Pokemon GO has taken the world by storm since it launched just a couple short weeks ago. While many were excited for the game, nobody could predict how big it would become. Pokemon GO is a surprisingly yet addictive app, with augmented reality (AR) helping to bring childhood dreams alive for many.
While this trend is making its rounds, though, there is another company looking to cash in on the AR market – Microsoft. The HoloLens is currently in development and it promises a revolutionary AR experience. With true, widespread VR looking more and more like a distant reality, AR may be just what gaming needs. Can Microsoft take advantage of Pokemon GO’s success?
Pokemon GO, But Better
Pokemon GO is very cool for what it is. You can download for free and play on your mobile device provided that it isn’t too old. Most recent Android models and the last few Apple products are all supporting the game. Accessibility on the technology front has been amazing, but the technology itself leaves much to be desired. The game relies on your phones gyroscopes and camera, so the AR isn’t exactly perfect.
The HoloLens has shown real potential in this regard. Generated animations line up nicely to your surroundings, making elements of games seem like they’re actually in your world. Users don’t have to constantly walk awkwardly with their phone, and aren’t limited to its small screen. Microsoft can capitalize on Pokemon GO-mania by pushing AR to its limits, promising augmented reality more advanced than what already has the world hooked.
Just imagine looking around and seeing Pokemon right in front of you rather than a small representation on your screen. Now that’s true AR.
Direct Competition
Let’s be honest, as soon as Pokemon GO released, a lot of fans started imagining a Digimon GO. These are monsters and an IP tailor made for AR, but without someone like Nintendo nor the same mass popularity to be such an easy game to push. Enter Microsoft, one of the members of the “Big 3,” with a new AR headset on the way and a whole lot of cash.
The HoloLens will need a killer app on the gaming side of things… or at least another one other than Minecraft. While Minecraft is cool, it isn’t exactly new, and from the looks of things, it won’t promote world exploration. It’s that exploration that has really launched Pokemon GO into something much more than a simple mobile app. But you know what would promote that kind of gameplay? Digimon.
Should Bandai Namco and Microsoft team up to deliver a Digimon world, it could bring the brand’s epic creatures and exploration into reality. With HoloLens delivering more capable technology, and the implementation of grand social features missing from Pokemon GO, the partnership could definitely prove to be something spectacular for Microsoft and AR as a whole.
First Party Experiments
One of the things that became clear with the success of Pokemon GO was that it’s good for Nintendo to let go sometimes. While protecting an IP’s identity is important, it is sometimes necessary to experiment and allow a property to grow beyond its roots. If Nintendo didn’t take a chance on mobile games, and didn’t expand on Pokemon in this new way, all of those millions of dollars earned per day would have never happened.
We’re not saying that Microsoft necessarily needs to expand on their current properties. All are doing as well as they should be, but it would be interesting to see a bit of experimentation. It’s true that not many of the company’s franchises jump out as being ripe for AR, but that doesn’t mean studios can’t become a bit more imaginative.
Just imagine collecting different cars in a Forza RC AR game, or bringing Halo Wars to the streets. There are a lot of possibilities for the budding technology.
Let’s Get Social
One thing that Microsoft has been pushing for, particularly with their Xbox brand, is accessibility and choice. They want players to be able to play with whoever they want, wherever they want, however they want. The company has even begun implementing new social features and cross-platform incentives to help provide these more varied options.
If Pokemon GO has proven to be at least one thing, it’s social. That may very well be the strength of the app, and what has been hooking players across the world. If Microsoft hopes to capitalize on its success then it too would need to be social with its AR offerings. This will only help to bolster what the company is already building.
How Microsoft would go about accomplishing this goal is key. Pokemon is sort of a perfect storm situation. All the right pieces were in all of the right places. It’s difficult to catch lightning in a bottle even once, but to try to do it again is often madness. But if anyone can pull it off, it’s the mean green machine that is behind the Xbox and the HoloLens.
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