‘Each guest experience will be different’: VR and the future of theme parks

theguardian.com:

In the fight for theme park visitors the battle lines have been drawn – monster trucks, virtual reality zombie warfare and “smellscaping”, just thankfully not all at the same time.

And while there was a sombre atmosphere around parts of London as tens of thousands lined up to pay their respects to the Queen, there were 10,000 more gathered in a convention centre in East London experiencing the future of the theme park.

The convention centre’s hall was dominated by a monster truck on hydraulics rocking riders and a nine-foot-tall alien 3D-printed in a matter of hours.

Alongside that were several full-size bowling lanes and more soft play areas than you could fill with a whole primary school’s worth of birthday parties. Pinball manufacturers Stern did, however, delay the launch of its James Bond pinball machines as a mark of respect for the Queen.

Anyone taking a walk down the cavernous hall couldn’t help but notice the vast quantity of virtual reality headsets. Through VR, riders on the monster truck experienced being thrown about as though they were being driven around a real arena, while rollercoaster manufacturer Mack Rides could demonstrate some of its own rides without needing to ship attendees out to the company’s own Europa Park in Germany.

The technology also helps provide interactivity, something that Mark Beumers, chief executive of Dutch “dark rides” vendor Lagotronics Projects, thinks is going to become increasingly crucial to the experience.

“Visitors expect more and more, since they grew up with technology, nowadays, and they want to experience technology in a theme park in a different and better way than they can do it at home. And since they already have a lot of technology at home that they experience in a good