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HoloDek Promises 'Movie Theater for Gamers'

Posted on: Tuesday, 30 August 2005, 00:00 CDT

Aug. 29--HAMPTON, N.H. -- Video games are enticing enough, but a company here is betting that playing the games on high-speed computers with high-definition screens that literally envelop the user can be downright addictive.

HoloDek, which takes its name from the virtual recreational facility aboard TV's Starship Enterprise, has been testing its concept here in Hampton for nearly a year. Company officials say they are about to line up the financing to roll out more than 160 high-end gaming facilities over the next five years in the Northeast.

They are also talking with movie theater chains about installing HoloDeks inside existing theaters.

Mike Fortier, vice president for technology at HoloDek, said people can watch a movie at home on their TV, but many prefer to go to a movie theater where they can watch it with friends on a giant screen with great sound and picture quality.

"We're doing the same thing here," Fortier said. "This is a movie theater for gamers."

The company's test site is located in an out-of-the-way industrial park here and features 42 gaming stations with high-speed personal computers and high-definition screens ranging in size from 17 inches to 13 feet.

But in a back room, nearing completion, are two far more immersive gaming environments. One, nicknamed "half-pipe," features a screen that is 20 feet wide and 12 feet high. The other is a sphere, 20 feet in diameter, that eventually will offer a 360-degree wraparound gaming effect. The gamer sits inside the sphere on a robot that rumbles, banks, and spins out, providing many of the same effects as a flight simulator.

Other companies offer settings where gamers can play together or online. HoloDek adds style to the equation, with plush chairs, subdued lighting, jazz or light rock in the background, and screen savers featuring paintings by such famous artists as Dali, Vermier, and Picasso. But what really has the potential to set HoloDek apart is its ability to offer unique gaming experiences.

"What they've got now is evolutionary. Where they're headed is revolutionary. The question is can they get there," said Perry Lowe, a marketing professor at Bentley College who has expressed interest in investing in HoloDek.

The gaming business has become a financial juggernaut, hitting $7.3 billion in sales last year. Most gamers play at home on their computer, game console, or the Internet. But HoloDek's 55-year-old chief executive, Kit McKittrick, said he believes gamers are a lot like golfers. They may practice in geeky solitude, but the ultimate challenge is to play on a top-flight course with friends or other like-minded players.

"We want to make it socially acceptable to enjoy the gaming experience," McKittrick said. "How many gamers have experienced the country club life?"

McKittrick has ambitious plans. He confidently predicts he will nail down his financing over the next six months and then embark on a five-year rollout of 60 large venues, each about 35,000 square feet. The facilities would feature 350 gaming stations, two to four half-pipes, at least one sphere, a restaurant, a bar, and retail space.

HoloDek also plans to open more than 100 smaller facilities, about 10,000 to 12,000 square feet in size, in less-populated markets.

According to a map of the rollout, Tysons Corner, Va., will be the site of the company's first location. Boston was listed as 11th on the map.

Pricing will be the same as at HoloDek's test facility, $5 an hour and slightly less for people willing to pay a $40 annual fee to become a member. McKittrick said he expects to charge $1 a minute, or $60 an hour, to play the sphere or half-pipe. Training on any game is free and Dramamine will be available for those who get video vertigo playing the life-like games.

HoloDek is also talking with movie theater chains about teaming up to offer gaming stations inside existing theaters. HoloDek has developed a system that will allow the game stations to be installed in an existing theater once the seats are removed.

HoloDek makes most of its own equipment, in part because it grew out of a robot company that is still run by Fortier. McKittrick said HoloDek will manufacture the half-pipe, the sphere, and the robot inside the sphere. Company employees can modify video games to run on the enlarged screens.

HoloDek makes its own computers or modifies existing ones to meets its specifications. It has even developed a lounge prototype, complete with gaming stations and a bar whose concrete top literally becomes a screen for a ceiling-based video projection system.

McKittrick says HoloDek has two target markets. He believes HoloDek's facilities during the day will operate as sophisticated training and educational centers, primarily for businesses. HoloDek's more advanced gaming environments may be suited to more exotic educational uses, he said, noting an engineer working for race car driver Roger Penske spent a week exploring whether the sphere could be used as a training site.

The nighttime market is gamers, specifically 30-year-olds earning about $70,000 a year who play video games more than 20 hours a week. "This guy's been playing games for 20 years and is rabid about his pastime, very much like a lunatic golfer," McKittrick said.

But the test site here skews much younger, with teenagers, nearly all of them male, dominating the scene. HoloDek restricts children to age-appropriate games unless their parents sign a waiver, which most do.

Nate Long, Jay Herrick, Andrew Davis, Theo Poisson, and Brad Osgood, who range in age from 16 to 19, stopped in last week, taking advantage of a Tuesday special that let them play for nearly eight hours for $20.

As they munched on BLT pizza, they played Battlefield2 on eight- to 10-foot screens, fighting each other in tanks, helicopters, jets, and on the ground.

They played seriously and steadily, but they also had a lot of laughs and did a lot of talking. They said the quality of the computers and the graphics was far superior to what they had at home and they couldn't wait to get their hands on the sphere and half-pipe.

"This is just top-notch," said Long, 19, of Dover.

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Source: The Boston Globe

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