Is Location-based VR the missing link that VR needs to become mainstream?
Virtual Reality technology has been seeing great shifts in the past decade. Businesses have begun using immersive technologies to accelerate their growth.
Although the general populace hasn’t adopted it yet. Things have been gradually changing. Thanks to the bloom of location-based virtual reality.
What is location-based VR?
Location-based entertainment (LBE) VR is simply a place of business that hosts VR experiences, enabling consumers to interact physically with the surroundings in a way they typically cannot at home.
From walking around a haunted house to taking a spacewalk, customers can have an out-of-the-world immersive experience. Hence, it is showing a lot of potential in building a strong customer base for VR to make it mainstream.
The location-Based Virtual Reality Market size was valued at USD 2373.21 Million in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 19,870.81 Million by 2028.
Types of Location-based VR:
VR Arcades
We all would have enjoyed playing in arcades as kids. VR Arcade is essentially an upgrade of the traditional arcade that we all know and love. These will allow visitors to rent space for the full experience of using the headset and picking from select titles.
And the best part? The VR experience is not just limited to headsets. With products like the Virtuix Omni treadmill combined with haptic guns, gloves, and bodysuits, new-generation VR arcades (popular in China) players can physically run in games, have a sense of touch, and feel and have a truly immersive VR experience in all senses. You’ll be able to run physically in games, have a sense of touch, and feel activated as well.
Free-Roam VR
Free-roam VR lets you and your friends explore virtual worlds as you do in real life. It’s a unique combination of technology, software, and pure imagination that transports you to the ultimate social entertainment experiences. Once you are inside the game, your body is the controller and your mind believes it is real.
This requires a lot of space and a physical course or track that has to be coordinated with the virtual world the user is immersed in. There are also usually more physical components that are required for this to work like haptic vests, calibrated handheld hardware like guns, etc.
VR Escape Rooms
These experiences are a mix of the other two in that they don’t require a lot of room to operate. These experiences are built around the user’s position so they can remain stationary and move within the VR experiences. These games can be played solo or with a group. Many escape room VR games have options for both which allow players to solve puzzles individually or with a team like they would in a physical escape room. These are more common than free-roam experiences due to the minimal amount of resources needed to make them happen.
In a VR escape room, this experience is enhanced to the maximum to provide a challenging yet gripping experience. Since an escape room is essentially based in a virtual world, they contain situations, elements, and features that are very different from the real world. The best part about escape room games is their ability to take you to different worlds and dimensions while also having realistic elements.
For instance, a group of individuals might be investigating an expedition’s mishap in a vanished pyramid in 1928. It could also be a challenging situation where the group needs to find the Hourglass chamber to stop the Magi. This means that in a VR escape room, with the amalgamation of fantasy and reality, one can face some of the most diverse and creative settings without having to face actual danger.
A unique VR escape room experience challenges your skills to make you think out of the box in the best possible way. The advantage it has over the traditional escape room is the highly interactive and immersive nature of the games. The detailed settings of these engage your mind while also providing you with a thrilling adventure.
What the future hold?
Whatever doubt may have once existed about the future of Location-Based VR, it has long since been replaced by a sense of growing optimism. Every venue will be different for what VR solutions will be profitable and realistic. Think about your audience and the opportunities you have to maximize revenue per square foot.
VR has one fundamental issue—not enough people have actually tried VR, much less good VR. This is a major problem because until you have tried VR, you don’t understand the immersive power of the technology. Most VR today is still relatively expensive and the best experiences cost too much for the average consumer. Because of this, we believe that location-based VR is the natural and necessary next step for VR and the immersive technology market on its way toward mainstream appeal and market.
