was Pokémon GO the end of AR games?

Since Pokémon GO, the biggest maker of AR games hasn’t had a hit. What does Niantic’s failure say about the future of the AR game?

AR games after Pokémon GO: hopeless?

In the summer of 2016, everyone believed in the future of AR games. We walked around in droves, while we looked at the screen of our smartphone how the real world was being brightened up. Pokémon GO added digital monsters to our garden, street and park. In the Netherlands, two million people played the game at its peak.

Pokémon GO broke all kinds of records. In the first month, the game was downloaded 130 million times and after a few months even 500 million times. Within sixty days, $500 million had already been made. Maker Niantic was suddenly known as one of the most successful game makers ever.

That quickly settled down. The company’s subsequent games were unsuccessful, and last week it was announced that Niantic has laid off about 90 people and canceled several projects. The Catan game (which was never released in the Netherlands) and the Harry Potter game, among others, were already discontinued, but now the Transformers game and two more unknown projects have also been cancelled.

Isn’t augmented reality the future?

How is that possible? Augmented reality is the future, right? Not yet anyway. Even Microsoft’s Minecraft AR game didn’t make it. The company cited the corona crisis as the reason for the failure, but there were actually many more problems with the game. Users complained about the lack of features and the amount of bugs. Minecraft Earth just wasn’t a great game.

Pokémon GO continues to be popular, even six years later. Not like it was in 2016, but the game is still played by about 80 million people every month.

The problems of augmented reality now

Pokémon GO seems mainly a fluke at a time when we are actually not ready for augmented reality. The technology is still too limited for AR games. Augmented reality is still clearly superimposed on the real world, instead of interacting with the world. Digital creatures don’t really disappear behind a physical wall yet.

In addition, it is a problem that everyone sees their own version of the augmented world. There is no real multiplayer. Although you play together in Pokémon GO and similar games, you can’t watch the same digital creature together.

In addition, the screen of your iPhone is simply not ideal for playing a game when you are walking around outside. It’s like a too small window into an interesting world that you constantly have to keep in front of your head.

Solutions are in the works

Solutions are in the works for all these problems. Work is being done on technology to ‘map’ the world: this makes a digital copy of the real world, so that digital elements can actually disappear behind walls. Multiplayer is also being worked on, so that you can share this world as well.

But above all, work is being done on new ways to experience augmented reality: through glasses. Apple itself has been working on AR glasses for a while. In fact, according to rumors, the parts of these glasses would already work and the company is now working on the design. Production could then take place at the end of 2024.

With the technology still in its infancy, we absolutely cannot say that the augmented reality game has failed. Especially with the AR glasses on the horizon, the possibilities are endless.

Read more about augmented reality

In addition to games, you can also get started with augmented reality on your iPhone in other ways and we take a look at AR in 2030. And if you don’t fully understand the difference between augmented reality and virtual reality, we’ll help you there too. along.