Pokémon Go gets flak from AR purists for not being "true AR." And they're technically right. But in a broader sense, it doesn't matter: It's done AR a favor by validating its mass appeal and serving as its gateway drug. And broadly defined, it still augments reality, says Niantic's Ross Finman.
Niantic and its Google Maps roots are also early proponents of a 3D mesh of the world, a.k.a. AR cloud, to underlie spatially-relevant experiences. But sticking with Finman's theme of broader value propositions rather than technical definitions, the real goal should be user experience.
As for design principles, Finman is big on the idea of native AR. It's all about finding use cases that build on AR's unique form factor, rather than porting existing experiences. For example, those that play on AR's positional tracking in creative ways (think: ping pong) will be well positioned.
Another design principle is to enlist the physical world as the content, rather than a supporting role In other words, utilize AR's fusion of digital and physical to treat the latter as game elements. He cites an experimental game he developed that rewards players for "mining" color from the world.
Other frameworks for AR experiences that Finman is excited about include arena-scale AR. Like we discussed with Ubiquity6, the value of shared AR experiences can grow exponentially with each player added — a classic network effect. This will materialize in lots of ways.
Speaking of large-scale AR, all of these product philosophies go beyond Pokemon Go. As we've examined, a key trend that Niantic is jumpstarting is "AR as a Service." Using the well-refined Pokémon Go architecture, it will spin off the Real World Platform to empower developers.
And it's the right company to do this — a smart business decision based on the value it's built around Pokémon Go's usage scale. In fact, Finman asserts that the geospatial data and game architecture it now has under its belt can't be replicated, even by a Google or Apple.
Next Next post: Data Point of the Week: Will Harry Potter AR Make $100M in 30 Days?