Snap rolled out a slew of new features, including AR Landmarks, Snap Games, expanded Snap Lens (computer vision) feature and Snap Originals at its first partners conference yesterday. The company is bringing AR to its most popular social features. Our story just went live a few minutes ago.
Demonstrating the power of AR in mobile advertising, Balti Virtual unleashed its creative marker based AR games for Bud Light and the Washington Capitols.
Balti Virtual launches AR app for NHL’s Washington Capitals. The new augmented reality game Tilt The Ice is activated by special Bud Light coasters found at bars throughout the DC area April 1-7 and at the Capitals games. Players control a goalie by tilting their coaster to block as many shots as possible. Tilt The Ice can be experienced by downloading the AppAR8 app and scanning Tilt The Ice Bud Light coasters this week.
Psst. Balti? Free consulting: take a look at Snap Lenses. We saw money there.
Viveport Video launches on all PC VR and Vive Wave platforms. Viveport Video houses 2D, 180, and 360-degree content viewable in a native VR environment. The service is free to download on Viveport, Steam, and soon the Oculus store. The launch of Viveport Video coincides with today’s Vive Day celebrations celebrating the third anniversary of the original HTC Vive’s commercial launch.
Valve announces its VR headset, the Valve Index. After months of images and other leaks, Valve teased out a release date for their headset, now known as the Valve Index. On March 29th a webpage with the text “Upgrade your experience. May 2019” and an image of a VR headset popped up on Valve’s Steam website. Since then, Valve has confirmed a targeted May 1st official reveal and pre-order launch, with shipping beginning in June. Viveport notwithstanding, Valve is the premiere distribution platform for PC games and VR experiences. Because of this, it is likely everyone interacting with Valve's VR platform will be hearing a lot about this new VR headset.
Nintendo brings two of its biggest franchises to VR. Nintendo announced via a short video that Mario and Link will make their way to the new Labo VR kit on April 25th. Mario Odyssey will get a few bonus levels built just for VR, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be playable in its entirety from a third person VR view using the Nintendo Labo Toy-Con VR Goggles.
This week in XR is written and edited with Michael Eichenseer.
