Pokémon Go- Augmented Reality versus Virtual Reality
In the recent years, technological innovations have greatly altered the way consumers use their mobile phone and the applications on them. The most recent trend in applications has been that of Pokémon Go- a mobile game which has attracted millions of people in the world. The game is based on the concept of finding virtual creatures which are located at areas called PokeStops (Gerber, 2016). The PokeStops are present on real-life maps, and it is a real-time experience of going to various locations and finding these creatures. The Pokedex is the index on Pokémon Go which has a list of all the creatures which have to be discovered by the user (Gerber, 2016).
Pokémon Go is a game which takes the concept of gaming and takes it to the level of augmented reality. As far as differentiating and labeling how far Pokémon Go is a game of virtual reality or augmented reality, the difference is quite obvious. The game itself is composed of virtual reality where the creatures are invisible, intangible and unreal, yet they are very much existent at the same time. The game is basically augmented reality because the virtual world meets the real world in Pokémon Go. Providing location-based clues to where the creatures are found and then making people actually travel to these locations to find these creatures is a major part of the game that is augmented reality (Gerber, 2016). Pokémon Go players also enjoy the feature of catching Poke eggs and keeping them in incubators to hatch them. Then they have to physically move from place to place and allow the egg to hatch. While this part of the game might be virtual, the movement required to accomplish a task makes it an augmented reality (Gerber, 2016).
As far as the business generated from the popularity of such applications is concerned, it is believed that virtual reality and augmented reality is the future of mobile games and applications, and they will generate billions of dollars within the coming decade. Very soon, Pokémon Go will have further enhanced features with the aid of augmented reality.
References
Gerber, R. (2016, July 28). Pokemon go just the tip of the spear as augmented reality Rips into the world of mobile gaming. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/07/28/pokemon-go-just-the-tip-of-the-spear-as-augmented-reality-rips-into-world-of-mobile-gaming/#1999c3cd552e
