ABOUT US
Welcome to FREAK VR.
WHO ARE WE?
When you go to the movies, you watch the entertainment. When you go to FREAK, you’re IN the entertainment.
FREAK is an immersive virtual reality gaming venue, that combines cutting edge multiplayer games, incredible 4D effects and curated physical spaces to help you venture beyond reality.
Find us on social media, with the hashtag #BeyondReality.
Facebook – @freakvirtualreality
Venues across Australia
Virtual Reality Games
Players
HELLO WORLD – PENRITH’S OPENING
Co-founders Kim Hopwood and Wayne Jones came up with the idea to expand from iFLY Indoor Skydiving into a new and as-yet untapped market: virtual reality. Encouraged by the awesome power of VR technology, Kim and Wayne opened our very first venue, FREAK Penrith, inside the iFLY Downunder building on December 13th, 2019. At first, Penrith only had Arizona Sunshine and Ghost Patrol available, but the venue continued to received critical acclaim, all commenting the same thing: it was an incredible experience.
So soon after opening our doors, COVID-19 hit Australia, and we were forced to come up with a creative solution. From April 29th 2020, FREAK-in-a-Box, the take-home virtual reality kit, gave Sydney-siders the ability to experience epic VR games from the safety of their own home. Both Penrith and the FIAB initiative were deemed a rousing success, and we knew we wanted more.
FREAK GOLD COAST AND BONDI
Plans were quickly laid out for not one, but two new venues opening one after the other. By September 5th 2020, FREAK Gold Coast, also found within the iFLY Gold Coast building, opened exclusively featuring the flagship Arena. No Arcade was to be found here, but Queenslanders flocked to the venue regardless.
Not long after, came the announcement for our next venue; FREAK Bondi opened its gates on November 13th 2020. This officially staked our claim in the western and eastern suburbs of Sydney, as those living in the eastern suburbs now had easy access to FREAK’s incredible free-roam Arena, vast Arcade, and the newly-introduced VR Escape Rooms from Ubisoft.
SPLENDOUR XR & FREAK MACQUARIE
FREAK had partnered with Splendour in the Grass, a music festival that was to be held in Circular Quay in July 10th – 18th 2021. Unfortunately, with the rise of COVID-19 in NSW, we were forced to instead come up with a different solution. Our FREAK-in-a-Box kits could be rented to connect to Splendour XR from the safety of the festival-goers’ homes!
We knew we wanted another venue to keep the ball rolling; we searched a number of potentional locations, but we finally agreed on Macquarie Park. Exactly one year after the opening of Bondi, we proudly introduced FREAK Macquarie to the world on November 22nd 2021. This venue featured FREAK Drive, which quickly expanded to all our venues, excluding Gold Coast.
FREAK SURFERS PARADISE
After three years of learning, expanding our massive library of games, which also included our very own Androids & Outlaws (launched April 19th 2022), we decided to put our best foot forward and go all-in on a massive new venue: FREAK Surfers Paradise, found in the heart of Paradise Centre, opened its glorious doors on December 5th 2022.
We wept tears of joy, as this also paved the way for FREAK 2.0, an incredible task of overhauling all our systems, upgrading all our previous venues to have wireless technology, and expand to now have over a dozen unique experiences. From our humble beginnings as a zombie-slaying machine to now being a hub for virtual reality entertainment, FREAK has no signs of slowing down.
