Why Cleveland Owns the Future of Virtual Reality

Cleveland got its first taste of virtual reality immersive gameplay in March 2022 when the technology strutted into Boss VR Arena featuring Zero Latency Technology. Nearly eight months later, Sandbox VR, a company founded by Steven Zhao in Hong Kong in 2016, planted its flag in Westlake’s Crocker Park. But VR isn’t just for gamers, adrenaline junkies or high-tech enthusiasts. It’s not locked into an entertainment venue. The language continues to develop—VR’s cousins, Mixed Reality and Augmented Reality, have been used interchangeably and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is still trying to wrangle what the Metaverse is (along with everyone else)—but Apple, Google and Microsoft have all poured billions into VR-related projects. Cleveland, in many ways, has capitalized on the technology; the city’s integration of VR has placed it at the forefront of the anticipated…