Has China’s prophesied VR boom become a virtual disaster?
At 50 RMB for a few minutes in the virtual reality (VR) booth, customers in the swanky downtown Beijing mall just weren’t biting.
Double that price got you three turns, but the 15 minutes of cutting-edge entertainment still didn’t seem enough of a drawcard, especially when shoppers could happily kill a couple of hours at a 3D matinee movie next door for even less.
Such is the current state of VR entertainment in one of the more polished offerings among the thousands of “experience outlets” and arcades that have proliferated around the country, primarily in Shenzhen and other first-tier cities, on the back of a promised VR craze.
Reality Bites is a story from our issue, “Wheel Life China.” To read the entire issue, become a subscriber and receive the full magazine. Alternatively, you can purchase the digital version from the App Store.
David Dawson is the former deputy editor of The World of Chinese.
