Nomadic

Nomadic
Information
Industry	Location-based virtual reality
Founded	2015
Founder	Doug Griffin, Kalon Gutierrez
Headquarters	San Rafael, California, United States
Notable Personnel	Doug Griffin (founding CEO, 2015-2019), Kalon Gutierrez (head of growth), Rick Schulze, John Duncan, Cliff Plumer (CEO from 2019)
Products	Arizona Sunshine: Contagion Z, Arizona Sunshine: Rampage (location-based VR experiences)

Nomadic (also called Nomadic VR) is an American location-based virtual reality entertainment company based in San Rafael, California. It built walk-through VR attractions in which players wore a headset and a backpack computer and moved through a physical set of walls, doors, planks and props that matched the virtual scene. Doug Griffin became its founding CEO in 2015, and the company came out of stealth in March 2017.

The company's plan centered on modular sets that venue operators such as cinemas and shopping malls could reconfigure in hours to run new content. It raised a US$6 million seed round led by Horizons Ventures in 2017, opened its first permanent venue at Pointe Orlando in Florida in 2018 with an adaptation of Vertigo Games' zombie shooter Arizona Sunshine, and opened a center in Seoul in 2019. In October 2019 Griffin stepped down and was replaced by Cliff Plumer, a former CEO of competitor The Void.

Reviewed 6 October 2026. Checked every claim against the cited Variety, Fast Company, UploadVR, Road to VR, SCMP, GamesBeat, InterGame and PR Newswire articles and the archived 2016, 2019 and 2021 company website snapshots. About review dates.

History

Founding and team

Variety reported that Nomadic had been working on location-based VR since 2015. A 2016 version of the company's website described Nomadic as "an entertainment company started by former ILM, Disney, and Electronic Arts veterans". Its team page listed Doug Griffin as president, Rick Schulze as studio director and John Duncan as production designer, with Zynga's Henry LaBounta as an advisor. The page credited Griffin with motion-tracking patents and work at Industrial Light & Magic, Disney and Electronic Arts; Schulze with visual effects work on The Matrix; and Duncan with work on projects including Star Wars and WALL-E. An October 2017 company press release names Griffin and Kalon Gutierrez, the head of growth, as co-founders, and Variety described Griffin as co-founder and CEO in 2018. According to Fast Company, the company started with US$1 million from family and friends and had six full-time employees in March 2017.

Launch and seed funding (2017)

Nomadic announced itself on 23 March 2017 and scheduled its first public showing for CinemaCon at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, 28-30 March 2017. Its first demo was a roughly five-minute, single-player experience. Players crossed a wobbling wooden plank between two rooftops, pulled a gun replica from a real file cabinet, opened a door with a working doorknob and carried a physical flashlight whose button also switched on its virtual twin. Variety reported that the company planned to build its sets from marked, modular floor tiles and reusable objects that could be reconfigured within a few hours. A venue would run an experience for two to three months, then download the next one together with instructions for rearranging the props. Fast Company reported planned play spaces of 40 by 60 feet, experiences of up to 15 minutes, and a goal of pricing a visit at roughly the cost of a movie ticket. UploadVR reported that the system used Oculus Rift headsets, which the company said were temporary, together with an OptiTrack camera array and backpack PCs.

On 12 June 2017 Nomadic announced a US$6 million seed round led by Horizons Ventures, with Maveron, Presence Capital, Vulcan Capital and Verus International also investing. The release listed cinemas, malls, resorts, airports, casinos and theme parks as target venues. From 29 June to 9 July 2017 the demo ran free of charge in a 600 sq ft booth at the Wonderful Worlds of Whampoa mall in Hong Kong. The mall belongs to Li Ka-shing, whose private fund Horizons Ventures led the round. The South China Morning Post described the showing as the first time the public could try the experience. From 10 to 20 October 2017 Nomadic installed the experience at the Technicolor Experience Center in Culver City, California, for an audience of filmmakers and studios.

Orlando and Arizona Sunshine (2018)

In October 2018 Nomadic said it would open its first permanent location at the Pointe Orlando mall in Florida that fall. The opening attraction was an adaptation of Arizona Sunshine made with Vertigo Games, in which groups of up to four players walk freely through a warehouse-scale stage with walls, doors, guns, elevators and trains. Launch pricing was US$30 per person, with a US$25 matinee price during off-peak hours, and the experience came in two versions rated 13+ and 17+, the latter with more gore. The company also said it planned further locations in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and other cities in 2019. The attraction was titled Arizona Sunshine: Contagion Z.

In a November 2018 report on a visit to the test build of the stage at Nomadic's San Rafael office, Variety described a session of about 15 minutes with a train ride, an elevator, moving platforms, a helicopter ride and the rooftop plank, with wind blowing into players' faces when they lean out of the moving train. Creative director Anthony Shafer, formerly a lead technical director at Industrial Light & Magic, planned the layout on a dollhouse-scale model of the set. According to the company, 20,000 to 25,000 people had played its earlier drone-shooting test experience, and their feedback shaped the order of the set. Up to four groups can be on the stage at once, with doors locking and unlocking so that they do not meet. Nomadic first automated the props with Arduino boards and later designed its own circuit board to control doors, moving platforms and fans. UploadVR's David Jagneaux reported that the system used Oculus Rift headsets with HP VR backpack PCs tracked by OptiTrack cameras, with gyros fitted to moving set pieces, and called the experience "the closest I've come yet to truly tricking my brain".

On 4 December 2018 Variety reported that the developer VRWERX had partnered with Nomadic and Paramount on a Mission: Impossible VR experience made for location-based VR centers. No launch date was given.

Expansion plans and leadership change (2019)

In April 2019 Nomadic announced Arizona Sunshine: Rampage, a co-op multiplayer follow-up to Contagion Z based on Vertigo Games' Arizona Sunshine that sends players back into the zombie-infested refinery through its sewers. Road to VR reported a running time of about 30 minutes, an age rating of 13 and up, and a virtual goods system for buying weapon upgrades; the company's website then advertised tickets for the Orlando location at US$20 per person. UploadVR reported that it would open in Orlando in late spring 2019.

On 15 May 2019 Nomadic announced a second U.S. venue in AREA15, an entertainment complex in Las Vegas that would also house a Meow Wolf installation. The venue was to cover 6,000 sq ft with two stages. By August 2019 its opening was expected in early 2020.

The Seoul center, Nomadic's first outside the United States, was announced in August 2019 for a late-August opening in the CGV Gangbyeon multiplex, in partnership with the cinema chain CGV and CJ 4DX; Variety later reported that it had opened. It occupied nearly 2,000 sq ft on the 10th floor of the TechnoMart building, with a reception area, a gear-up room and a play space running Arizona Sunshine: Contagion Z. Griffin told Variety that the deal included a distribution agreement with 4DX that could later support further expansion in South Korea.

On 1 October 2019 Variety reported that Griffin had stepped down as CEO. His replacement, Cliff Plumer, had been CEO of The Void from 2016 to 2018, and before that president and CEO of Digital Domain and CTO of Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic. Variety noted that Nomadic had announced no funding after its 2017 seed round and, citing unnamed sources, reported two rounds of layoffs, in late 2018 and earlier in 2019. At that point the company was running its Florida center and still planned to open in Las Vegas in early 2020.

Later status

In August 2019 the company's website listed two locations, Glacier Point in San Rafael and Pointe Orlando. An archived copy of the same site from August 2021 listed only the San Rafael location.

Experiences

Experience	Partner	Announced or opened	Notes
Prototype demo (drone shooter)	In-house	March 2017 (CinemaCon)	Single player, about five minutes; shown in Hong Kong and at the Technicolor Experience Center in 2017
Arizona Sunshine: Contagion Z	Vertigo Games	Fall 2018, Pointe Orlando	Up to four players per group, about 15 minutes, 13+ and 17+ versions; also ran in Seoul from August 2019
Arizona Sunshine: Rampage	Based on Vertigo Games' Arizona Sunshine	Announced April 2019	Co-op, about 30 minutes, ages 13+, virtual weapon upgrades
Mission: Impossible VR	VRWERX, Paramount	Announced December 2018	No launch date announced

Design approach

Nomadic's sets rely on physical objects placed exactly where their virtual counterparts appear. Players touch real walls, turn door knobs, pull levers and walk across a plank that wobbles underfoot. Fast Company's reporter said the headset and backpack were covered in motion-capture sensors similar to those used to record actors' movements for visual effects, which let the system follow players through the warehouse demo space. Griffin described Nomadic as "the Ikea flat pack of VR". The company's original plan was to supply venue owners with a kit of components rather than run its own centers, and its seed-round release described this as a "turnkey solution" for existing venues. In late 2018 it said it planned to open a handful of its own locations in 2019 and ultimately to work with third-party operators to bring Arizona Sunshine and other experiences to malls and cinemas.

Press coverage in 2017 and 2018 named The Void, Zero Latency and Dreamscape Immersive among the companies pursuing the same location-based VR market.

See also

• Location-based virtual reality
• VR arcade
• The Void
• Sandbox VR
• Arizona Sunshine