In The Park’s VR experience center, visitors can immerse themselves in the world of virtual reality. With virtual reality glasses on your head, you are completely in a different universe, where you can travel with wizards or fight mythological creatures. Until recently, that experience was limited to the ‘playground’: a physical location in Antwerp, Ghent, Brussels, Kortrijk and Hasselt where visitors could enjoy themselves in groups.
Until recently, because the locations of the entertainment company will remain closed until 1 July due to the corona crisis. That is why The Park is now focusing on a new concept: virtual reality in the living room. The Telenet subsidiary wants to make VR available to the general public. Today the company now rents VR glasses to users at home for 40 euros per three days. “All you need for this is a WiFi connection and 2 by 2 meters of free space.”
The glasses can be reserved online via The Park’s website and can be collected from the available Telenet stores. They come with four virtual games. The glasses will first be available in the shops of Meir in Antwerp and Nieuwstraat in Brussels. After that, locations will follow.
Wide audience
The idea of ​​marketing the technology in a rental model has been on The Park’s agenda for some time. “We had been playing with this idea for some time, but Corona has accelerated everything,” said Philippe De Schutter, the company’s top executive, in an interview with De Tijd.
The accelerated roll-out of this new business model fits within the company’s philosophy. With the rental glasses, The Park wants to introduce a wide audience to VR. “40 euros is not expensive,” says De Schutter. “The device can serve at different times of the day: children can play ping pong with it during the day, the parents can shoot zombies or watch a Netflix series or YouTube videos in the evening.”
For the roll-out of the VR rental, The Park collaborates with Triangle Factory, a game developer from Ghent. Before the release of the VR glasses, the company developed ‘Hyper Dash’, a game that allows two or more players to play and communicate together from their own living room. The available games will be updated regularly.