Sandbox VR will make social VR game for Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon

Zack Snyder announced Rebel Moon at Gamescom 2023.

Image Credit: GamesBeat/Dean Takahashi

Sandbox VR announced it has teamed up with Netflix again to create an immersive social virtual reality experience based on Rebel Moon.

Sandbox VR has dozens of social VR locations around the world where it enables a half-dozen people at a time to engage in a 30-minute social VR experiences. Now it will have a limited-time takeover of its London location to celebrate the release of Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver.

From April 18 to April 23, at Sandbox VR’s London venue in the heart of Covent Garden, fans can preview the world of Rebel Moon in a full-body VR experience developed in partnership with Netflix.

The Rebel Moon Experience allows participants to immerse themselves in the wonder of an alien planet and fight against the tyranny of the Motherworld to stop its war machine in its tracks.

Created in alignment with the vision of director Zack Snyder, players are transported to the sci-fi world of Daggus where they can experience what it’s like to descend through towering skyscrapers, gritty urban streets, and a subterranean mine as they battle against enemy soldiers, spacecraft and more. 

“The Rebel Moon experience will be open in just our London location. It’s for a special type of pop event,” said Michael Hampden, creative director at Sandbox VR, in an interview with GamesBeat. “We were attracted to the chance to work on a new IP with Zack Snyder. The sci-fi premise gave us a lot of cool things to work with.”

“Netflix has a long history of pushing the boundaries of entertainment and producing first-in-class content,” said Steve Zhao, CEO of Sandbox VR, in a statement. “With the expansion of this strategic partnership, we’re excited to help Netflix continue to provide an unprecedented realism and complete immersion of top-ranking IP that allows fans to deepen their interaction and engagement with their favorite characters, films and shows.”

Sandbox VR is now operating in over 46 global locations and expanding rapidly. The company launched 18 locations in the last 19 months, each 4,000-plus square feet with multiple holodecks in which guests experience the virtual worlds.

Sandbox VR believes it is the fastest-growing location-based VR startup in the world. Sandbox VR London was the brand’s first location in Europe, launching in July 2022. It boasts four holodecks and houses the UK’s first fully robotic bartender, where Rebel Moon fans will be able to grab a cocktail or mocktail to refresh themselves as they return to earth after their VR experience.

In September 2023, Sandbox VR collaborated with Netflix to exclusively launch the Squid Game Virtuals, an experience inspired by their No. 1 hit series. The success of Squid Game Virtuals broke records as it was the fastest experience to hit $1 million in sales. In its first two months, the game generated $4.56 million in ticket sales at physical venues. Fans of Sandbox VR and Netflix should get excited at the possibility of more experience collaborations to come from the pair down the line. 

For more information and to book the Rebel Moon experience, you can visit this link: Sandbox VR’s London location at The Post Building, High Holborn, London WC1A 1PB.

Franchising

This week, Sandbox VR also announced a franchising program in the U.S. The company is opening up its business to multi-unit franchisees in the U.S. The company noted that its 2023 net revenue for U.S. stores averaged $1.9 million. Sandbox VR also has a short payback period that surpasses other business models.

Sandbox VR U.S. stores have reported industry-leading customer satisfaction with an average net promoter score (NPS) hovering between 67 and 74, and more than 300,000 weekly website visits.

The company has 32 company-owned U.S. stores, and this marks the first time Sandbox VR’s domestic franchise offerings are widely available to interested candidates in the U.S., an opportunity previously restricted to international markets only.

Sandbox VR has leveraged the brand’s continued momentum to propel the launch of international franchise opportunities in places like London, Germany, Toronto, Vancouver, among others.

Hampden said Sandbox VR’s whole appeal is getting people out of the house to an immersive experience they can get only in a Sandbox location. Roughly half the audience is women. That is not usually the case with users of VR equipment, which sometimes leaves people nauseous. But Hampden said Sandbox VR’s experiences are inviting.

While the Apple Vision Pro launch has got people excited about mixed reality at home, Hampden believes it will be a couple of generations before it’s available to most people. By contrast, the experience of Sandbox VR is a lot more capable and convenient, with a price at $50 per session. Sandbox VR makes it easy to understand in terms of using the equipment, and that removes barriers to entry, he said.

“It feels like the location-based space still has a really unique niche. And I think the way that we need to kind of grow our category is really, in haptics, is the next thing that we really need to be adding,” Hampden said. “I want to see advancement in this from a consumer home VR standpoint. But it’s still really far away.

As for what’s next with Sandbox VR, Hampden said the company is working on cool things.