Interactive 3D Game Coming to UK Theaters

Starting later this month select multiplexes in the UK will play host to the world’s first interactive 3D game in a movie theater.

3D is back in a big way these days, and that’s not just true for movies, but the stuff that plays before your movie actually starts. Instead of having to sit through annoying ads and boring movie trivia, audiences at 20 Vue cinemas in the UK will get to experience Asteroid Storm, the world’s first interactive 3D game to take place inside a movie theater.

Sponsored by UK mobile phone provider O2, Asteroid Storm puts an entire audience in control of the Starship O2 as it attempts to navigate through a, you guessed it, asteroid storm. The in-game ship will be controlled by different parts of the audience holding its hands up and presumably making steering motions which are read and processed by infrared-equipped cameras attached to the ceiling of the theater.

Action is displayed on screen in 3D, and the graphics don’t look so hot, but what do you expect? This is really just a glorified ad for O2. But who cares – I’d rather play some crummy game with my fellow moviegoers than have to sit through slides asking me “What Friends alum starred in films with Bruce Willis?” The only issue I could see is some people getting too into it. I know 3D is pretty intense, but if someone’s hand lands in my popcorn, there’s going to be hell to pay.

Asteroid Storm will debut on July 10 and play in front of Ice Age 3 3D and, presumably run through to next year when Toy Story 3D comes out. Participating Vue branches are in London, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham.