Immersive location-based entertainment (LBE) is undergoing a dramatic transformation as technology, infrastructure, and creative experimentation converge. VR, AR, and mixed reality platforms are becoming more capable and widely adopted, supported by cutting-edge tools such as XRoam and Niantic’s Spatial Positioning system. Dedicated immersive entertainment districts in Las Vegas and London are giving the industry a stronger identity and public presence. As these shifts take hold, new hybrid formats and cross-platform experiences are emerging at a rapid pace.
A Growing Force in Immersive Attractions
Escape games have had a broader impact on location-based entertainment, and have expanded into new venues, including amusement parks and museums. Escape games blending live and virtual elements have become much more common. They have been leveraged as pre-show experiences for major attractions and rides. For example, the Road Rage Wasteland Dark Ride incorporated pre show escape room experiences called Wasteland Escape. In addition, the Shatterdome Strike amusement park attraction incorporated novel escape game puzzle elements.
Escape games have also been run in parks off hours, such as the “Toverland Escape Experience,” which was introduced at the Toverland amusement park in Holland when the park was closed on a weekend in April, 2024.
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Escape Games in New Environments
Other non-traditional environments have opened up new opportunities and created new contexts for escape games. In that regard, The Escape Hotel Hollywood, which transports guests back to the early 20th century, essentially creates a mysterious “fictional hotel” environment for large scale escape games, though it’s “not a real hotel.” Different rooms in the venue present different escape games. Players navigate themed rooms and are offered special amenities, such as a speakeasy.
The Wider Use of Free Roam VR
Free roam VR experiences are enjoying wider use in such leisure facilities as amusement parks and museums, with applications developers benefitting from the use of such software tools as XRoam.
VR Blended with Other Game Forms
In an effort to appeal to wider audiences, VR games have been increasingly offered with other kinds of games, including classic arcade games and escape games, in location-based entertainment centers. For example, The BEE VR Park center in Maine has taken that approach, blending diverse VR/immersive game forms and attractions with traditional arcade games. As such, it’s designed to foster greater social interaction, and appeal to a broad audience.
New Formats Expand VR Attractions
New formats have also expanded opportunities for VR entertainment attractions and systems. For example, a containerized, mobile version of Paradrop VR’s Pod flying experience was introduced in Poland in July, which opened up new opportunities for the product in the outdoor market.
The Rise of Mixed Reality and Hybrid Experiences
Mixed reality attractions combining physical and virtual experiences have become increasingly popular in amusement parks and other leisure facilities. A new model of mixed reality location-based entertainment advanced by Two Bit Circus involves the creation of “downloadable theme parks” that can be experienced at home or at local venues. These “theme parks” place a special emphasis on social interaction, offering collaborative play.
In fact, hybrid immersive entertainment experiences and platforms have become a major factor in immersive location-based entertainment. For example, FuzionGamz has developed another twist to hybrid immersive/interactive entertainment, blending “laser tag, escape game experiences, and video games.” Strange Bird Immersive has also pioneered a new approach to hybrid immersive entertainment, incorporating immersive live theater in its escape game experiences.
Physically Immersive Entertainment Grows
Another major trend in immersive and interactive location-based entertainment is the greater impact and growing popularity of physically immersive entertainment, as demonstrated by the significant role of such physical games as Tug-of-War and a stepping stones game in the Squid Game Experience and the impact of Activate Games’ team-based physical and sports games.
The Expansion of Immersive Art and Science Venues
Immersive art and science venues, in particular, have expanded to encompass new topics and content forms, including balloon art and sculptures, mindfulness, yoga, and magic, such as the Balloon Story and the Museum of Illusions.
For example, The Balloon Museum NYC takes immersive art in new directions with its interactive installations and VR experiences designed to foster creativity and play. Visitors have an opportunity to touch and feel inflatable balloons in immersive rooms at the museum, affording more physical, tangible interactivity.
Immersive art has expanded to a wider range of venues, including hotels, amusement parks, and entertainment centers. Immersive art has increasing appeared in hotels aiming to attract audiences keenly interested in cultural experiences and innovative art forms, such as 21C hotels. Immersive art parks have increasingly appeared, including teamLab’s art parks. Casting an immersive art experience into an amusement park attraction, Meow Wolf introduced an immersive art ride called “Kaleidascape” at Elitch Gardens in Denver in 2019, allowing guests to ride past eclectic art produced by Meow Wolf artists in collaboration with Denver-area artists, as well as found objects.
Meow Wolf also essentially incorporated an “artful supermarket” element in its Omega Mart exhibition at AREA 15 in Las Vegas, which enables visitors to buy art on the shelves and leads them through a “vast immersive narrative experience beyond the store shelves,” as Meow Wolf puts it. In another effort to place immersive art in new settings, the company has developed an interactive bar called Prime Materia
at Meow Wolf Grapevine in Texas that incorporates immersive art and serves special drinks. The company is also partnering with Niantic Spatial “on a proof of concept to explore how AR can bring its immersive art” into real world environments, such as parks, “and enhance the exhibition experience through immersive storytelling, interactive tools, and game-life quests,” according to a Meow Wolf official. A beta launch of this platform is planned for later this year at Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station in Denver.
Innovation in Immersive Art and Environmental Storytelling
Increasing experimentation with immersive art experiences has accelerated in recent years and produced more innovative, diverse experiences. For example, teamLab has been a leader in experimenting with immersive art experiences that fuse art with technology and nature at its immersive “art parks,” including teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi, teamLab Planets Tokyo, and the teamLab Borderless Park. As such, they exemplify a trend towards “environmental immersion,” harnessing “natural elements, such as wind, rain, and sun” to create or directly influence the creation of artworks.”
Immersive art experiences in teamLAB Phenomena Abu Dhabi are co-generated through environmental impulses. Moment Factory has also made a special mark with its Lumina Night Walks, which are “immersive outdoor storyworlds that transform natural sites into evening attractions.” teamLab has made a special effort to promote collaborative creativity in such spaces as its Future Park space at the teamLab Borderless Park. Its multidisciplinary approach has aided them in erasing the boundaries between art and visitors and developing special techniques like “Distributed Art,” which enables art to be duplicated and distributed among different visitors.
Immersive Wellness Categories Emerge
Such new immersive applications as immersive wellness are attracting greater attention, and have the potential to become major factors in immersive location-based entertainment. One of the more advanced efforts in this area is the immersive spa Subversive, which is due to open in 2026 in Austin, and will integrate immersive art, neuroscience, and social bathing to foster higher levels of consciousness, wonder, and transcendence. It will utilize video projection mapping, lasers, and AI.
New Technologies Driving Future Innovation
New technologies, such as drones and haptic technology, have had a greater impact in recent years on location-based entertainment, and will likely play a key role in the future of location-based entertainment.
Overall, immersive location-based entertainment has become more multidimensional, multifaceted, interactive, and organic, and it has been better integrated into the fabric of location-based entertainment. Much greater opportunities lie ahead for more diverse forms of immersive location-based entertainment.
