Road to VR: New VR Theme Parks from Landmark Entertainment Group to “Fuse Art, Culture, and Retail w

OFFICIAL ARTICLE: http://www.roadtovr.com/vr-theme-park-landmark-entertainment-group-to-fuse-art-culture-and-retail-with-virtual-reality/

The Landmark Entertainment Group, a theme park and live entertainment creative studio, has recently announced they are creating an interactive virtual reality park in China. The first of its kind, the park is said to heavily emphasize VR and AR in a theme park setting.

Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report brings us the news that Landmark’s so called L.I.V.E. Center (Landmark Interactive Virtual Experience) is going to offer park-goers a “mixed reality entertainment destination,” that promises to “fuse art, culture and retail with virtual reality, augmented reality and themed architecture and design.”

The first Center, which plans to break ground in China in the next 12-18 months with the help of a Chinese investor group, will include an interactive museum, a virtual zoo, a virtual aquarium, a digital art gallery, a live entertainment stage, an immersive movie theater, and themed experience retail spaces. There’s no word yet on what specific headsets or systems they have in mind for these VR/AR spaces.

Landmark’s long list of design credits go back to the 1980s, where they helped to develop a number of live attractions, retail experiences, and well-known rides including ‘Terminator 2 3D’, ‘Jurassic Park: The Ride’, and ‘The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man 5D’.

Founder and CEO Tony Christopher, a former Walt Disney creative producer and designer, has more recently lead the company into Asian markets, developing massive park design concepts in China and South Korea. The company has helped to realize a $600-million futuristic ‘Robot Land’ currently underway in Incheon, South Korea.

The key behind the L.I.V.E. Center is its ability to accommodate a high variability of rides and experiences, making the platform more flexible for changes in content.

“The majority of what exists in the virtual reality market today is short-form content, whereas our goal is to work with brands to create long-form virtual reality entertainment destinations. What we’re creating is the equivalent of taking your family to a theme park for a day, and enjoying that experience so much, that you want to repeat it over and over again – the only difference is that the experience will happen in the virtual world,” said Tony Christopher.

Interestingly enough, the authentic ’80s-inspired concept art for the L.I.V.E Center was created by 81 year old Syd Mead, one of the concept artists behind Blade Runner (1982), Aliens (1986), and Tron (1982); and more recently Elysium (2013) and Tomorrowland (2015).

We’ll be following the park’s development closely, as the center represents a large step not only for the Chinese market into virtual reality spaces, but for out-of-home VR locations in general like newly planned out-of-home park, The Void, currently in development just outside Salt Lake City in Pleasant Grove, Utah.