The rebooted Jurassic Park franchise which began with Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World three years ago has been hugely successful up to now. The 2015 offering and the more recent Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom have raked in a combined total of over $2.7 billion at the global box office. Part of this success has been thanks to the fact that the franchise has spread out across a number of different platforms in an effort to attract as many viewers as possible. Most recently, Jurassic World has taken inspiration from Pokémon Go and released its own augmented reality game. It would be wise to assume that other games will follow this trend in the years to come.
Jurassic World Alive
Source: Jurassic World Alive via Facebook
After the immense success of Pokémon Go in 2016, Jurassic World Alive is one of the first major games to offer something similar. Developers Niantic came up with the unique and exciting prospect of using augmented reality to make Pokémon appear in the player’s world as they walked around. It essentially turned the whole world into a game area, with rare Pokémon appearing in different locations on the map. The freemium mobile offering was downloaded over 800 million times, and was one of the major gaming sensations of the smartphone era.
Jurassic World Alive from Ludia seeks to give players a similar sort of experience to the Niantic offering in that through the use of AR, dinosaurs will appear in real-world surroundings. The game, which is available for iOS and Android, tasks players with saving dinosaurs from a second extinction. Players have the opportunity to track the animals with a drone and collect DNA samples. They can then create their own hybrid dinosaurs in the lab. This offering based on the fourth-highest grossing film of all time gives players a bit more to do than Pokémon Go, and could be seen by many as an upgrade on the collectible monsters title. In Jurassic World Alive, players are able to explore, collect, create, battle, and earn rewards. There are also sponsored events where extra bonuses and better rewards are up for grabs. The game has only been out for a few months, but if it enjoys similar success to Pokémon Go there will likely be many others that follow suit.
Companies of Various Types are Eager to Adopt AR
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Augmented and virtual reality are expected to be two major platforms in the future. In fact, the projected revenue of the two in 2022 is an astonishing $209.2 billion, up by more than $180 billion from 2018. For this reason, every business and industry that wants to have continued success moving forward should be looking at ways in which they can implement the technology.
There is no doubt that nearly all areas of the gaming industry will be undergoing AR makeovers in the near future. AR could be a great way to upgrade fantasy card games like Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and Gwent. The eSports scene is attracting more viewers each year, and could soon become as serious as some of the world’s major spectator sports. For this reason, developers will be looking at ways to enhance the viewing experience. If magical card games like these could be used on virtual game boards it could be a game changer. Players could place their virtual cards on the board, which would then come to life thanks to the AR technology. Not only would it be extremely exciting and interesting to watch, it could lead to a whole new way of playing traditional board games as well.
Even the online gaming sector aimed at adults and including (but not limited to) online casinos has always found ways to evolve as new technologies are launched. Software provider and game developer Eye Motion has already been looking into ways to incorporate augmented and virtual reality into its titles and has been doing this under the banner of Game Lab.
Aside from the gaming world, there are numerous other industries seeking methods to incorporate AR. World-renowned furniture provider Ikea, for instance, is already putting the technology to good use. Instead of looking at the examples in the Swedish outlet’s showrooms, customers are now able to use AR to place items in their own homes and see how they look. This idea will doubtlessly be used by interior designers and architects as well.
Things like Pokémon Go and Jurassic World Alive are just the start, and the gaming world looks set to have a total influx of AR offerings over the next few years. Gamers can afford to wait a while to buy the headsets, though, as the technology is not likely to be essential for at least three more years.