The company behind the biggest screens in cinema is giving up on bringing VR screens within a few inches of users’ faces. The company announced today in a SEC filing that it will be shutting down its three remaining virtual reality centers including its flagship location in Los Angeles.
Via the filing:
In connection with the Company’s previously-announced strategic review of its virtual reality pilot initiative, the Company has decided to close its remaining VR locations and write-off certain VR content investments.
The locations in LA, Bangkok and Toronto will be shuttered in Q1 of 2019 according to Variety.
After making a lot of noise about the centers at launch, the company seemed to realize pretty quickly that the economics just weren’t there. Previous to today’s announcement, IMAX had already shut down 4 of the 7 VR centers that had been opened.
A lot of virtual reality startups who were counting on the pipe dream resurgence of the American arcade scene are probably sweating a bit after today’s news. It was clear that IMAX’s efforts hadn’t been a raving success, but there’s a big difference between dialing it back and shutting it down.
Earlier this year, IMAX confirmed that it had paused work on a VR camera project it was developing with Google.
Written by Lucas Matney
This news first appeared on https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/13/imax-pulls-the-plug-on-its-dream-of-vr-arcades/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29 under the title “IMAX pulls the plug on its dream of VR arcades”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
