Is “immersion” just a gimmick? So many projects advertise that they are “immersive”. Do they really have a business future?
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “NeXTSCENE” (ID: theNeXTSCENE) , author of the NSR compilation team.
Interaction, intimacy, experience:Impact of immersive design
2019 Global Immersive Design Industry Development Report
In recent years, the term “immersion” has been one of the “hot words” in culture, entertainment, technology, games and many other fields. The trend of Google search shows that the search frequency of the word “Immersive” in the United States has been a rising trend since 2013. However, what exactly does the word “immersive” mean? What kind of industry category does the so-called “immersive” industry exist in the end? Once an issue becomes a hot topic, there will be more confusion and fog about this issue. This can not help but worry that the “immersive experience” will be just like the other so-called “window”, but it will become the next bubble.
Source :Google Trends
The search frequency for the word “Immersive” in the United States has been a rising trend since 2013.
About “Immersive” concernsBasically focused on three core issues:
What is the concept of “immersive”? Is he a new form of art? Still just a businessOn the hoe?
What is the scope of “immersive”? Many different activities say that they are immersive? What subcategories does he actually contain?
Is immersive really commercial value? Is there room for future growth, is it worth our effort to study and pay attention?
These three questions are all in one loop, and they actually cover almost all the questions about “immersion”, but it is not so simple to answer these questions. Although the NeXT SCENE team has been reporting and experiencing the immersive design of different scales and forms such as Sleepless Night and Fallen Alice in New York since 18 years, there will be more projects for the industry. The concept of ambiguity, but before participating in the global immersive design summit, we still have great doubts about these three issues.
Photo Credits: Muso Fan
The World Immersive Design Summit in San Francisco in February 2019
All doubts became apparent at the end of February 2019. When we are still wondering what “immersion” is, The 2nd Global Immersive Design Summit is held on the West Coast of the United States as scheduled, , from France, Sweden, the United Kingdom, etc. Immersive experience creators from different countries gathered in San Francisco on this day to exchange and summarize their creative experiences in their respective fields. Unlike the conventional concept exhibition, the immersive design summit does not open the ticket to the public, and only the creator of the immersive design needs to pass the application and professional review before passing. The founder of NeXT SCENE participated in the whole event, which not only cleared up several core concerns, but also refreshed the understanding of “immersion design”.
Photo Credits: Muso Fan
Photo Credits:Muso Fan
The World Immersive Design Summit in San Francisco in February 2019
Compared with the first session, this summit is much larger in scale and influence, and it is also the first truly global social cluster. The guests included creative director of Mycotoo, who made real version of “Western World” at the South West Summit, and creative director of Mixed Reality Magic Leap, Disney Dream Engineering creative director of the department, executive producer of the art museum Meow Wolf, and production director of VR reality entertainment company Dreamscape, etc. from different angles Sharing the difficulties and experiences of practicing immersive experience design in their respective fields is an invaluable gain for the global creative community.
Photo Credits: Muso Fan
Mycotoo Creative Director for the real version of Western World at the South West Summit
Photo Credits: Muso Fan
Sean Stewart, creative director of Mixed Reality Magic Leap
At the same time, the Global Immersive Design Industry Development Report was released for the first time at the conference, which made the background, history, scope and influence of the entire industry. Sorted out and summarized, and gave some quantitative data to help understand the development of the industry and future prospects.. Although the amount of data and statistical methods have some flaws, as the world’s first real industry report, it still has great reference value–The global creative community has the first time for the entire immersive design industry. A more macro and comprehensive understanding.
Picture Copyright: Immersive Design Summit
Global Immersive Project Data Collected at the Conference
At this point, we have a clearer understanding of the core issues of “immersion” and our own answers.
From the perspective of concept, after reading the report, we realized that immersive design is looking for a deeper connection between the work and the audience. Although at the current stage of development, there are indeed some works that are under the banner of “Immersive” and are purely using hot words. Even in the report, there are a few designers who use “gimmicky” (full of gimmicks) to describe some immersive works on the market. But we know that the “immersive experience” is more than just a marketing gimmick. Its greater value lies in the design thinking behind it and the philosophical innovations in the narrative, as well as the unique nature of this narrative. Humanistic care.
Picture Copyright: NeXTSCENE
Immersive Entertainment Industry View
Based on this, we can see more clearly that the scope of immersive works is very extensive, and immersive drama is obviously only one of the areas where many “immersion design” concepts have been successfully applied. . At the same time, with the integration of different fields such as psychology, game design, LARP, and virtual reality, new experiences and models are also being iterated. In the United States, the entire immersive entertainment industry has formed a creator community that has begun to take shape: in New York andThe development of LA-centric experimental drama, and Hollywood, Silicon Valley-led entertainment technology development, promoted the entire immersive entertainment industry to a more diverse world from both art and technology. The direction of cross-border is rapidly blending.
From a business perspective, some success stories show that today’s immersive entertainment industry is beginning to turn emerging technologies and ideas into real business profits. Its audience, target market and profit margin are much broader than we originally thought.
As of 2018, the immersive entertainment industry has a market capitalization of more than $4.5 billion worldwide, which does not include the $45.2 billion theme park industry, which together add up to nearly $50 billion in the market. The scale has far exceeded the market value of the $41.1 billion global movie box office. Even if you remove part of the theme park, the size of the immersive entertainment industry is still not to be underestimated.
Picture Source: awol.junkee.com
Museum of Ice Cream, which is successful in the United States, is developing its own theme hotel
There is no doubt that the “immersive experience” is booming on a global scale, which may be related to the “experience economy” concept that has prevailed in recent years. McKinsey’s research report in recent years shows that the consumption habits of consumers around the world are shifting from buying goods to experiencing experiences. People are no longer obsessed with how many items they have, and they are more concerned about what kind of unforgettable experience they have experienced.
We realized that this report was very valuable for a quick and comprehensive understanding of this emerging trend, so I went to Los Angeles after the summit and talked with the organizers of the summit and the editor of the report. Report the official authorization of the Chinese version. The NeXT SCENE compilation team began to translate, proofread, re-map the original English version from the end of May, 19 years, and added annotations that are easy for Chinese readers to understand, and strive to objectively and completely explain the information that the original English report wants to express. . We hope that through the efforts of the team, we can help more creators and industry organizations in China understand the picture and future of the entire immersive design.
In this translator’s preface, we will briefly outline the key information of the full text of the annual report. Full version of 2019 Global Immersive Design Industry Development Report, Please click here, to go to NeXTSCENE Website Free download.
Report overview
After the analysis of the immersive entertainment industry, the core of the report can be divided into the following sections: 1) background introduction of the immersive entertainment industry; 2) assessment of the industry’s influence; 3) industrial success stories Introduction; and, 4) the social impact of the industry.
Background introduction
Introduction to the immersive industry background The chapter is divided into two main areas: first, what is the immersive trait; second, the so-called immersive field What areas are included. To answer the first question, the immersive designers around the world who published the report sent out questionnaires asking them what words they would best describe. In addition to the word “immersive”, other selected hot words include interactive, intimate, and experiential. This is also the source of the three adjectives in the original title of this report.
Industry area
For the Impact of the immersive design industry, the report is based on the entertainment industry in the United States, detailing all of the sub-sectors currently involved in the “Immersive Design” field, and these The industry entered the basic timeline of the “immersive” field. These sub-sectors include, but are not limited to, theme parks, experiential marketing, virtual reality, room escape, immersive drama, immersive art exhibitions, and more. According to the report, today’s immersive entertainment industry is a fusion of all of the above experiences and industries. The industry as a whole provides a preview of the trend for the entertainment industry of the future.
Photo Credits: Muso Fan
The Summit Exhibition Case: Onedome, AR ExperienceElement Exhibition
Impact assessment
In the Immersive Impact Assessment chapter, this report attempts to influence the industry from both qualitative and quantitative Conduct assessments and summaries. The first part of the section aligns some of the key data for the internal development of each of the segments of the industry involved in the immersive design. For example:
In 2018, the United States produced more than 700 new immersive experience projects across all industries; the Mixed Reality field received more than $1 billion in investment in 2017 Haunted house industry from 2013, the estimated market value of 30 million US dollars reached today’s 1 billion US dollars. Immersive entertainment is difficult to quantify, and success depends on the company’s attention. However, by integrating the various segments into a whole, the report attempts to emphasize the importance of “immersion” as an industry type as a whole.
Picture Copyright: NeXTSCENE
The number of new immersive experience production companies each year
The second part of this chapter, Industry Survey, comes from the survey results from the Summit’s immersive design community. More than 100 company representatives who have produced immersive works in recent years have provided data to the survey. Although companies that produce immersive works worldwide are far more than that number, the authors of the report believe that these responses are sufficient to analyze trends and future trends in immersive industries. The authors integrate survey statistics and make simple charts from the industry’s scope of influence, growth, pricing, attendance, and revenue. From this we can easily see that the number of immersive entertainment production companies has increased dramatically in the past few years. From the US situation, one-third of production companies are concentrated in New York and Los Angeles.
Image copyright: NeXTSCENE
Regional distribution of immersive experience activities
Recent Success Stories
In the chapter on Introduction to Industry Success Cases, the report first points out a very important point – Measuring the success of an industry cannot limit standards to purely commercial success or profitability. It should be defined by its commercial achievements, artistic achievements, technological advances, and even social and cultural influences.
From a business perspective, the theme entertainment industry as a whole has continued to expand and flourish at a total growth rate of 8.6%, with no signs of slowing down. The integration of the “Immersive Drama” element is considered one of the biggest trends in the hundreds of theme parks around the world.
From a non-commercial point of view, there have been many eye-catching immersive activities and important moments in the industry since 2018, such as the experiential marketing agency Giant Spoon and the design company Mycotoo, together with the HBO hit show The virtual town “Sweetwater” in “Western World” has moved into reality from the screen. These projects do not necessarily harvest slams from the commercial level, but their emergence has greatly promoted the entire industry to gradually enter the public view and participate in mainstream discussions.
Photo Credits: Kenzie Bruce
A typical example of an immersive art exhibition: headquartered in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USAMeow Wolf
Photo Courtesy of HBO
Article review: ???? reality version of” Western World “: Disney themed entertainment era experience how to win?
Social influence
When summarizing the social impact generated by the industry, this report points out that immersive experiences have the unique ability to transform audiences from pure consumers to participants and even to co-creators. . Under this premise, designers have the opportunity to inject their values into their own works, inspiring their fans to participate more in social activities.
Therefore, immersive works are more than simple entertainment. They can also deepen their audience’s understanding of social issues and enable them to better contribute to the improvement of society. However, while people are hoping for immersive entertainment to achieve positive social improvements, they cannot ignore the potential negative impact on the audience. For example, more and more people may indulge in the immersive experience and stay away from the real world.
Picture Source: The Verge
VR Short Film “Carne y Arena” (Meat and Sand) won the Oscar Special Achievement Award, This film tells the thrilling journey of a group of refugees from Mexico across the US border.
Write at the end
In our view, it is not so much an “emergency” as an emerging industry, but rather a new design thinking and narrative philosophy. Therefore its influenceIt will not only be confined to the entertainment industry, but will also penetrate into education, news and other aspects that are closely related to people’s lives.
From an industry perspective, we hope this report will give some inspiration to industry practitioners and observers. There are actually many opportunities in front of Chinese creators – if you take the US market for reference, Meow Wolf in the art museum field and The VOID with multiple offline VR experience stores have not yet appeared against the Chinese companies. . If you compare the movie market, who will be the Huayi Brothers and Industrial Light Devils in the immersive experience field?
From an individual perspective, if our report allows more creators to consider the principle of “immersion design” before the next art creation, the practitioners will have more evidence and case and investors to look into the market prospects. Let the audience have more confidence to ask questions and question the works on the market with the “immersive” banner, then our efforts are not in vain.
Special thanks >
At the end of the day, we would like to thank the cooperative media organizations that have co-published this industry report with us. They are awe-inspiring about the inclusive attitude of the new field and the keen sense of the entertainment industry.
After all, everything is just beginning, we can’t predict how long the “immersive” craze will last, but for the future of immersive experience entertainment, and what can be precipitated after the craze is always full of curiosity and expectations . It is also this this curiosity and expectation that prompted the NeXT SCENE team to continue to explore and focus.
If you are also interested in this area, be curious about the future of immersive experience entertainment, please help us share this report with more people. Because of these pioneers, the picture of the future entertainment industry will be more abundant.
Special thanks: 36Kr entertainment consumer technology author Mo Xiaoli, East and West entertainment, IT orange, and benefit.