TSR Newsletter | February 1, 2021 Silver Advertiser -- The Stinger Report: Service Message -- The Global Digital Out-Of-Home Entertainment (DOE) Sector covered in The Stinger Report . Wishing all our subscribers, famlies, loved ones, (and those serving) stay safe and well. Kevin Williams Publisher, The Stinger Report (TSR) Defining a New Form of Entertainment # 1055 Report Skinny In The Stinger Report #1055 – This issue covers in detail: 1. Reporting on the doors opening on the ambitious AREA15 location, and a closer look at key installations, including the reveal of the new Backlight VR attraction and the work by Meow Wolf to establish the atmosphere of the concept. 2. New developments in interactive attractions reported with BoldMove’s new concept for a dedicated family entertainment center called ‘Houba World: Marsupilami’s Great Adventures’. 3. Also, VR Arcade’s announcement concerning the use of major IP from the leading developers Minority Media and the developer Robocom VR, with details on their rollout. 4. Additional announcements in the immersive entertainment scene from industry leaders HOLOGATE and Virtuix; while the Free-Roaming VR scene is charted by news from Zero Latency, The VOID, SoReal, Backlight and Sandbox VR on their latest developments, as well as the immerging innovation from VirtuReal ….and much, much more! To keep reading the full Stinger Report, register for your subscription. - The Stinger Report, published by KWP and its director, Kevin Williams, as the leading interactive out-of-home entertainment news-and-views resource, covering the immersive frontier and beyond. Main Report Continuing with the detailed coverage of the developments in the immersive entertainment international landscape, and the opening of one of the most ambitious entertainment and retail venues is reported, along with the latest moves in the immersive technology expected to populate these environments. All leading to new investment in the latest developments. - Defining Times for Immersive Destination A lot has been made of the new “Immersive Venues” that are being developed and The Stinger Report covered a number of these plans in our end of 2020 coverage. One of those sites that has received much media coverage has been the AREA15 location in Las Vegas. Ambitiously launching to guests in September of 2020, the venue is described as an immersive entertainment and event complex, part of a 126,000-square-foot project, comprising unique exhibits, dining, retail, and entertainment in a free-to-enter environment. The venue is developed as a collaborative venture between Fisher Brothers and Beneville Studios. The venue’s conceptual sketch [AREA15] The venue has hopes to offer a new ecosystem for retail, entertainment and hospitality, and is part of a great business plan that will see an interpretation of the concept, actively looking for other suitable locations in major cities to open this “Immersive Destination”. Entertainment plays a vital part in the thinking behind this new ecosystem and, since opening, a better idea of how these elements will fit into the mix of the evolving concept have been revealed, in what the developers have labelled their “immersive playground”. One of the first VR entertainment installations to open with the venue was ‘Birdly’ – the highly physical virtual reality flying simulator by Somniacs. The company has been partnered with D3D Cinema for distribution to the US museum market, and The Stinger Report has reported on the platform’s progression – most recently announcing that, along with the AREA15 installation, the company has installed its immersive experience at CK Architecture in Dubai, the Vienna Technical Museum, and Birdlife Zurich. They have additionally developed the new ‘CitiesWeR Zurich Experience’ that is now available worldwide, allowing users to fly over Switzerland’s iconic city both in winter and summer and by night or during the day. But AREA15 includes a second VR installation, with the breaking news that France-based VR developer BackLight has partnered with the location to install the first of their Free-Roaming multi-player area systems called ‘OZ Experience. This is a dedicated 1,800-sq.ft. unit, created within the space to house a multiplayer VR backpack experience. It is based on the HTC VIVE hardware and content created by the developer, including the unique ‘ECLIPSE’ – a space-based virtual escape game. The 35-minute experiences can accommodate up-to-four players. Supporting this space, Backlight has also developed a unique element called ‘OZ Ride’ – offering three-to-four-minute motion seated rides, called ‘Far Reach’ and ‘Birdy King Land’. The VR motion ride system uses D-BOX hardware.    This development from BackLight comes as the operation ramps up its venue support, rolling out the ‘OZ Experience’ that offers a selection of the company’s licensed VR experiences in a package for venues to roll into their operations. The company has been developing VR experiences since 2014, with some 70 projects under its belt. The Stinger Report previously covered the successful installation in Paris, at Illucity, of the operation’s free-roam adventure ‘TOYLAND’. The company is now moving into making its popular platforms more wildly available for new operators. Rendering of the ‘OZ Experience’ layout [BackLight] The immersive playground that is AREA15 is not just populated with VR – the venue has at least one AR-based attraction on opening, with ‘Particle Quest’. It is an augmented reality walking experience, with guests putting on a Particle Quest Mask (which in reality is an AR headset), and then navigating the space by following virtual nano-particles that lead the way, triggering elements on an interactive narrative and revealing the secret backstory of AREA15, all played through the mask. This is an attraction with a description very reminiscent of the ‘Unreal Garden’ installation covered in The Stinger Report back in 2018, at the short-lived Onedome venue.   Away from the virtual and augmented, one of the anchor tents of AREA15, wooed by the owners Fisher Brothers, is Meow Wolf – taking their eclectic art installation and pop-up background and turning this to the creation of their ‘Omega Mart’ permanent exhibition. It is an eclectic cross between shock and surprise in a grocery store style visage. This move by the operation into an entertainment destination approach is the beginning of a pivot by the operation towards a more conventional entertainment portfolio, after undergoing management restructuring. Snapshot of the eclectic entertainment location [artnet news] Part of this new focus by Meow Wolf has been towards establishing a place in the development of such future projects, moving away from their art installation roots and looking at an immersive venue future. With this came the announcement that the founder and director of Meow Wolf would be launching a location-based entertainment consulting agency called Spatial Activations. The hope of this new operation is to assist commercial developers to design future installations.   The immersive playground envisaged by AREA15 also comprises physical entertainment elements such as ‘Haley’s Comet’ – a suspended zipline installation. Along with an 18-lane axe throwing attraction, originally called ‘Duelling Axes’. There are also pop-up installations such as ‘Brainstorm’ – a live reaction room enclosure; and ‘Museum Fiasco’ – an immersive audio-visual installation by Playmodes Studio. The venue is still leaning heavily on a physical and immersive design ethos, with extensive blacklight and illuminated structures as the theme. One of the new entrants planned for a 2022 opening at AREA15, is the immersive digital experience Illuminarium. There are plans to open a third venue at the Las Vegas site, with 360-degree multiple 4K laser projectors, and a Holoplot sound system environment is proposed to be a new experiential attraction. The operation released information of the first experience to inhabit the first of the planned sites during CES’21 – with ‘Wild: The World’s First Virtual Safari’ experience (the audience experience). The Illuminarium operators are looking to open 30 locations in the next five years. The first venue is scheduled for a Q3-2021 opening in Atlanta, with a Q4-2021 schedule for the second in Miami, and this additional to AREA15 will be going up against the MGS Sphere attraction which is planned to open in the same window. AREA15 also comprises several hospitality spaces, including the ‘Oddwood’ central bar and event space, themed with their signature offering, wanting to be an immersive bazaar. The site also includes other food and drink elements and is even organizing an immersive indoor picnic concept (called ‘Cloud 9’). Obviously, for Las Vegas and the global entertainment scene, 2020 was a trying year, and AREA15 has yet to fully establish its offering, having been temporarily closed and only now starting the process of fully reopening. With a reported capacity of 3,000, the venue has started again with a new cap of 750-per-day. The venue held a New Year event (“Illuminate 2021”), as part of the moves to fully relaunch, emerging to show its full potential in 2021. AREA15 is an ongoing work in progress which the owners hope to evolve and perfect once the audience reactions are better assessed. The Stinger Report will be visiting the venue in the coming months, so expect a detailed report on this ambitious project. - More Immersive Venue Plans Looking at other new branded destination venues in development, and momentum has grown with investors and developers looking at the future of location-based entertainment. New developer BoldMove announced its new concept for a dedicated family entertainment center called ‘Houba World: Marsupilami’s Great Adventures’. This family orientated mixed-use leisure entertainment venue comprises immersive attractions, and is a partnership with the owners of the world famous Houda IP (Mediatoon Licensing). The exotic world of the Marsupilami family, led by the lovable creature Houba, has launched a raft of cartoons and comic books and some 500 toy brands based on their escapades.   Now BoldMove has worked to create a fitting FEC offering that will allows guests of all ages to share in these adventures. Along with more traditional rides, the company has worked with CL Corp. and TRIOTECH to include VR experiences in the mix, and is working with Polymorph and ActiveMe on other unique AR and media elements. The branded center is developed to be flexible and able to inhabit indoor and standalone outdoor construction. In launching this available concept, BoldMove is also in discussion with other potential partners, with more news on the first recipients to follow shortly. Artist’s impression of the center entrance [BoldMove] - VR Release Overload! While some had been quick to call VR dead in the face of the pandemic, those assumptions have been found to be worthless and, while the whole of the amusement and attraction sector licks its wounds and looks towards future investment, the Out-of-Home VR scene has come out of the slips at a gallop. December saw a multitude of new and exciting announcements, in a pent-up outpouring of news that would have normally been part of the IAAPA trade show reveals. First off was from Canada-based Minority Media – the company behind the VR enclosure platform for the amusement sector announced it had partnered with The Entertainment and Education Group (TEEG) towards penetrating the Australian FEC market. The company is placing several of its latest ‘TRANSFORMER VR: Battle Arena’ concepts at two Kingpin bowling locations in the country. TEEG is well known for its multiple FEC holdings, including their TimeZone chain. TEEG is jointly owned by Quadrant Private Equity and the LAI Group, with some 300 FEC operations in the Asia Pacific region. The press announcement revealed that Minority Media sees this move as a way to grow its location-based entertainment business and look towards new opportunities in the emerging market. The VR arena system is part of a rollout in this territory, supported by the company’s partner. Transformers VR in action [Minority Media] The Hasbro TRANSFORMER movie IP has been developed for another major VR release. Where Minority Media is focused on VR amusement, Robocom VR has developed a VR motion experience based on its ‘KA-1’ platform (previously known as the ‘Starblade’). Called ‘TRANSFORMER VR: Invasion of the Decepticons’, the system offers an energetic motion system, with the player battling within the movie universe, blasting Decepticons from their gun emplacement. The interactive motion experience was first seen in the plans for the grand ‘PIXEL’ leisure destination venue in the Abu Dhabi, Al Qana mall. Robocom VR is now launching the system to sell to other operators looking for a VR motion experience. No word yet on who the sales agent for the system in the West will be, or its first Western installation. Another big announcement of new and exciting content was from industry leader HOLOGATE. The company revealed a major signing with Dark Slope Studios, developers of the global sensation ‘Slugterra’. This team-based competitive arena style game offers a wide selection of class-based characters and brings a lot of the fast-paced competitive blasting action to the ‘HOLOGATE Arena’ platform. ‘Slugterra’ is based on a popular animated television series, that was also turned into a successful mobile game – the Slugterra-universe revolves around the competitive game of Slug-Slinging, which is suitable for a wide age group. The game will be added to a growing library of HOLOGATE titles to support different walks of players and interests. The company announced that, for the over-400 operators of ‘HOLOGATE Arena’ systems, the platform has added multiple new licensing plans to get access to this growing library on its ‘Gateway’ backend system. This also includes adding a credit card payment system, in addition to a PayPal option. HOLOGATE is working hard to offer the best support to operators coming out of lockdown and needing to get the most out of the popular system.    Another leading developer of VR enclosure systems announced its latest content release. Virtuix announced the launch of ‘Dead Zone: Zombies’ for its popular ‘Omni Arena’ attraction. The new game offers a strong eSports element for four players over two rounds. Players can select from some 15 different weapons to blast and slash through hordes of undead opponents. The game is supported by Virtuix’s monthly eSports tournament feature – which has players competing for an annual $100,000 prize pool. The new game will see a dedicated global leaderboard, with intense competition – drawing both players and audiences to the action. The annual prize pool is sponsored by Virtuix and HP. Team CORE, winners of the October Tournament [Virtuix] Regarding the Arena-Scale, free-roaming VR venue operation, and more developments were revealed, following on from the above coverage of the new installation by Backlight at AREA15. In other news, it was revealed by Bloomberg that the US subsidiary for Sandbox VR, Glostation USA, had pulled itself out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, after undergoing a major restructuring and refunding process. The Stinger Report had reported, back in August, that the subsidiary had filed for protection, impacted by the closure of its US and Asian VR LBE operations and also seeing the departure of the then-CEO and 80-percent of the team. Now, five months later, the operation has remerged and Glostation USA is receiving an injection of some $13.6 million from the parent company – this infusion of capital was to address outstanding debts and assist in the reopening of their US operations.   As previously covered, Sandbox VR’s North American operation has started a gradual process of reopening its venues based on State-by-State restrictions under COVID measures. It has now opened some six venues in North America and Asia. Sandbox VR had previously received serious investment from major firms before the impact of the Global Heath Crisis, raising some $80m in a series of rounds. This had also attracted A-list celebrities to the ranks, as well as licensing major IP that was turned into 20-minute free-roaming immersive experiences – such as the ‘Star Trek: Discovery Away Mission’ experience. The corporation had been in the process of opening 20 new sites before the pandemic impacted business. We await to hear plans on the new rollout plans from the new management. Team takes on Star Trek experience [OffBeatTravel] As these Arena-Scale VR operations emerge after their enforced hibernation, questions will be raised over the market they are now inhabiting. Sandbox VR had previously partnered with motion capture specialist Vicon, with ambitious rollout plans for 2020 and beyond. Vicon was also the platform-of-choice for Dreamscape Immersion and had also partnered with newcomer to the market, MackNext – who had opened the first European VR LBE, called YULLBE. While one of the frontrunners of this new sector, The VOID has been conspicuous by its silence after the permanent closure of two of its Walt Disney property locations (and removal of all Disney IP). This is a radio silence that was only recently broken, in November, to leak the news of a new owner of the operation, VR Exit LLC, who was undertaking restructuring of the operation. Speaking of The VOID, further information was revealed regarding the realities concerning this restructuring. Sources linked to the Westfield Mall of the Netherlands, confirmed that the plans to open a free-roaming VR installation at the mall had been cancelled. The hope to open at the new mall in Holland had been announced in 2019 and would have been the first permanent European venue. Along with the Netherlands, the VR company had plans for a site in Paris, London, and Stockholm – having signed a heavily promoted partnership with Westfield mall owners, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, claiming a 25-site rollout of the VR spaces. In abandoning, in mid-construction, the first, the London venue, and now the Netherlands sites, all the remaining plans have been cancelled to include the VR experience in URW malls. No official statement has been made on the details regarding this decision, or if it was linked to the Disney termination of their collaboration with the much-hyped operation.    Speaking of Walt Disney, the corporation’s new VR free-roaming partner, Sky Limit Entertainment (SLE), is working on a new Arena-Scale installation of the ‘SoReal’ chain at Shanghai Disney Resort (the site will also include VR racing and attractions). SLE was in the news starting the New Year, with the rollout of another new VR venue. Called China’s first “5G VR Theme Park”, the venue opened in January in the southern Chinese city of Liuzhou, comprising several popular Chinese constructed VR attractions, based on the VR Park style seen at other locations in the territory. This is the most recent big VR facility installation since the 2019 opening of ‘VR Star Theme Park’, that comprised some 40 VR attractions across four floors. Local media suggested that Chinese government was still actively support these new operations towards developing their industry.   Other free-roaming VR operations are continuing to come out of their enforced operation and continue to expand, with news that, in Australia, Zero Latency had opened its 50th franchised location for its hyper-reality experience and was starting the process of rolling out new game content with ‘Mission Maybee’, rolling out in December; along with the Ubisoft cooperation’s ‘FarCry VR’, scheduled for around May 2021. It was also reported that the Zero Latency installation at the CA SEGA JOYPOLIS facility in Tokyo had also reopened as a ‘Zero Latency Gen2’ site, employing standard hygiene practise. This is an amazing achievement, considering it has only been five years since they opened their first free-roaming location to the public, and underpins the excitement that this immersive experience engenders in an audience which is extremely interested in the tech. As the markets re-emerge after the latest phase of COVID, scrutiny will be placed on the VR LBE scene, and how it intends to move forward in the changed landscape. The new Generation 2 hardware [Zero Latency] The advancements in VR technology in a free-roam and multi-user environment continued even with the market in lockdown, and many of those developments were seen to come from the military and commercial simulation and training sector. For example, as seen during I/ITSEC2020, the national training and simulation association convention, the latest training deployment ranging from conventional projection simulation to the latest VR and AR applications. The event organizers reverted, as the rest of the conference scene, to holding the event as a virtual trade conference, whilst still packing in impressive new developments.     Revealed during “Virtual-ITSEC”, for the first time, the combination of some of the most advanced (and expensive) technological applications saw the VRgineers ‘XTAL’ commercial wide-field of view (panoramic) VR headset, combined with a wearer using the TESLASUIT, haptic feedback and tracking body suit, while moving on the Infinadeck omni-directional treadmill. The whole system was called the ‘Translocative Virtual Reality’ (TrVR) system, integrated by developer VirtuReal – and gave a glimpse at the kind of total-immersion virtual training system being contemplated for military and law enforcement training environments. The TrVR platform in operation [VirtuReal] As with the original free-roaming systems which found their first home in the military and law enforcement training sector, it is expected that ‘TrVR’ systems will be scaled down for consideration in the location-based entertainment sector. Commercial training and manufacturing deployment have become a driving force in innovation of VR technology, while the consumer sector has focused on low-cost and simple applications. Innovative and advanced deployment of the latest VR headsets, such as the Varjo’s ‘XR-3’, are left to automotive and training implementation for the time being. As covered previously in The Stinger Report, the deployment of immersive environments has focused on the less evasive immersive projection technologies, though it is expected that new generation head-mounted display technology may once again pivot towards commercial entertainment soon. This concludes our latest Stinger Reports, we thank all our subscribers and advertisers for their support, and the next report will follow shortly.

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The Next Stinger Report Issue Arrives: February 8, 2021

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