TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) – The newest form of arcade entertainment may be quite literally shocking for users at a new centre which opens up on Friday (April 15) in Tokyo.
Using Virtual Reality equipment, the “VR Zone Project I Can” located in the tourist area of the island of Odaiba is designed to provide all kinds of experiences.
With a price range from 700 ($6.4 USD) to 1000 yen ($9.15 USD), the customer can choose whether he or she wants to drive a car or walk through a haunted house.
The haunted Virtual Reality experience drew the most reactions from reporters testing the state of the art equipment ahead of opening.
“I have this feeling that the fear was so bad that my my shivering still hasn’t stopped,” explained reporter Saito.
“I thought it would just be a video, but it had such voices and sounds that I really experienced it,” Asada, another reporter, said.
Others were not so excited
“The things about games that is very interesting is that you have abstract inputs that are kind of input macros so you do one input and it does a multiple like a fighter jet if you think about it. You don’t fly a plane like that. You actually have a macro which controls everything. And they don’t really seem to have that in VR yet, so that is what I really thought. It’s more really meant to be a simulation which means I’m more curious to see what happens with games,” Bader said.
The centre offers a total of about six different scenarios and Bandai Namco’s Kunihisa Yagishita says it allows people to experience new things in a safe environment.
“Even if one has an interest but doesn’t have the time or for instance if there’s danger involved then they can’t experience some things. In those cases we try to allow them to experience things that they want to by using VR and the physical experience style machines together,” Yagishiha said.
Yagishiha added that even though the park is only supposed to be open for six months they are likely to add additional scenes later in the year to keep the new virtual world continually interesting.