i-City plans to bring Metaverse experience to theme park

i-City has announced a RM10 million (US$2.34mil) digital transformation plan to enhance its theme park with Metaverse experience.

The theme park enhancement project will be carried out in collaboration with China Mobile International (CMIM) to entwine i-City’s City of Digital Lights with an immersive 3D Metaverse experience, the company said in a statement.

According to i-City’s Hhead of leisure Tang Soke Cheng, CMIM is currently building the technology platform for the infusion of Metaverse in i-City theme park and the new experience will be unveiled beginning with the 2023 new-year countdown and the Metaverse experience is expected to draw 10 million visits to the theme park in 2023.

“In 2009, when LED technology was in its infancy, we introduced LED technology into the theme park’s digital landscape. As a result, we were acclaimed by CNN Travel as the 21st brightest and most colourful place in the world, two notches above New York Times Square in the United States of America.

“With the Metaverse being the latest buzzword in the edutainment and gaming world, we would like to be the first to adopt such new technology in Malaysia.

“As such we are aiming for the enhancement works to be completed in time for the 2023 New Year countdown so that visitors can enjoy digital lightscapes with interactive virtual reality as they count down to the new year,” Tang said.

On the enhancement, Tang said that edutainment through immersive experiences has always been a focus of i-City.

She explained that when i-city first started in 1995, when space exploration has yet to catch-up amongst Malaysians, the developer spent RM10mil to create an Aerospace Adventure to generate interest in space science as well as to enable Malaysians to learn and experience aerospace adventure and technology.

“Then it was the adoption of digital lightscapes. In keeping up to our reputation as Malaysia's No 1 technology city, we would be extending the Metaverse experience to SnoWalk which is currently a snowfall and snowplay attraction in Malaysia.

On making Metaverse a reality at i-City theme park, CMIM director of enterprise, Jackie Chen said that the implementation of 5G this year is timely for the project.

“Metaverse requires 3D modalities to be transmitted digitally. This can be in the form of avatars and structures among others.

“The more live-like the 3D model is, the more details it will require and the more data it will consume. As such, the implementation of 5G together with hyperscale cloud computing infrastructure which i-City is currently building will be instrumental to the success of this project," said Chen.