Sandbox VR is building lots of VR retail locations.
Sandbox VR is reopening and adding retail locations.
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The DeanBeat: How Sandbox VR will test our willingness to visit VR entertainment centers

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 5 min

After surviving bankruptcy, Sandbox VR got back to its business of creating VR entertainment centers in retail locations. It has reopened two locations and will open a new one in the Grand Canal Shoppes in the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas by the early summer. This is one of the things I never expected to see happen, even as we slowly creep back toward normalcy.

Retail was a huge victim of the pandemic, and the toll included virtual reality arcades. This saddened me, as I regularly visited these locations whenever I could, as they reminded me of my youth in the coin-op arcades. Sandbox VR lost all of its business overnight in March 2020, said CEO Steve Zhao in an interview with me.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.