A new VR company is emerging from stealth mode that is aiming to make location-based VR arenas as common as your local movie theater or shopping mall. It is called Nomadic and was founded by a group of entrepreneurs with former experience at Disney, Industrial Light and Magic and Electronic Arts. Nomadic will facilitate, deliver and help to implement modular VR arenas that provide deeper levels of immersion through real world props and carefully designed spaces.
The Nomadic approach is similar to that of other location-based VR companies such as The Void, but with a greater emphasis on modular assembly and multi-use spaces, according to company representatives.
A mockup of a Nomadic space.
The Nomadic team is targeting movie theaters as their primary clients due to that market’s current search for innovation. Netflix’s CEO Reed Hasting’s made headlines this week by slighting traditional movie theaters for not innovating beyond popcorn. Theaters across the country are scrambling to attract customers by adding more comfortable reclining chairs, increasing screen sizes and crafting more creative concessions. Nomadic wants to give theaters a lifeline by enabling them to turn one or more of their underused spaces into a bustling VR arena.
A mockup of a Nomadic experience inside of VR.
The Nomadic approach would involve fairly heavy initial construction — leveling the floors, removing the screens and seats, etc. — but then offers a grid layout that makes assembling new components for different experiences a snap. This means that rather than having to construct a multi-million dollar arena with one or two dedicated experiences that will stand for months or even years, Nomadic is aiming to allow its venues the option to rotate out their components for new content every 90 days.
Nomadic will simply ship the necessary pieces, parts and structures to the venue which would then be able to snap everything together on the grid. The company is also building the software experiences in-house as well, at least at the outset, but the plan is to work with additional content partners as things progress.
Source: Meet Nomadic: The Company Turning Local Movie Theaters Into VR Arenas
