Meta Star Wars
Meta Star Wars
Pod Racers0501 For Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025, we built Meta a 25x25 meter booth that made the Quest platform feel like a genuine portal into the Star Wars universe — designed for the superfans who would have spotted anything less.
Star Wars Celebration is not a trade show. It's a pilgrimage. The people who travel to it — to Makuhari Messe, outside Tokyo, for four days in April — are not casually interested in Star Wars. They have memorized the lore. They have opinions about the canon. They have been waiting, in some cases for decades, for the thing that finally makes them feel like they're actually inside that world.
That's the audience we built for.
That's the audience we built for.
Meta brought us to Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025 to activate their Star Wars gaming platform on the Quest headset — three titles, *Vader Immortal*, *Tales from the Galaxy's Edge*, and the newly launched *Star Wars: Beyond Victory*, all playable across 14 demo pods inside a 25x25 meter booth. The product story was real: for the first time, a headset could put you *in* the Star Wars universe, not just alongside it. Our job was to make the space worthy of that promise, and worthy of the people walking into it.
We designed the booth around arrival. What does a Star Wars superfan feel in the first thirty seconds? We wanted it to be recognition — the aesthetic grammar of the universe, rendered at scale and with precision. Layered scenic environments, translucent fabric panels framing the space like portals, graphic walls that drew from the visual language of the films without simply wallpapering them. The design principle we called "subliminal Star Wars" — present in texture, light, and atmosphere rather than logo-heavy decoration. IP as environment, not as signage.
We designed the booth around arrival. What does a Star Wars superfan feel in the first thirty seconds? We wanted it to be recognition — the aesthetic grammar of the universe, rendered at scale and with precision. Layered scenic environments, translucent fabric panels framing the space like portals, graphic walls that drew from the visual language of the films without simply wallpapering them. The design principle we called "subliminal Star Wars" — present in texture, light, and atmosphere rather than logo-heavy decoration. IP as environment, not as signage.
And then, within that environment, the product. The Skywalker Screen — an 86-inch display that activates as guests approach, surfacing the breadth of what's playable on Quest. The Button Wall, a hands-on interactive element in the line experience that let people engage before they'd even reached a headset. Each of the 14 pods lit and staged to hold the feeling of the wider booth: you weren't sitting down to a demo, you were stepping further in.
The journey through the space was structured. A lounge brought guests into the world before they reached gameplay. Photo moments gave them something to carry home. A fan counter let committed buyers leave with a headset. Every beat served two things at once: the fan's desire to live inside Star Wars, and Meta's genuine case that the Quest platform was the place to do it.
What made it work was that those two things weren't actually in conflict. The platform's best argument was the experience itself. Our role was to make sure the space said that clearly — to superfans who would have spotted a cynical shortcut immediately, and who rewarded the genuine effort with real engagement.
Star Wars Celebration Japan drew the believers. We built something they could believe in.
What made it work was that those two things weren't actually in conflict. The platform's best argument was the experience itself. Our role was to make sure the space said that clearly — to superfans who would have spotted a cynical shortcut immediately, and who rewarded the genuine effort with real engagement.
Star Wars Celebration Japan drew the believers. We built something they could believe in.
