In this informal group conversation, three participants discuss their recent experiences and ideas surrounding virtual and augmented reality. One speaker recounts gifting an Oculus headset to a skeptical friend, highlighting the excitement around VR poker (PokerStars) and noting the current scarcity of Oculus devices due to supply chain delays. The dialogue shifts to brainstorming an AR‑enhanced go‑karting experience reminiscent of Mario Kart, where players wear AR goggles that overlay weapons and power‑ups onto a real‑world track. The conversation then moves to broader experiential‑business concepts, comparing a potential VR/AR venue to existing models like Sandbox, the Museum of Ice Cream, and escape rooms. They debate the viability of such brick‑and‑mortar attractions, citing the lightweight nature of escape‑room franchises and the challenges retail spaces face. Throughout, the speakers contrast “couch‑based” VR experiences (e.g., poker) with more physically immersive activities, expressing enthusiasm for both while acknowledging market and logistical hurdles.
Chapters
Uh, so what you got? What's interesting to you?
Okay, so I'll start with one that, uh, we went, uh, go-karting a couple weeks back. And so I'm really into kind of VR/AR. I mean, you know this. I've kind of gave you an Oculus just so you can, you know, feel my, my fun.
You gave him one?
Yeah, yeah, I gave him an Oculus.
Great gift, right?
That's awesome.
Yeah, I was like, Sean, you got to do this. You're never going to buy one on your own. You're going to be a skeptic forever. Here you go.
Are you using it?
Yeah, because he was telling me, he's like, there's this one thing you're— because I was skeptical. I was like Is there any good games? Like, what am I gonna do with this? And he's like, dude, you gotta try this PokerStars thing. And I was like, okay, what, VR poker? Why do I need that? It is fucking amazing. It is like— have you tried this thing? Have you seen it?
Well, I've done boxing, I've played all the games, but I didn't—
you gotta try the poker one. It's incredible.
I'm gonna go buy an Oculus just to play.
Yeah, seriously, you should. They're sold out, so it's gonna be tough, but you know, maybe we can get you one too.
You really can't buy one right now?
They're out, dude. They're totally— from, from Christmas, they just completely sold out. And then they haven't been able to refill it. They said it was January, then February, now it's March, and then they're talking about all these delays from China.
That's a good sign for VR.
Yeah, I mean, they totally— it's the first device where I looked at it and I said I can give it to somebody that's not a VR junkie and they would actually get excited about it. And I think the poker one is great because you actually— people want to build these really immersive experiences like boxing, but actually you don't really want entertainment like that all the time. I actually want more sit on the couch experiences. And so, you know, some of the things I've been thinking about in VR is like, what can I build while I'm on the couch? Yeah. Um, and so this idea I had is not about that, but that was the tangent in VR. But, uh, we went go-karting, and you know, when you go go-karting, it's really about how quickly do you make these turns, how fast are you, how good of a driver are you, you know, how aggressive are you, you know, things like that. And afterwards we were just kind of talking about some ideas, and I was like, dude, it would be cool if we could, you know, go to a go-karting place, but it's like Mario Kart instead, where you have these AR goggles over your head, and it's not about quick turns, and it's like a longer track where you can kind of like have some space. But I, you know, would digitally go over this box, and I now have a weapon that I could shoot at your car. And if I hit you successfully, your car kind of shuts down for a second and you're stuck. So it'd be like the real-life Mario Kart.
Is this like the Sandbox thing?
So this would be like Sandbox or like Museum of Ice Cream. It'd be a place you go, put on this thing, and play with a bunch of friends.
I'm big on Sandbox.
Like laser tag. It's like modern-day laser tag.
Do you think that Sandbox is a big business?
I think Sandbox is fantastic. I mean, it's hard to see if it's going to be successful or not because retail has all these problems and having space has all these problems.
But that's not retail.
Well, yeah, it's not retail, but they're— they kind of have retail spaces, right? Like, they want to be brick and mortar, right? Yeah, they want to be like in a spot where there's a lot of—
yeah, I mean, it's just, it's just an activity. It's just like escape room or something.
It's like escape room, but it, uh, escape room— and I know, I know guys who own like 200 escape rooms.
Are they awesome?
It's an amazing business because Escape rooms are super lightweight.
You don't do anything, you just have a room.
You have one person, you buy the kit, and you just keep like reassembling the room, and you have these like very small footprints.
How big is that company?
Well, it's not one company, but it's like, like you can just own a different franchise.
Yeah, but like you can own a McDonald's franchise, they still report revenues as one.
