Microgaming explores Augmented Reality with Slots AR App

Microgaming has been “Pioneering the Future” of online gambling for more than two decades. It was first to market with online casino software, WMS mobile games, and smartphone/tablet casino apps. Last year, Microgaming’s innovative concepts continued with the first virtual reality casino game, VR Roulette, and exploration of future augmented reality.

VR casinos are already a reality, although the game variety is limited by the growth in relative technology. AR gambling has yet to be introduced, but when it is, there’s little doubt Microgaming will be behind it.

The Isle of Man-based software giant made tsunami-sized waves at last year’s ICE Totally Gaming expo. VR Roulette was the bell of the ball, having already been deemed the Digital Gaming Innovation Award winner at the September 2015 Global Gaming Awards. Microgaming also debuted its first augmented reality app, exhibiting the immersive possibilities for the future of AR gambling.

Microgaming Explores Augmented Reality

The Microgaming AR App, available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store, utilizes some of the company’s most beloved 3D slots characters. Each character is depicted on a playing card. Once the app is downloaded, users can simply open the app, point their smartphone camera at one of the playing cards, and watch the character come to magically animated life on their device.

The Black Knight

The 13 characters in the AR gambling experiment include:

• Jungle Jim (Jungle Jim El Dorado)
• Gobble (Dragonz)
• Flint (Dragonz)
• Frost (Dragonz)
• Switch (Dragonz)
• Captain Bronzebeard (Great Galaxy Grab)
• Scarlett (Great Galaxy Grab)
• The Black Knight (Avalon II)
• King Arthur (Avalon II)
• Cerberus (Hot As Hades)
• Hades (Hot As Hades)
• Medusa (Hot As Hades)
• Zeus (Hot As Hades)

Using the Slots AR App

Once the slots AR app is downloaded, user’s must download the characters and print them out onto paper. Each character can be downloaded individually on the Microgaming AR page.

Then, with the augmented reality app open, users are instructed to press ‘Play‘, then point their device camera at the playing card character.

The character will appear on the device screen, where users can “watch and interact with the 3D character” as it “comes to life in the real world using the latest augmented reality technology.”

Microgaming AR App Not For Everyone, Yet

Unfortunately, Microgaming’s slots AR app is not yet available in all countries. For the time being, user’s must have a UK Google account to download the app.

For those who can’t yet experience the early stages of what’s sure to become the AR gambling wave of the future, the following video shows what the app is capable of. Skip ahead to 0:41 into the video to watch the segment on Microgaming’s AR app.

“Our characters come to life in our own world. We’ve got fantastic responses from this,” said a VR Technician with Microgaming CRYO Labs. “It’s very, very new age technology. People absolutely love it!”

AR Gambling Around the Corner

Innovations such as these take time to come to fruition. Once the technology is fully developed, AR gambling apps must be created and new games added. Public interest is never immediate, but once it catches on, the growth rate can be astonishing – just as we’ve seen with mobile gambling in the last decade.