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VR Arcades and Theme Parks

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(Redirected from Theme park)

VR arcades and theme parks are public venues where visitors pay to use virtual reality hardware and content for a short session, rather than owning the equipment at home. They range from small arcades with a few VR stations, through warehouse-scale free-roam arenas where groups walk through a shared virtual space, to themed attractions with physical sets and effects, VR-equipped roller coasters and whole indoor parks built around VR. They are a form of location-based virtual reality, which in turn belongs to location-based entertainment (LBE).[1]

Public VR venues date back to the arcade machines of the early 1990s, when Virtuality systems were installed in theme parks, shopping centres and trade fairs in the United States, Japan and Europe.[2] A second wave began in 2015 and 2016, when free-roam operators, VR roller coasters and large VR arcades opened in Australia, Europe, North America and East Asia.[3][4][5][6] Several high-profile ventures closed between 2018 and 2020, including IMAX's VR centres and The VOID, while the largest remaining operators reported continued growth into 2025 and 2026.[7][8][9]

Reviewed 27 September 2026. Every cited source reopened: Virtuality, Disney VR Studio and DisneyQuest history (Mine 2003, Pausch 1996), venue openings, closures, prices, operator figures for Zero Latency, Sandbox VR, HOLOGATE and ANVIO, and hardware details. About review dates.

Types of venues

Operators and manufacturers use several overlapping formats. The table groups them by how visitors move and what hardware they use.

Format How it works Examples
Station-based VR arcade Individual booths or play areas, often with seats, vehicle mock-ups or other props, running licensed VR titles for a timed session Chinese mall arcades of the 2010s;[6] VR ZONE Shinjuku[10]
Free-roam arena Groups walk untethered through an open, tracked floor; the virtual world is laid over the empty space Zero Latency,[11] Anvio VR,[12] HOLOGATE Arena[13]
Themed attraction with physical sets ("hyper-reality") Free-roam VR combined with walls, props, wind, heat and haptic effects that match the virtual scene THE VOID,[14] Nomadic VR[15]
VR ride or roller coaster Riders wear headsets on a moving ride; the virtual scene is synchronised with the vehicle's real motion Alpenexpress Coastiality at Europa-Park,[5] Six Flags VR coasters,[4] Derren Brown's Ghost Train at Thorpe Park[16]
Dedicated VR park A multi-attraction indoor venue built around VR and AR, with its own admission and food service VR ZONE Shinjuku,[10] VR Park at The Dubai Mall[17]

History

1990s: Virtuality and Disney

W Industries, later Virtuality, was founded in Leicester, England, in 1987 by Jonathan Waldern. It showed its first public VR machine, the Virtuality 1000SU, at the Computer Graphics '90 trade fair in London. Players stood in an open capsule wearing a large "Visette" helmet; the system had magnetic head tracking, a 65 degree field of view, a resolution of 276 x 372 pixels at about 20 frames per second, and a built-in microphone for voice chat with other players. Its arcade machines went into theme parks, shopping centres and trade fairs in the United States, Japan and Europe, and the company listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1993 before filing for bankruptcy in 1997.[2] The sit-down model is covered in Virtuality 1000SD.

The Walt Disney Company founded its VR Studio in 1992 to explore VR for theme park attractions.[1] An early prototype, "Aladdin Adventure!", was shown in the Walt Disney Imagineering Labs exhibit at EPCOT's Innoventions in 1994.[1] Randy Pausch and colleagues from Walt Disney Imagineering reported at SIGGRAPH 1996 that the attraction had been fielded at EPCOT Center for fourteen months and observed through exit surveys, interviews and logging of more than 45,000 guests. They concluded that guests of all ages suspended disbelief in a high-fidelity VR experience and that novices cared about what there was to do in the virtual world rather than the technology itself.[18]

DisneyQuest, an indoor interactive theme park, opened in Orlando on 18 June 1998 in a five-storey, 100,000 square foot building. At opening it had six high-end VR attractions, including Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride, a four-person race in which guests wore custom head-mounted displays and sat astride motorcycle-like seats. The studio's custom Aladdin head-mounted display used CRTs, with 640x480 resolution and an 80 degree horizontal field of view, and the park's high-end attractions ran on four-processor Silicon Graphics Infinite Reality 2 computers.[1]

2015-2019: the second wave

Zero Latency, founded by Tim Ruse, Scott Vandonkelaar and Kyel Smith, opened its first venue in Melbourne in 2015 and describes it as the world's first free-roam VR venue.[11] In September 2015 Europa-Park in Germany unveiled a VR version of its Alpenexpress roller coaster, developed with VR Coaster, Mack Rides and MackMedia. Sensors align the animated film in each headset with the coaster's speed and position.[5] VR Coaster was founded in 2015 by Thomas Wagner of the University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern and Michael Mack, and the company calls Alpenexpress Coastiality its first installation.[19] In March 2016 Six Flags and Samsung announced VR roller coaster experiences on nine coasters at Six Flags parks in North America using Samsung Gear VR headsets. Six of the parks got an alien-invasion scenario and three a Superman-themed ride. Samsung said that "gyros, accelerometers and proximity sensors" synchronised the virtual scene with the ride, and riders aged 12 and under were not allowed to use the headsets.[4]

On 1 July 2016, Madame Tussauds New York opened "Ghostbusters: Dimension", developed with Sony Pictures and Ghost Corps. It was billed as the world's first "Hyper-Reality" experience; THE VOID described the format as combining a physical set, real-time interactive effects and VR, and guests played in teams of three.[14] The same month, Thorpe Park in England opened Derren Brown's Ghost Train, a ride that mixed VR segments with live actors and theatrical effects.[16] A revised version, Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon, launched on 31 March 2017. It had re-shot VR content filmed with Nokia Ozo cameras and a new finale,[20] and Figment Productions combined 360-degree video with a LiDAR mesh for its visual effects.[16]

China had an estimated 3,000 VR arcades in 2016, mostly in shopping malls, according to a joint report by iResearch Consulting Group and Greenlight Insights, which forecast 13-fold growth to 5.25 billion yuan (US$782 million) by 2021.[6] HTC announced its Viveport Arcade platform in November 2016 and presented it at CES in January 2017 as a store for distributing VR content to arcades, cinemas and amusement parks. HTC said it was then in more than 1,000 locations in China and expected to reach more than 5,000 locations worldwide by the end of 2017, with more than 300 titles available.[21]

IMAX opened seven IMAX VR centres. After closing four, it said in December 2018 that the remaining three, in Los Angeles, Bangkok and Toronto, would close in the first quarter of 2019.[7] Bandai Namco opened VR ZONE Shinjuku in Tokyo's Kabukicho district in July 2017. It covered about 3,500 square metres over two floors, ran titles such as Mario Kart Arcade GP VR, Dragon Ball VR: Master the Kamehameha and Evangelion VR: The Soul Seat on HTC Vive headsets with Vive Trackers, and charged an admission of 800 yen for ages 13 and over plus 1,200 yen per game ticket.[10] It stayed open until March 2019, and some of its attractions moved to Bandai Namco's Mazaria VR center in Ikebukuro's Sunshine City, which opened in July 2019.[22]

Lucasfilm, ILMxLAB and THE VOID announced Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire in 2017, scheduling it to open at Disney Springs in Orlando on 16 December 2017 and at Downtown Disney in Anaheim on 5 January 2018. Teams of four, disguised as stormtroopers, went on a mission on the planet Mustafar, at US$29.95 per person.[23] MCV/Develop reported that the experience lasted around 15 to 20 minutes, with each player wearing a backpack computer and hand tracking down to individual fingers.[24]

Emaar Entertainment opened VR Park, a two-level VR and AR attraction at The Dubai Mall, in 2018. Its launch line-up included The Walking Dead and John Wick Chronicles experiences, an augmented reality family attraction called ARena, a skydiving simulation, virtual sports and a VR carousel for children aged three and over.[17] Dreamscape Immersive, whose backers included 21st Century Fox, WarnerMedia, Viacom, Steven Spielberg and Hans Zimmer, opened its first permanent venue at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles in December 2018 with Alien Zoo, Lavan's Magic Projector: The Lost Pearl and The Blu: Deep Rescue.[25] In Orlando, Nomadic, founded by people who had worked at Industrial Light & Magic and ImageMovers Digital, opened a location-based adaptation of Arizona Sunshine priced at US$30 per person.[15]

COVID-19 closures

THE VOID closed temporarily in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. On 30 June 2020 Disney issued a notice of default and lease termination, ending THE VOID's right to use Disney intellectual property such as Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire and Ralph Breaks VR.[8] Glostation USA, the US subsidiary of Sandbox VR, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2020. Road to VR reported that the company had lost "100% of the revenue" during lockdowns and cut 80 percent of its staff, and that it emerged from bankruptcy under a court-approved reorganisation plan in late November 2020.[26]

2020s

Some operators replaced backpack PCs with wireless headsets. In May 2022 Zero Latency replaced its HP Reverb headsets and backpack PCs with the Vive Focus 3, streaming content from on-site PCs over Wi-Fi 6E. The first venue with the new system was in Melbourne, and select sites in the United States and Europe followed in mid-2022.[27] In June 2025 Zero Latency said it had 120 or more operating venues and more than 150 venues open or in deployment across 30 countries, and had delivered over 5 million VR experiences.[3] Its investor website later gave figures of more than 150 venues in over 30 countries and more than 6 million players.[11]

Sandbox VR said in March 2026 that it had passed US$300 million in lifetime sales and had more than 80 locations in 13 countries on five continents, with nearly 150,000 players a month. The company runs ten in-house experiences on a proprietary full-body VR platform; its Squid Game Virtuals had passed US$50 million in sales since 2023. It also announced a 25-location expansion in the Middle East with Apparel Group.[9]

HOLOGATE, founded in Munich in 2013 by Leif Petersen, said when announcing an 8.3 million euro Series A round in August 2023 that it operated in 42 countries and more than 450 locations, calling itself the world's largest location-based VR network, and that more than 18 million players had used its systems. In 2020 it had started HGXR, a division for enterprise training and simulation.[28] Dreamscape Immersive adapted its venue content for education: Dreamscape Learn, a venture with Arizona State University, piloted "Biology in the Alien Zoo" with ASU biology students in spring 2022 and announced US$20 million in Series A funding in January 2023.[29]

Technology

Early public VR had to fit operational limits that home VR does not face. Disney's VR Studio kept its DisneyQuest rides to four or five minutes, used control devices with real-world counterparts (steering wheels, paddles, swords, cannons), and for Aladdin handed guests a removable helmet liner in the queue. The liner could be sanitised between guests, and the optics and display unit snapped onto it at the ride station to cut loading time. The studio dropped a planned motion base for Aladdin because of motion sickness problems.[1] The same paper described a proposed "Virtual Ride" that would add virtual displays to a physical roller coaster, and listed synchronisation with the vehicle's motion, head clearance and motion sickness as its design problems.[1]

Free-roam venues of the late 2010s used backpack PCs and external tracking. Nomadic's Orlando site ran Oculus Rift headsets on HP backpack PCs, tracked with an OptiTrack camera system, and used modular walls that could be re-skinned for a new experience in a matter of hours.[15] Newer systems use standalone headsets that share one tracking space. UploadVR noted that the Vive Focus 3 supports colocation of several headsets in one tracking space up to 33 by 30 metres.[27] The franchise system of ANVIO needs one gaming PC, a Wi-Fi router and Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, Vive Focus 3 or Pico 4 headsets, in play zones of 5 x 5, 10 x 10 or 20 x 10 metres for 4 to 12 players.[12] A standard HOLOGATE Arena seats up to four players on a 5 x 5 metre footprint with 2.8 metres of vertical clearance, and uses wireless headsets, haptic vests and controllers.[13]

Themed attractions add physical effects to the virtual scene. In Ghostbusters: Dimension guests carried proton-pack props through a physical New York apartment set.[14] Nomadic's sets included pieces fitted with gyros and vibrating surfaces.[15] On VR coasters, the headset's content is tied to the train's actual position and speed so that the forces riders feel match what they see.[5]

Business models

Venues charge per session or per game, sometimes on top of an admission fee. VR ZONE Shinjuku combined an 800 yen entry charge with 1,200 yen tickets per title,[10] while Secrets of the Empire cost US$29.95 per person and Nomadic's Arizona Sunshine US$30.[23][15] Operators license content either from platforms such as Viveport Arcade[21] or from franchisors. ANVIO, for example, offers an annual subscription, pay-per-player pricing or a 10 percent monthly royalty.[12] Several large operators produce their own content or license film and game properties: Zero Latency lists titles licensed from Ubisoft, Sony Pictures, Games Workshop and CD Projekt Red alongside its own games,[11] and Sandbox VR develops its experiences in-house.[9]

Operating economics have ended several ventures. IMAX cited a strategic review of its VR pilot when it closed its centres, and TechCrunch reported that the economics "just weren't there".[7] VR ZONE Shinjuku, by contrast, was announced at its opening as a two-year installation.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Mark Mine (2003). "Towards Virtual Reality for the Masses: 10 Years of Research at Disney's VR Studio". 7th International Immersive Projection Technologies Workshop and 9th Eurographics Workshop on Virtual Environments. The Eurographics Association. https://diglib.eg.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/377de0a7-29a8-4e79-bd49-db43cf30c4ef/content. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Josef Erl (2025-07-08). "Virtual reality in the 90s: how the first VR hype started in arcades". heise online. https://www.heise.de/en/background/Virtual-reality-in-the-90s-how-the-first-VR-hype-started-in-arcades-10478602.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Zero Latency celebrates 10 years of world-leading VR with over 5 million plays, 30 countries, and one epic party". PR Newswire. Zero Latency. 2025-06-11. https://www.prnewswire.com/ae/news-releases/zero-latency-celebrates-10-years-of-world-leading-vr-with-over-5-million-plays-30-countries-and-one-epic-party-302477800.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Nancy Cohen (2016-03-07). "Samsung VR on roller coasters in nine thrill-vending parks". Tech Xplore. https://techxplore.com/news/2016-03-samsung-vr-roller-coasters-thrill-vending.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "Europa-Park Unveil Revolutionary VR Coaster: "Alpenexpress VR-Ride"". blooloop. 2015-09-18. https://blooloop.com/theme-park/news/europa-park-unveil-revolutionary-vr-coaster-alpenexpress-vr-ride/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Agence France-Presse (2019-04-07). "China's virtual reality arcades aim for real-world success". South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3005014/chinas-virtual-reality-arcades-aim-real-world-success. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Lucas Matney (2018-12-13). "IMAX pulls the plug on its dream of VR arcades". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/13/imax-pulls-the-plug-on-its-dream-of-vr-arcades/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Bea Mitchell (2020-07-03). "The VOID at Downtown Disney closed over license agreement breach". blooloop. https://blooloop.com/theme-park/news/void-downtown-disney-disneyland-closed/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Sandbox VR Accelerates Growth, Hitting $300M in Lifetime Sales and Scaling to more than 80 Global Locations, Continued Expansion Underway through 2026". PR Newswire. Sandbox VR. 2026-03-26. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sandbox-vr-accelerates-growth-hitting-300m-in-lifetime-sales-and-scaling-to-more-than-80-global-locations-continued-expansion-underway-through-2026-302726552.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Richard Lai (2017-07-18). "This Japanese VR arcade put me inside 'Mario Kart'". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2017-07-18-vr-zone-shinjuku-project-i-can-tour.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 "About Zero Latency VR". Zero Latency. https://invest.zerolatencyvr.com/about-us. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 "Launch Your Profitable ANVIO VR Arena Business". ANVIO VR. https://b2b.anvio.com/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Turnkey multiplayer VR system - HOLOGATE ARENA". HOLOGATE. https://www.hologate.com/arena/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 "Madame Tussauds New York Opens Highly Anticipated "Ghostbusters Experience" And World's First Hyper-Reality Experience "Ghostbusters: Dimension"". PR Newswire. Madame Tussauds New York. 2016-07-01. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/madame-tussauds-new-york-opens-highly-anticipated-ghostbusters-experience-and-worlds-first-hyper-reality-experience-ghostbusters-dimension-300293013.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 David Jagneaux (2018-11-15). "Nomadic's Arizona Sunshine Experience Brings Location-Based VR To New Interactive Heights". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/nomadic-arizona-sunshine-experience-vr-lbe-interactive/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Cal Jeffrey (2017-04-11). "VR ride 'Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon' improves on the original". TechSpot. https://www.techspot.com/news/68899-vr-ride-ghost-train-rise-demon-improves-original.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Charles Read (2018-03-05). "Emaar Entertainment opens VR Park - Dubai Mall virtual and augmented reality attraction". blooloop. https://blooloop.com/theme-park/news/vr-park-emaar-dubai-mall/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  18. ↑ Randy Pausch, Jon Snoddy, Robert Taylor, Scott Watson, Eric Haseltine (1996). "Disney's Aladdin: First Steps Toward Storytelling in Virtual Reality". Proceedings of SIGGRAPH '96, ACM. doi:10.1145/237170.237257. https://doi.org/10.1145/237170.237257. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  19. ↑ "VR Coaster - virtual reality meets attraction". MACK Group. https://mack.group/en/mack-group/business-divisions/we-create-experiences/vr-coaster. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  20. ↑ Katie Travis (2017-03-31). "Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon Launches". Attractions Source. https://www.attractionsource.com/2017/03/31/derren-browns-ghost-train-rise-of-the-demon-launches/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 "Viveport launching VR subscription service, app stores for arcade and enterprise customers". HTC Vive Newsroom. HTC. 2017-01-04. https://www.vive.com/us/newsroom/2017-01-04-2/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  22. ↑ Kim Morrissy (2019-10-30). "What's New at Bandai Namco Amusement's Mazaria VR Center". Anime News Network. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2019-10-30/what-new-at-bandai-namco-amusement-mazaria-vr-center/.152598. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 "ILMxLAB and The VOID's Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire Trailer and Details Revealed". StarWars.com. Lucasfilm. 2017-10-11. https://www.starwars.com/news/ilmxlab-the-void-star-wars-secrets-of-the-empire-trailer-and-details-revealed. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  24. ↑ "The Void proves the concept of location-based VR with Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire". MCV/Develop. 2018-04-04. https://mcvuk.com/development-news/the-void-proves-the-concept-of-location-based-vr-with-star-wars-secrets-of-the-empire/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  25. ↑ "Dreamscape Kicks Off Its Nationwide Roll Out With December 2018 Launch Of Westfield Century City Immersive VR Destination". PR Newswire. Dreamscape Immersive. 2018-11-28. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dreamscape-kicks-off-its-nationwide-roll-out-with-december-2018-launch-of-westfield-century-city-immersive-vr-destination-300756641.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  26. ↑ Scott Hayden (2020-12-10). "VR Destination 'Sandbox VR' Emerges from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy After Reorganization". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/celebrity-backed-vr-destination-sandbox-vr-falters-us-subsidiary-files-bankruptcy/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 David Heaney (2022-05-20). "Zero Latency Replaces Backpack PCs By Streaming To Vive Focus 3". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/zero-latency-vive-focus-3-streaming/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  28. ↑ "HOLOGATE Raises €8.3M to Supercharge Growth". HOLOGATE. 2023-08-03. https://www.hologate.com/hologate-raises-e8-3m-to-supercharge-growth/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  29. ↑ "Higher Ed Meets Hollywood: ASU-Incubated VR Company Raises $20M to Transform STEM Education". PR Newswire. Dreamscape Learn. 2023-01-19. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/higher-ed-meets-hollywood-asu-incubated-vr-company-raises-20m-to-transform-stem-education-301725400.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
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