Ghostbusters VR Academy

Hologate has one of the most exciting new products in years launching at IAAPA (2023). Ghostbusters VR Academy represents one of the best examples of a movie studio partnership. Sony Pictures successfully rebooted the 37-year-old franchise in 2021 with Ghostbusters: Afterlife. It grossed over $200 million at the box office, breathing new life into the beloved franchise. There’s a sequel slated for the holiday season in 2023.

Ghostbusters VR Academy has two parts. The 4-player Hologate Arena is where recruits train to become Ghostbusters, traveling through beautifully rendered haunted environments. In my demo at IAAPA London, I loved how Hologate employed their bHaptics vest to simulate when the free-floating apparition passes through you. Players use their Proton Packs to trap ghosts, and (spoiler alert) ultimately battle the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. Do NOT cross the streams.

The part that excites me most, which I have yet to try, is the new Ghostbusters game designed for the Blitz. The Blitz is an interactive, high-end 6 DOF motion simulator. It originally launched at IAAPA 2019 with a racing game called Hyper GP. This placed the Blitz in the niche premium driving simulator market. But this new title could catapult the Blitz into an entirely new, mass market segment.

In the Ghostbusters VR Academy Blitz game, players will take the wheel of a prototype, jet-powered flying ECTO vehicle. If the environments are anything like the Arena version and live up to Hologate’s reputation (they will), then this game will excite Ghostbusters fans young and old. The combination of a 4-player Arena with two or four Blitz units creates a Ghostbustersthemed anchor attraction that should be able to be run with one employee. But no matter how you configure it, the Ghostbusters IP, with a new movie launching next year, should give this product tremendous legs.