Nostalgia is a powerful yet elusive feeling. People tend to remember the past with great fondness, but of course, reliving the past is impossible. Or is it? Could VR provide an opportunity to experience nostalgia in new and tantalising ways?
Nostalgic content is nothing new. That’s why the retro market is booming in the entertainment industry. Everywhere you look, something is paying homage to what came before.
Virtual reality is on the way to shake things up, and the advanced technology could potentially change everything in the entertainment sector. Retro themes are likely to go on strong, however, and there could be new and more immersive ways to experience nostalgia.
Nostalgia is Huge in Today’s Entertainment Industry
It’s impossible not to have noticed the nostalgia boom across the entertainment industry in recent times. Online sectors have led the way, but there has also been a rise in physical locations giving people the chance to play everything from board games to arcade classics. Indeed, the board game café market is expected to double in value by 2030, highlighting how many people are in search of old school leisure experiences.
The online casino industry played a huge role in boosting the nostalgia market, with developers often paying homage to the titles that came before and kickstarted the booming sector. There’s no doubt that iGaming has come a long way in recent years, but players still love to play old school titles with simple gameplay elements.
If you search for table games online, you’ll find titles like 777 Blazing Blackjack and Game King Video Poker, which hark back to the simpler ages of casino games before they were revolutionized online. Still, these titles include modern tech to keep them in line with today’s offerings and help them appeal to old and new players.
Step Into Retro Shows
VR is set to completely alter the way people consume entertainment, with immersion being the name of the game. The upcoming technology is projected to boom by 2030, and it could provide innovative new ways to experience nostalgia.
For example, there could be a return to classic television shows from the 1980s and 1990s, but this time viewers might get to play an active role in them. There’s likely to be a huge audience out there desperate to step into an episode of Happy Days of Friends. VR could allow people to embody the characters, playing out familiar storylines as if experiencing real-life. This tech offers fans a boost of much-needed nostalgic feels and a chance to enjoy the content in a totally different way.
There’s also the chance that VR will lead people to spend more time in metaverses, where retro elements could exist ubiquitously in everyday life. That was certainly the vision of Ernest Cline in Ready Player One, which was littered with references to entertainment from the 1980s.
There are still many unknowns when it comes to VR and how people will engage with it. However, the overwhelming popularity of nostalgia suggests that there will always be a place for retro-themed content. Indeed, the technology could bring about a host of new ways for people to get their fix of nostalgia.
