Coming this fall, family entertainment centers (FECs) can easily expand throughput (and revenue) with plug and play VR arcades “in a can”. That’s how Immersive Tech, a former escape room company views their hyper-immersive location-based virtual reality shipping containers. Currently, in prototype, Immersive Tech envisions their LBVR shipping containers around the world.
Adrian Duke, Immersive Tech’s CDO said, “our goal is to have thousands of these around the world.” The UNCONTAINED shipping containers will have content from traditional arcade-style games to mentally challenging, strategy-based games. Of course, visually enjoyable experiences like fly-over Canada will be included too.
The future of Location-based VR
The future of virtual reality is social, connected online multi-player and completely interactive by combining physical effects into immersive environments. “Ultimately what we want to see with UNCONTAINED is people compete from console to console... and play together across boundaries. It’s a way to unite people,” said Duke. It’s also a way to open up the platform to other designers. Immersive Tech hopes other designers will create for the UNCONTAINED platform.
Adrian still thinks about their escape room installations for brands. He sees LBVR as a way for companies to reach their audiences in new ways in a medium their audience wants to experience things in. Immersive Tech built an escape room for eBay in New York on Black Friday. They created a custom experience for them to spread the message that shopping in person on Black Friday is chaotic. Customers can get the same deals online. At the X Games, in conjunction with ESPN and the FDA, Immersive Tech built an activation to discourage teenagers to stop smoking.
“We have the same opportunities with UNCONTAINED,” said Duke. Companies can custom design experiences to their brand’s message. “If Audi wants to sell their new car...we can custom create experiences inside the container that delivers their message but in a gamified or enjoyable manner.” Immersive Tech’s LBVR marketing activations are fun for the players. They don’t feel like they watched a commercial. “They ultimately participated in something that was fun, engaging, and they also received the message from the marketing organization.”
The UNCONTAINED universe of games is focused on making the container valuable to the FEC as well as the end customer. Immersive Tech can use the same platform of technology for custom experience for brands that can be deployed anywhere from SXSW or dropped in front of their headquarrts. It can even be taken on the road from event to event.
Duke described Immersive Tech as technology agnostic. But when they find things that work they stick with them. Duke said, “The future is multi-room experiences but the VR tech is limiting in that players can’t move from container to container because sensors don’t talk to each other.” Eventually, Immersive Tech believes the technology will evolve to allow for multi-room activations.
Creating content strategies for content creators
UNCONTAINED partnered with YouTuber and Magician Chris Ramsay to build his YouTube content into the UNCONTAINED experience. They’re pushing content in a graphic novel to make the experience even more enjoyable and for players to be able to get to know the players on a deeper level. “This has only been a strategy available to Disney,” said Adrain. “Anyone else who writes a book doesn’t have the budget to build a theme park.” Immersive Tech is making this more accessible so that other content creators can turn their content into a playable experience.
Immersive Tech is revolutionizing the industry. They’re taking all these different pieces to aggregate technology in a way that works and is more compelling. “We believe in it. We don’t design or build things that’s unproven,” said Duke. “We aren’t inventing new technologies that allow people do this, we’re packing them in a way that no one else has done before.”
