Disney is considering re-creating its theme parks for virtual reality
I love Space Mountain, but I’m a thousand miles from the nearest Disney theme park. Soon, that distance might not pose a problem.
Disney is considering showcasing its theme parks in head-mounted virtual reality displays like the Oculus Rift. That’s according to the company’s Imagineering creative technical design lead Bei Yang, who didn’t have any concrete examples of how this would work. He’s the guy in charge of figuring out how to get VR concepts working in the parks (which we talk about in-depth here), but we wanted to know if he was OK with things going the other way.
As for Yang’s primary job, he is hoping to bring more simulated experiences into Disney parks, but those are more likely to come in the form of projected video experiences rather than head-mounted displays. He thinks that people will always want to come and try these very unique attractions in person, so he’s not interested in preventing people from attending simulated Disneyland.
“So yes, we are thinking about bringing the parks into VR,” said Yang. “But in the end, we’re really just excited that there is another paint brush that we can use to tell our stories.”
See the full story here: http://venturebeat.com/2015/03/11/disney-is-considering-re-creating-its-theme-parks-for-virtual-reality/