Augmented Reality(AR) in Gaming| Gaming Technologies
“It’s not that we use technology, we live technology,” said Godfrey Reggio.
Technology is ruling the world & we’re living it. Any new inventions in Technology & various industries are waiting to equip those in their processes. So did the Gaming & E-sports Industry. New technologies have come in the Gaming industry like Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality Gaming. We’ve already discussed one of these i.e Virtual Reality in our previous blog. In this one we’ll be discussing Augmented Reality(AR), AR in Gaming, E-sports, the future of AR Gaming & E-sports, and much more!
What is Augmented Reality(AR)?
Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality are often mistaken as the same technologies but they’re not the same. Augmented Reality(AR) is an interactive experience of a real-world environment. Unlike VR, it’s not all virtual. Here, AR technology is made so such that the user can experience the objects in the real world in an enhanced manner by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities, i.e. making use of digital sense equipment like visual, olfactory, haptic, auditory & other sensory stimuli delivered by technology. Augmented Reality doesn’t make its own virtual environment, it adds to the real environment or nature. Augmented Reality finds its applications in various sectors of life as Gaming, Entertainment, Education & Medical fields.
Since we now have a proper understanding of Augmented Reality, we’ll understand its applications in the Gaming & E-sports Industry.
How is Augmented Reality(AR) used in Gaming?
Augmented Reality Gaming(AR Gaming) is the integration of the game’s audio & graphics with the player’s environment in real-time. You’re experiencing a parallel world within your own environment with AR. While most VR technologies or games make use of headsets & immersive or isolated environments to get a proper feel of the game, in Augmented Reality you don’t really need fancy types of equipment. You can play AR games on your smartphones, tablets, or portable gaming systems.
Let us understand AR with a few examples.
- You can play a game of chess on an empty table with the use of AR.
- You can make your character climb up to your sofa from the floor by use of ropes.
There are numerous more examples of AR in Gaming. Integrating or superimposing the game’s senses onto the real environment or developing the program in such a manner is a time taking & difficult task. Also, constant updates are needed by the user because the end-user i.e. the players won’t like to play in the same game environment over & over again. Thus, AR though difficult to take charge of, it’s worth all the pain in the end.
Which are some famous Augmented Reality(AR) Games?
- Ingress Prime: Ingress was one of the first games in Android that made excellent use of AR technology by adding real-life backgrounds or environments to simple fun-to-play games! Players could explore the real world with an exclusive gaming experience.
- Pokemon Go: It was the one game that really made the AR gaming trend famous by incorporating an Ingress-like gameplay environment & blending the real world with the gaming/virtual world while adding elements from the famous & favorite of all, the series of Pokemon!
- The Walking Dead: It was an AR game that brought out zombies from famous TV shows & allowed the players to be real-life heroes by killing the monstrous zombies roaming around them in the real world.
- Harry Potter-Wizards Unite: Who doesn’t love Harry Potter? Well, the creators knew well what fame would the love for Potter bring into the game and so it did! The players can walk around in the real world and collect various wizarding items, battle with ‘those-who-must-not-be-named’, and deal with calamities that have struck the witches & wizards worldwide!
How is AR going to affect the FUTURE?
With a focus on developments & improvisations in user-focused technologies like AR & VR, the Gaming & E-sports Industry has seen an immense boost in the past few years. Not only is the gaming audience is growing due to the new, fascinating & near to real technologies but also the viewing audience is growing incredibly. Noticing a spurt in the growth of the viewing audience, the entertainment industries & the mainstream media are focusing more & more on the new Games with new technologies & are developing content continuously to get more reach.
Considering the hype in all these sectors, Gaming is gonna be a super-huge industry in the near future owing to the technologies like AR, VR, and many more that are still under development.
STATISTICS.
How huge is the Gaming market gonna be? Let’s talk numbers.
The industries making use of AR & VR are expected to achieve the targeted valuation of over $25 billion by 2025. If we were to talk specifically about the AR market, then the global augmented reality gaming market reached a value of US$ 4.7 Billion in 2020. It is expected that the global augmented reality gaming market will reach a value of US$ 28.60 Billion by 2026, exhibiting a CAGR of 34.80% during 2021–2026. Shortly, there are no signs of any reduction imposed in the relationship between AR and mobile devices. Hence, AR is deemed to grow & will make the Gaming industry grow even more.
That was all for this time, all that you need to know about Augmented Reality(AR) Technology. We’ll be back with more technologies in Gaming.
Until then,
“Live It For Gaming!”
