with developers creating elaborate VR experiences in promotion of films and properties. The 2015 scene had the unusual mission impossible VR experience that suspended users on the side of a fake plane, virtually experiencing the stunt effects from the movie. It was these VR immersive experiences that opened the door on what VR could offer as a promotion tool, and how unique experiences could be achieved even with this primitive VR hardware. Experiences that would drive future investment.

What The Next Decade Favors

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In conclusion, what an interesting jaunt down memory lane this decade-old article offered. But away from nostalgia, what can we glean from this article that we can apply to the modern LBEXR scene? In our coming reports, we will be covering developments at the Augmented World Expo, AWE USA 2026 event, with its own dedicated LBEXR zone. And it will be fascinating to see how much of what was on the 2015 show floor has evolved to define the modern sector. This will also be the case when we report in November from IAAPA 2026. Trends such as virtual adventures reveal large audience handling attractions now capable deploying XR. But the reality is the hype of VR coasters never did quite materialize as envisaged. That said, we see new entrants into the market, reminiscent of a decade past. Another large theme park attraction manufacturer partnering with a developer of new immersive technology. This time Vacoma partnering with new independent company Wii Rise Up. The operation farmed off from Porta Ventura Adventure Lab, now applying their mixed reality headset platform towards theme park and cultural heritage attraction application. We will see if the lessons from a decade ago have been learned. Though as stated above, much of the VR dreams from the previous decade have fizzled out. The hype has been replaced by a focus on attractions and entertainment that are compelling and depend less on novelty and more on reliable revenue. The trend towards MR is also being superseded by a move towards an overall XR immersive digital approach. We look forward to what the next decade proffers.