We’re slightly behind on this one, as one of these products has been available for several months, but let’s get you all up to speed on a pair of new Immersive Reality Rooms (IRRs) that were recently launched by a French company by the name of NeoXperiences.
Who Are NeoXperiences?
If you have been a long time reader, then you might recall the news that we shared way back in 2012 (don’t worry, I won’t blame you if that missed your radar) of a company out of France that created an early IRR by the name of Scale-1 Portal. They simply went by that name for a long time, and they have demonstrated their system several times at IAAPA in the past, although I only recall filming them once:
It was a year or two after that where they updated their system to something much more sleek, although they never captured the same level of attention as I’ve seen come from Inowize or Valo Motion. Some time ago, they rebranded to NeoXperiences, and now they are looking at making an impact their their new IRR systems, which also have been branded as “immersive playgrounds,” appealing to customers of all ages. I saw them posted a bunch of videos to YouTube about these newer systems, so figured that it would be worth a post to share.
The Neo-One Immersive Room
The Neo-One platform is the “medium-scale attraction” evolution of their Scale-1 Portal, serving as an IRR that can be set-up in a variety of ways – with two, three, or four screens (labeled as the Duo, Trio, and Quattro, respectively), while each of those can be setup in three different ways. That allows it to adapt to a variety of venues with varited space and budget requirements. This trailer provides an idea of how they work, where these are capable of tracking up to six players at once – all without wearables or controllers. In a way, this is looking to fulfill the bigger promise of what products like the Microsoft Kinect failed to deliver on years ago; I am not sure which sensor system they are using however (there are sensors which are much more advanced than the Kinect was that you can get, but none have achieved the same level of recognition after the Kinect spoiled the “trust thermocline” among the public for that type of technology).
As of this moment, there are thirty-five games available for this platform, some of which come with names like Angry Birds. As such, it appears that they’ve adapted various mobile games to work on larger format, multi-angle situations.
Neo-One Arenas
If you have a venue where you want something else, then the Neo-One Arenas might fit the bill, although I do not know what pricing is like for these nor the Neo-One rooms. I would assume that since these appear to offer a single screen (except for the Arena Trio and Max) as opposed to multiple, that they might come in at a lower cost – but that’s just a guess. The enclosures that they use could end up offsetting that. It’s also interesting to note that they have a couple of options (the Slingshot and Carnival), which are ball toss games, similar to what we’ve seen with the PLAYBOX.
I’m not sure if all of the games that are available for the Neo-One rooms are also available for the arenas, although it would seem likely. I also am not sure if they just have licensed mobile games, or if they’ve created some of their own exclusive content for any of these.
I don’t recall seeing this company at IAAPA in recent times, although it’s very possible that I just missed them. If they are at IAAPA 2025 though, I’ll have to stop by and have a chat, then perhaps we can get some of those questions that are here-in answered.
A Thought On IRRs
I thought up the term IRR at IAAPA 2023, while attending the presser for Inowize’s QBIX, and since then, these types of rooms have slowly been gaining steam on the market. While they don’t have the “hype train” behind them that VR did, they come without a lot of the issues – no wearable tech that is prone to breaking down, lower cost than a brand new VR arena (both upfront costs and maintenance).
At this point, the QBIX seems to have the best market penetration for IRRs, but there is still a ways to go for these to replace the growing void that VR has been leaving while many – but not all – of those products have faltered. The tech behind IRRs cool and is something that you can’t get at home, but they are lacking that “Space Invaders moment” type game that would really drive public interest towards them. Beat Saber was a game like that for VR, but that was lightning in a bottle, and nothing else came along that kept the same level of momentum going (unless you’re addicted to zombie shooters, then you’ll never get bored).
I have played some fun games on QBIX, and I commend them for creating their own content as opposed to doing some quick mobile ports. When they, or someone like NeoXperiences, creates that “Space Invaders” or “Beat Saber” moment, then I would expect IAAPA to be flooded with IRR copies. The challenge at that point is – can the tech follow-up with an “Asteroids moment” and a “Pac-Man Moment” to keep that momentum strong, or will it make the same mistakes that VR did and lose favor? That’s the million dollar question.
