Knott’s Berry Farm has teased a new virtual reality attraction coming to the park this year. Details were scant, but in a press release it was announced that the park is partnering with a Seattle-area based company called VRStudios to bring a new VR experience to the park sometime in Q2 of this year (so think Spring).
It sounds like Knott’s Berry Farm is getting a new VR experience this year.
“Our collaboration with VRstudios to develop a new custom-built, immersive amusement experience at Knott’s Berry Farm is exciting for our customers and consistent with the memorable experiences they expect from our parks,” said Christian Dieckmann, Cedar Fair’s Vice President of Strategic Growth. “We chose VRStudios for our inaugural free-roaming VR installation because of their successful track record providing VR globally for other location-based entertainment venues. No other VR company can offer a truly untethered multi-player experience. We believe the planned attraction will amaze our guests and encourage repeat visits.”
As Dieckmann mentioned, VRStudios appears to be best known for what their website calls “completely wireless, full-motion, multi-participant, immersive VR experience systems.” The statements and description of the product make it sound like this won’t be a virtual reality experience overlaid onto a ride the way the VRCoaster experiences that came to every Six Flags park are, but rather a “free roaming” VR experience. My first thought was something like a Halloween Maze, although not necessarily scary/Halloween themed. VRStudios actually partnered with Universal Orlando on an attraction at Halloween Horror Nights last fall.
Sounds like the product is likely to be a type of VR multi-player game.
The other part of Dieckmann’s statement was the description of it as “multi-player”, implying a game-like experience (something we expect to keep seeing more and more of in parks, perhaps with more tie-ins to existing game franchises). Perhaps something similar to the live action “Black Ops:Infected” zombie fighting experiences at Knott’s Scary Farm. For what it’s worth the teaser video on the VRcade site (the product from VRStudios that this seems most likely to utilize) is for a game experience called “Time Zombies, complete with floating VR pistol. It also sounds like it’s going to be an upcharge attraction at the park.
https://vimeo.com/vrstudios/trailer
Knott’s wasn’t able to provide us with any more details on the experience yet, but they did tell us that more details should be coming out in the next few weeks. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and keep checking Coaster101 to get the details when they’re revealed. In the meantime, you can check out the full press release here, and you should let us know in the comments what you think about more VR attractions coming to your local theme parks!
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