One of the most interesting wireless walk-around VR arcade technologies we’ve seen — no backpack needed — is being used at the Universal Orlando Resort to offer a special attraction this Halloween.
Tickets to experience The Repository will cost $50 on top of admission to Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando, which is beginning Sept. 29 and continuing through the end of October. The VR experience is produced by Universal in partnership with Bellevue, Washington-based VRstudios. It is described as an “extended, heart-pounding adventure” that will let guests “explore highly thematic physical environments and interact with real-life characters – all while working in small teams to solve a dark mystery unfolding before them.”
Tickets for The Repository go on sale to annual passholders on Aug. 16 and the general public on Aug. 23.
The Repository isn’t the first destination-based VR experience being tried by a major entertainment company, with Six Flags adopting VR this summer to update its roller coasters and The Void offering a Ghostbusters-based experience in New York partnering with Madame Tussauds. Other VR arcades have already launched around the world too, ranging from room to warehouse-sized walk-around VR experiences, but the efforts by Six Flags and Madame Tussauds represent important experiments by major entertainment companies. If there is success with these early tests, VR could rapidly become a staple of outside-the-home entertainment.
VRstudios and its “gaming and entertainment brand” VRcade developed a wireless-streamed VR system which doesn’t require a backpack. Nevertheless, VRcade lets people walk around in another world unencumbered by a lengthy cord. Here is what it looked like being used with a zombie game last year at the VRLA conference:
The experience in Florida from Universal promises to blend VR with real-life characters and environments for “a new generation of psychological horror,” according to Universal. The experience is “not recommended” for anyone younger than 13.
