Open Forum: Can AR Gaming Ever Take Off?

Augmented reality, or AR, is a bit of an odd one. Despite having a very niche place in the world of video games, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft have all experimented with this tech in some kind of way. In particular, Microsoft’s Hololens has grabbed headlines over the last year.

It’s important not to get AR mixed up with Alternate Reality as I did several times before starting this week’s edition of Open Forum. Instead, Alternate Reality is more of a thematic approach to certain media and has been used in the making of viral campaigns as well as the occasional video game. The only example I can immediately think of is Xi, a game many of you will have forgotten. Developed by nDreams, the UK studio currently working on The Assembly, Xi was a multi layered mystery accessible through PlayStation Home. Upon delving into the conspiracy, players had to venture around Sony’s ill-fated social hub for clues while others could be found online.

Virtual Reality is another emerging sect of the industry that overlaps slightly with AR. The easiest way to tell the two apart is that VR immerses players in a completely different world whereas AR changes and creates elements that exist in our own. Another simple way of telling them apart is by looking at the two pieces of championing tech. In one camp you have the Oculus Rift, Sony’s PlayStation VR, and Vive, whereas Microsoft’s Hololens is pushing AR in a bold new direction.

Before we start peering into our crystal balls, we thought it best to look back at some of own AR gaming moments, as few as there are. For me, much of my time with AR stems from using the PlayStation 3’s Eye camera as well as the PlayStation Vita.

One game that immediately springs to mind is The Eye of Judgment. Developed by Japan Studio, this challenging TCG would scan the codes on a series of collectible cards, summoning monsters into battle. With quite a steep buy-in price, it never really took off outside Japan. This was also partly due to the clunky AR functionality of the Eye camera. If the card codes were too dimly lit or even vaguely obstructed, Eye of Judgment would grind to a sudden halt.

Later, I’d go on to play a variety of other AR titles, still drawn in by the premise. EyePet was another first party game and one that had players gradually bond with a small monkey-like creature. Moving onto the Vita and its free pack of AR cards, I found myself playing Table Top Tanks and, more recently, Invizimals. The prospect of playing each one really excited me but when push came to shove, none of them could quite live up to my lofty expectations. The constant need for optimal lighting and a sizeable floorspace proved far too impractical in the end.

Like me, Dom was drawn in by the idea behind AR cards and their potential in-game use. After a brief mess around with the Nintendo 3DS camera, he soon placed them back in their box never to be touched again. He digs the idea of AR and useful applications such as real-world interfacing but can’t see it as a viable tool for video games, at least not for now.

Kris has been more or less on the same boat, seeing AR as a gimmick of sorts. However, further down the line, he sees the Microsoft Hololens as potential game changer, especially if it allows you seamlessly interact with and even sculpt virtual objects in real-time. He worries that, compared to VR, it may not be quite as compelling. After all, when we’re playing video games we usually want to be immersed in other worlds instead of necessarily merging them with our own.

Also keen to see how the Hololens gets on is Tef. Fairly unconvinced by previous attempts at AR gaming, he believes that a second or third iteration of Microsoft’s new tech could pave the way for much better integration. For now, with the additional use of greenscreen effects, the HTC Vive is doing something referred to as “mixed reality” allowing anyone a glimpse into someone’s VR session.

Now it’s over to you. How have you found augmented reality in gaming so far? Has anything managed to capture your imagination, or have you been disappointed by the efforts?