A theater chain is renting out screens for gaming

midian182

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WTF?! Movie theater chains have become one of the industries hit hardest by the pandemic, with social restrictions and movie delays causing closures. To offset the lack of customers, some are turning to alternative money-making ideas, including renting out locations for people to indulge in their fantasy of playing games on a giant screen.

UK-based cinema chain Odeon announced its Big Screen Gaming offer on Twitter. "Check out #pewdiepie's latest IG story for a glimpse at our awesome #BigScreenGaming offer! Play your favourite games up on the biggest screen in our cinemas," reads the tweet.

PewDiePie's now-expired Instagram story showed him sitting in a cinema playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

The tweet mentions that interested parties can get 10 percent off a booking, and while there's no mention of a price, the company confirmed in the replies that the service begins at £100 ($130).

Odeon doesn't say how long the sessions can last or what games will be available, but renting a cinema to play games does sound pretty amazing, and sharing the cost between a group of friends would make it an even more enticing prospect.

In the US, some movie theater chains are renting out screens for private parties. Alamo Drafthouse gives private movie screenings for up to 30 people at prices that start from $150. That's just for the reservation—each person must also buy a movie ticket at the general admission price. AMC and Cinemark are also offering a screen-rental service. The former company will be hoping the plan works; it recently warned that it could run out of money by the end of the year after revenue fell 98 percent YoY.

Image credit: Andrey_Kuzmin

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Would probably have to be for more casual games. I don't expect the response time to be super great...
I dunno, actually. Some high-end digital projectors can have pretty good response times, but these also aren't ones meant for the home, so they may compensate for lousy responses with a lot of synchronization between audio and visual.
 
I dunno, actually. Some high-end digital projectors can have pretty good response times, but these also aren't ones meant for the home, so they may compensate for lousy responses with a lot of synchronization between audio and visual.
I feel like an expensive projector for a theater is going to go for visual quality over speed. Quality and syncing would be the main concerns, response time not so much.

I'm not saying it should be horrible, but I'd expect to feel it if I was to play a twitch shooter on the screen.
 
Probably good for mario karts - or feed 4 truly separate sources ( multiplayer ) into one 4K output or a huge number of 720p ( though imagine need good PC to handle all the inputs)
 
We did this back in college with the schools 2k Projector. PS and Nintendo 64 on the back wall of our theater. Closed the curtains in to adjust to the screen resolutions. Mortal Kombat and Mario Cart at 60' x 60' and we pumped the sound through the surround sound system. Good times.
 
The "Doom" movie & "Hardcore Henry" (2015) were pretty much based on this entire premise.

First-person shooters & Racing games would adapt well at this format. How many people simply *watch* expert gamers on Twitch? There are plenty of people who'd enjoy watching a FPS game like it was a movie.
 
Now finally 4K starts making sense. Because that's the resolution of (better) digital cinema.

I know... I expected 8K as well, but apparently that's still in the future.
 
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