Augmented reality (AR) is defined as a “live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.”
You’ve probably heard the term in conjunction with the app that took the world by storm, Pokémon Go. Released in July by Niantic, this mobile game allows users to walk around their physical world to find, catch and train digital Pokémon. The game uses a phone’s GPS and augmented reality to bring up the creatures on the screen.
Other AR games include Ingress, Life is Crime, Zombies, Run! and The Walk.
These AR gaming experiences are proving beneficial to businesses because of their advertising features. Through in-app purchases, businesses can buy more gaming activity near their physical location. According to Bloomberg, L’inizio’s Pizza Bar in Queens spent $10 on Lures–the Pokémon Go purchase feature–and reported a 30 percent increase in sales.
The pros to AR games include getting gamers to exercise and businesses selling more product. However, these AR games also have caused users to crash cars, cross highways, stumble upon dead bodies and even walk off cliffs.
Despite all of the accidents, Pokémon Go has attracted nearly 25 million people within the last month. New AR games such as Harry Potter Go are poised to enter the market by the end of the year.
In the past, games that have garnered this much attention have fallen victim to declining popularity. Words with Friends secured 20 million users when it launched in April 2012 and then lost two million players in the following month. Will Pokemon Go and other AR games also crash and burn?
The critic in me wants to say that yes, these games will lose popularity as people get bored with the platform and lack of game advancement. Personally, I thought Pokemon Go became monotonous as I walked around town completing the same task-looking for and catching creatures-over and over again.
However, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook recently declared augmented reality a “core technology” for the company, which gives me hope for the future of AR games. After all, despite my boss’ dislike of Apple (see his post on “Why I Don’t Buy Apple Products“), the company has a pretty proven track record for success.
I’m betting that AR technology will continue to grow, but the gaming companies will have to innovate and create unique experiences that change over time. As the industry develops, businesses should learn all they can about how to monetize the evolution.
For many reasons, I hate updating software, especially smartphone apps. Windows 10 does not allow you to turn off updates–it forces them on you, which is especially annoying when you’re trying to do work on your computer.