Both augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies have been extremely active during the past couple of years, with the gaming industry in particular beginning to see real progress in this area. Among the top VR titles that have already hit shelves are the likes of Marvel Powers United VR, while the big AR games on the market include Ingress and Bee World. So, with both making inroads into the gaming sector, which of these new technologies is most likely to become the mainstream for the next gaming generation?
Well let’s start by making clear precisely what the differences between AR and VR are. Essentially, an augmented reality game sees you interact with a real-world environment that has additional elements added to it, while a virtual reality one creates an entirely artificial simulated world that you operate within. Despite the big advances that have been made, both of the technologies are still very much works in progress, but there is no question that the development process is moving very rapidly. It is VR that has attracted the most media attention, thanks to major investments such as Apple acquiring Metaio, and Facebook buying the Oculus Rift tech. The likes of Microsoft and Google have also been spending huge sums on developing their own VR headsets, in the shape of the HoloLens and Daydream devices respectively. All of these devices are being targeted at the gaming industry and with major players like these involved at this level, it is difficult to see how VR can fail to become mainstream by the time the next generation of gamers is ready to play. That is not to suggest that everything is plain sailing, as VR headsets remain bedevilled by problems at the moment. To start with, the average price of devices like the Oculus Rift is $400 or more – putting them distinctly outside the mainstream for most people. Then there are technical issues such as the need for cables, which restrict how much people can move within the VR worlds by literally tying them to their computers, as well as nausea created by the headsets.
Indeed, despite the huge media attention that has been devoted to VR, it could well be argued that AR is the one that is already making inroads into the mainstream of gaming. On its release last year the AR game Pokemon Go, which requires you to capture AR generated Pokemon within real-world settings, became a genuine gaming phenomenon. The game was cheap to download to mobile phones and allowed the user to play on the move, in any location, precisely the problems that VR is currently struggling with. Unsurprisingly, industries related to the gaming one – such as the online casino one – have noted this and are looking at the development of AR and VR casino games. At the moment, many within this industry suspect that AR may have more practical applications within the land-based casino industry, with VR being the potential mainstream future for the online casino version.
At the moment, AR is the technology that is closer to moving into the mainstream of gaming, but with big money behind VR gaming, the odds are that both will be central to the next generation of games.