What is Room-Scale VR? What Does it Mean For Your Business?

There’s a lot to sort through when it comes to virtual reality. There are so many terms flying around — and with the technology always changing, there’s always something new to learn.

As you start to look at what it means to add a VR attraction to your location-based entertainment facility, you’ll definitely have some questions:

• What does VR actually look like in location-based entertainment?
• How do you make sure you’re making the right VR decisions?
• What do people want out of a VR entertainment session?

And you may have heard the terms “room-scale” and “VR booths”. We’ll talk about what all this means — but let’s start with what people want. Because ultimately, what people want out of VR will help guide what you should do.

Location-Based VR and Your Customers

Virtual reality is a whole new kind of interactive experience — and people are curious about it. Some have already dived in, purchasing headsets and powerful gaming PCs. But with the cost of that investment? Many remain cautious.

That presents an excellent opportunity for a location-based business like an escape room or a family entertainment center. Your business can satisfy that curiosity in a super low stakes way compared to the thousands they’d have to spend to do it at home!

But to do that most effectively, you have to understand how VR will fulfil your customers’ more general needs. They’re coming to an entertainment business. Above all, they want to have a great time. They probably want there to be a social aspect to it as well — and they’ll want to feel like they’ve got their money’s worth.

• If they’re booking a 45-minute VR session, they don’t want to spend 15 minutes just getting used to the controls and deciding what they’ll want to play
• If they’re with a group of four friends, they don’t just want to go off into a single-player game alone — completely cut off from their group by the headsets
• If they come to the end of their time and they don’t feel like they’ve had a complete experience, they’ll leave feeling like they didn’t get the most out of their time

Now, you can certainly run a VR attraction without running into these issues. If you’re looking at a crowd that’s largely gamers just looking to play on some high-end equipment and open to becoming regular customers, they’re coming with expectations that solo VR booths can handle.

But if you’re looking at a more general audience? Children, multi-generational families, or groups of friends just looking for a casual good time? Solving these problems is where room-scale VR comes in.

Walk around and swing your arms! The space you see inside the headset is fully accessible with Room-Scale VR!

What Is Room-Scale VR?

Room-scale VR is sort of self-explanatory. Simply, it’s giving a VR user the ability to walk around something the size of a room rather than keeping them in place. This is possible via backpack PCs that the user wears — or a completely wireless headset like the Oculus Quest 2.

Why is that good for location-based entertainment?

• You probably have the room! People with home VR generally do not, and are limited to fairly stationary experiences
• It’s way more intuitive to walk around than use controls. You can cater to a general audience — not just gamers
• Moving around in the real world in sync with what you see with your eyes removes the risk of motion sickness — again, increasing the accessibility of VR
• The experiences are designed for multiple players — perfect for the groups you’ll typically have in your establishment

And? It’s easy to find room-scale VR experiences that are designed not for the home user, but specifically for that parent, grandparent, and child combo. Or that group of four young adults looking to hang out on Friday night. Or even that corporate team-building booking.

Room scale VR delivers users the full promise of virtual reality — it transports your customers to incredible virtual worlds with maximum immersion. They’ll forget where they actually are and truly feel like they’re walking around a space station, fighting off a dragon, or trapped deep beneath the sea. Wherever you want to take them — wherever they want to go.

How to Install Room-Scale Virtual Reality

Installing room-scale virtual reality means working with an experienced partner — and that’s where we come in. At vrCAVE, we’ve helped more than 80 partners in 16 different countries get room-scale VR set up for their market.

We’ve built a suite of VR escape room experiences designed for any location-based entertainment business with a little free space. And through our custom software, we enable 4-6 player groups on easily obtainable VR hardware.

In short, we’ve got the technical experience — and the VR content! — to help your VR business expansion become a hit in your local market.

Sound good? Get your VR journey started by learning more about becoming a vrCAVE partner right here.