Location-based VR arcade company The Void has confirmed its return.
A website for the resurrected brand has surfaced online (thanks to Protocol’s Janko Roettgers for spotting), stating that the platform will be back with “upgraded VR technology” for ” longer, more deeply immersive experiences.”
The Void Returns
There aren’t any specifics for exactly what tech has been upgraded, nor when and where we’ll see Void locations resurface, but the team is currently hiring at its headquarters in Utah and notes it’s in a state of “rapid expansion”.
The Void was one of many VR arcade companies to suffer heavily as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic in early 2020, the company had several locations across the US and in other countries where it offered tetherless, multiplayer VR experiences based on famous franchises. It was behind the Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire experience at Disney locations, for example, and had put out a Marvel-themed attraction too.
But as the pandemic set in, things looked bleak for The Void. Locations started to disappear just a few months into global lockdowns and, by 2021, rivals were beginning to fill in the spaces they’d left.
But in September last year a new report from Protocol claimed Hyper Reality Partners, a company owned by former Void investor Adrian Steckel, had purchased the company’s key assets for around $2 million with plans to relaunch in the future. The site’s job listings do indeed confirm that Hyper Reality Partners now owns these assets.
It remains to be seen if The Void will be offering the same set of experiences whenever it does make its big return, though the mention of longer experiences does suggest it will have something new to show, too. Would you want to jump back into the company’s multiplayer VR installations? Let us know in the comments below.
