IMAX is getting out of the virtual reality game, the company telling shareholders with a SEC filing Thursday that it will close down its remaining three VR centers in the first quarter of next year and write off ‘certain VR content investments.
The company previously closed four of its seven VR centers – the three remaining in Los Angeles, Bangkok, and Toronto will all go. IMAX VR launched in early 2017 and was billed as an experiment, and while consumer reaction was positive the actual widespread public interest just wasn’t there.
The company went on to close a New York VR center in June, and shut down its Shanghai VR center in early July. In October, it shuttered another New York location, and executives told investors that they didn’t anticipate any new investments in VR in 2019.
IMAX and Google also ended their joint development of a cinematic VR camera at the end of last year.
