That is what I was thinking of when I said they should have just gone the VR way. They could have styled the vr headset to look like that (or the helmet used by Luke in ANH). Then, they wouldn't have to worry about the laser blast coming from a fixed point, because in VR it could come from anywhere. The lightsaber itself would just need to be the hilt with some sensors to track and provide rumble feedback.
The VR wouldn't even need to be highly detailed, since it is supposed to make you "blind" to attune with the force. They could do something like an adult/hard mode that it's basically black with a vague glimpse of where the blast is coming from, and as you do better it becomes more in focus and for a longer period of time, simulating that you are getting better with the force. Kid mode they could just make it so it's on the "final level" from the beginning.
I think the problem here is we are now talking major development investment for a relatively small project with limited earning potential due to the limited space available for guests. (and in the long run, probably pricing)
Disney is not, after all, a tech company so they don't necessarily have a lot of other avenues to readily spin the kind of investment they'd need to make for this sort of custom experience.
Disneyquest
did have an early version of something like this but they were A) a very different company back then more willing to take risks and more willing to build projects like this to learn from them rather than to
strictly profit/market and B) Disneyquest was supposed to be a national (global?) chain where the development costs would be easier to recover, though that never panned out. (which goes back to "a" and their willingness to try innovating in major ways without guaranteed success)
If they were going to incorporate it into the land where they could charge for it as an individual experience and offer it at Disneyland and possibly other parks in the future, too, then maybe they would make something like this but they can't do that because then it dilutes the value of the experience people are paying the big bucks for on the Starcruiser.
They can't even spin a lesser version into a home toy/game/vr experience to help make up development costs since they license out all their toy and gaming stuff to third parties who would be doing their own independent development, anyway.
That's of course, not a technical problem but one created by the way the company is structured. Just the same, I don't see them changing anytime soon since they enjoy making money on royalties without having to invest or risk losing money on failed products in the marketplace.
Something like this would not be worth disrupting that in Bob's eyes.
This to me, seems like one of the problems with these smaller more "premium" experiences for Disney. To make something really amazing they'd need to invest but it may be hard for them to justify investing the amount needed to make it something really amazing which is why, up until now, their "premium" experiences have largely been based on cupcakes and finding ways to make exclusive and charge for, things that were once available to all guests with the cost of admission where development cost has already been covered and it's mostly pure profit.
Disney seems all about the low hanging fruit these days and there's not a lot of that to be found in these from-scratch boutique experiences if they require major tech/infrastructure investment.
One could argue that a little investment like this sprinkled around without a
direct payoff would still go a long ways at proving themselves as a premium tourist destination and may pay off on a larger scale with brand awareness ability to sort of justify price increases elsewhere ("we're premium!") but I think that kind of thinking is a little too subtle and long-game for current management to roll with.
They could still knock this whole project out of the park as a roll-playing experience for people who are
really into that if they get the "live" aspects right but I think a lot of what we thought this was going to be in terms of innovative never-before-seen stuff from the tech/effects side (which they alluded to) is probably not going to work out the way we all were expecting.
