#Zen bound virtual reality movie

Its US subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy protection in August 2020. Sandbox VR, a chain of 600-square-foot rooms to host six people in battling virtual zombies or visiting Star Trek planets, was backed by the likes of Justin Timberlake and Katy Perry. But in 2021, as production caught up, shipments more than doubled to 5.7 million.īut sectors of location-based VR, like all out-of-home entertainment, were devastated. Those shipments rose to 2.8 million in 2020, as pandemic-driven demand clashed with its supply-chain constraints. Llamas, a research director with IDC, estimates 1.8 million virtual-reality headsets shipped in the US pre-pandemic in 2019. Sandbox VR filed for bankruptcy protection in the US after the pandemic hit, but it re-emerged and has reported activity beating pre-pandemic levels. And thanks to touch points from sci-fi imagination like Ready Player One, VR is one of the foundations to how many average folks envision the metaverse's future consummation. It's not incidental that the current buzz around the metaverse was ignited by the owner of VR's most popular headset, Oculus. The metaverse - whatever it is now or ever shall be - is a convergence of several technologies, VR key among them. But if you want to get a brush with how it will literally feel, location-based VR is one of the first places you should go.

These may not be the first places that come to mind when you're hit with the hype of the metaverse.

Other in-person VR businesses have reported activity near and sometimes exceeding pre-pandemic levels. Yet, the recent success of The Infinite, which has toured two cities and plans to open in as many as three more before the year's out, isn't an anomaly. VR flourished in living rooms, but lockdown and social distancing devastated in-person, location-based VR.

#Zen bound virtual reality movie

Just as Netflix thrived while movie theaters imploded, the pandemic polarized virtual reality's fortunes.