Osaka Virtual Expo 2025: A Realistic, Interactive Video Game Experience Set for 2025 in Osaka.
Rewritten Article:
Step into the Digital Showcase: Osaka's Virtual Expo
I've always had a soft spot for world's fairs and expos, and this year, I finally got the chance to immerse myself - virtually, that is. The Osaka World Expo, a colossal exhibition titled "Designing Our Future Lives Together," will welcome an anticipated 28 million visitors in person over a span of 184 days from April 13th to October 13th. But the online Osaka Virtual Expo could draw over 250 million spectators, offering those who can't make the trek to Japan the chance to experience the expo, potentially quadrupling the in-person attendance record set by Shanghai Expo in 2010.
World's fairs have left indelible marks on our modern era. The upcoming Osaka Expo marks 174 years since the legendary 1851 London exhibition that debuted modern architecture through the glass and iron "Crystal Palace" and 55 years since Osaka Expo 1970, where wireless telephones, electric cars, and moving sidewalks first made their public debut. It remains one of the most awe-inspiring displays of art, architecture, and technology from the 20th century.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Dubai expo was forced online in 2020, managing to attract around 250 million viewers from around the globe. The 4.38-square-kilometer physical site in Dubai was recreated and live-streamed to viewers' homes using Google Maps' Street View and 360-degree imagery. However, the Osaka Expo is the first completely virtual expo, offering a dedicated video game app.
Online environments were once novel experiences before 2020, sprouting like mushrooms and quickly becoming more irritating as every exhibition hopped on the bandwagon and presented in-browser versions. Facebook, in its bid to keep up, changed its name to Meta. But the metaverse soon proved that it wasn't a place where people wanted to spend extended periods shopping or socializing. When executed perfectly, however, these online environments excel at recreating exhibitions and extending their reach. Today, viewers need not travel to Osaka to experience at least a slice of the expo, and it can live on, long after the physical pavilions are decommissioned and deconstructed.
Digital Delights: The Osaka Virtual Expo Experience
Osaka has a knack for embracing emerging technologies, and this year's in-person expo will take place on Yumeshima, an artificial island in nearby Osaka Bay, while the Virtual Expo thrives online and can be downloaded as an app for desktop, mobile devices, and the Meta Quest 2 or 3. Digital, playable versions of the pavilions and sponsor rooms are scattered across twelve islands, including "Harmony Island," "Progress Island," and "Encounter Island." Visitors are invited to "discover a whole new version" of themselves, with opportunities to collect skins, loot, emotes, and badges for visiting each pavilion.
The gameplay is generally smooth, but it's easy to feel frustrated and lost at times—a quality that might feel familiar to anyone who's navigated a large event. The warp function works well between islands, but within each island, the experience of space allows the exhibition's content (videos, slides, static images) to remain organized efficiently. The tools, such as embedded video and imagery, or choreographed movement through three-dimensional information space, provide designers and storytellers with an enhanced online medium in which to present ideas and visual narratives. It offers a more authentic experience than the perfect, simplistic smoothness of a website or the endless, monotonous feed of social media.
A sinuous, translucent ring of blue light circles the entire site, linking the islands. It's a digital, gamified version of Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto's monumental Grand Ring—a hybrid physical and digital strategy that aligns with Japan's national strategy "Society 5.0," a vision of a future powered by the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, big data, and biotechnology.
Navigating Osaka Virtual Expo
Much like prior expos and fairs, most notably New York in 1934, where GM introduced "Futurama"—a vision of a city centered around cars and corporate pavilions—takes center stage. Japanese telecom provider NTT, the producers of the virtual expo, showcased several tech innovations, including FeelTech, a wearable that enables users to share sensory perceptions via a 6G signal. They also displayed futuristic concepts such as telepathy for dogs to communicate with their owners. At the "Future City" pavilion, Japanese mobility company Kawasaki brandished impressive displays, including hydrogen engines, concepts for train cabins staffed by robots, and a ridable horse robot called Cor-leo. Live feeds of the Expo's Vertiport were available for virtual visitors to see large drones landing and taking off at the IRL Osaka site.
Other corporate highlights included Japanese energy company Niterra's underwater expedition, complete with educational mini-games and promotional content spotlighting their R+D innovations, often accompanied by extensive information on digital placards. Drinks conglomerate Suntory offered a fun game where players could get drinks from a vending machine, toast them, and recycle the containers. Beermaker Asahi showcased their forest, where lumber is harvested sustainably.
The Japanese ocean non-profit NERI's physical pavilion in Osaka features domes designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. In the virtual world, it's an underwater experience where a turtle explains the challenges and triumphs of ocean stewardship. The "Future of Life" pavilion displayed futuristic visions of healthcare, education, mobility, and various aspects of future living, developed in collaboration with artist TK.
There were also several more abstract experiences, such as the null^2 pavilion—a bizarre, conceptual adventure—and the Japan pavilion, where players' avatars are transformed into a pile of food waste (the mission of the mini-game is to turn on the bio-digester in order to escape). I even snapped a selfie with a life-size Gundam, which is present both physically and virtually in Osaka. The Better Co-Being series, which includes a pavilion designed by Pritzker Prize laureate SANAA, takes on a more abstract form online, featuring a minimalist version of SANAA's ethereal grid structure floating among the "Forest of Tranquility."
All of this is about the future—the future of how we live, connect, and manage nature. Past fairs, up until 1970, were instrumental in defining what was next, both in architecture and technology. But are expos today nothing more than relics of the past? What is "the future" today? And what role do these expos play in shaping it and broadcasting it? Are the innovative tech revelations still relevant, like the electric light bulb or the elevator once were? Or is the Osaka Virtual Expo just chasing shadows, like the metaverse itself? In my opinion, there's immense value in extending the exhibition experience to the world, and I hope that it continues to evolve and expand in 2030—including more national pavilions.
- Visitors to the Osaka Virtual Expo in 2025 can expect to explore various pavilions showcasing futuristic concepts, including a digital representation of the "Future City" pavilion, featuring exhibits on hydrogen engines, train cabins staffed by robots, and the ridable horse robot, Cor-leo.
- The Japanese energy company Niterra will display their technological innovations in the virtual expo, including an underwater expedition, mini-games, and promotional content highlighting their R+D advancements.
- Besides various corporate displays, the Osaka Virtual Expo will offer conceptual experiences, such as the null^2 pavilion, a bizarre adventure, and the Japan pavilion, where players' avatars are transformed into a pile of food waste, reflecting the mission of the mini-game to turn on the bio-digester in order to escape.
