Has Pocketpair Set Up The First Digital Twin Photo Booth?

Since the revival of the corporate photo booth in the 2010s and 2020s, there have been rapid and fascinating evolutions in terms of pushing the limits of the concept of photo booths, but even over a century after their invention innovations are still being made.

At the 2024 Tokyo Games Show, the game developer Pocketpair developed an innovative digital twin photo booth for their stand at the industry event.

The concept of a digital twin has a lot of meanings but is generally used to mean that the same object, event or place exists both in a physical space and in a digital one.

In this case, the entire Pocketpair booth, showcasing their popular albeit controversial video game Palworld will appear not only in Hall 7 of the Makuhari Messe convention centre, but a virtual booth will also be set up with the same design and proportions.

In the case of the latter, the booth will appear as part of the TGS 2024 Digital World event marking perhaps one of the first if not the first ever digital twin photo booth, where people who attend the same event either physically or virtually can commemorate the occasion in the same way.

The booth itself consists of a large stand, featuring a life-sized statue of the Pal Jetragon that delegates can take pictures with and even ride on, which has already led to quite a few amusing pictures of members of the electronic entertainment press riding a jet-powered cartoon dragon.

This is not the only opportunity for photo opportunities, with the somewhat bizarre addition of a jail cage next to a cartoon round sheep, perfectly capturing the incongruous mix of cute cartoon entertainment and cruelty potential that has made the game popular and controversial in equal measure.

Whilst the jury is out on the success of the stand as a whole, the concept of having a virtual version of a physical photo booth is one that is fascinating enough that it begs the question of whether anyone else will try it.