IKIN Is Betting “Yes” On Hologram Games

Holograms are emerging as a viable new tech, ready to boost the capabilities of established industries, none more ready–perhaps–than hologram games. IKIN, the business solutions and technology company, has been developing innovative advances in holography since 2017. Their current holographic tech generates full-color volumetric holograms that are visible in ambient light and does not require any cumbersome headgear to view, making it a prime candidate for application in the video game industry.

The Current Size And Growth Of The Gaming Industry

The video game industry is currently valued at $175.8 billion for 2021, according to the video game industry analytics company Newzoo, which projects that the industry will top $200 billion by 2023. To put this into context, MarketWatch notes that the mammoth gaming industry is bigger than the movies and North American sports industries combined! It is well-established, and financial tracking shows a steadily-increasing industry worth across all matrices with few exceptions.

Gaming: An Industry Driven By Technological Prowess

There is a technological draw at the heart of video games’ evolution marked by consistent increases in graphics and processing power. Technological specs are some of the first and most consistent talking points when new consoles are announced and they are the barometer for potential when comparing consoles and when building gaming computers. Each new generation console boasts bigger harddrives, more powerful processors, and increasingly realistic worlds in which to play. This technological craze in gaming was evident in the run on Nvidia’s RTX 3000 series graphics cards over the last year that turned their 3060 Ti into one of the most coveted computer upgrades of 2021, driven heavily by computer gamers.

Holograms Are Ready To Enter The Game

As gaming companies continue to face off in the endless battle to outperform each other on technological fronts, holograms promise a whole new frontier for video game potential. Holographic games inherently boost the graphic capabilities of gaming, introducing a native dimensionality not available on most current games–be them console or computer–and a technology that is wholly original. The native 3D nature of hologram games provide an alternative approach to traditional screen-based gaming that is still being solidified.

Modern Gaming: A Place For All

Competing formats, like VR and AR, continue to find their footing in this ever-growing industry, while they build similarly conceived reputations based on realistic gaming experiences and dimensional worlds. Unlike the early days of console gaming, which saw a select few companies competing for center stage, the modern video game environment is a much more diverse tapestry of options. Player interests vary drastically across a broad age range and the industry’s immense size suggests it is capable of sustaining all aforementioned gaming options and more at the same time, especially when one factors in the consistent growth rate of the industry and strong projections of its future. Just look at the upward trajectory of “alternative” gaming options currently available.

VR Gaming

Social media giant Facebook entered the gaming world through its purchase of the VR gaming device company Oculus in 2014 for an astounding $2 billion. And, while it looked like the gambit of VR gaming was not going to pay off initially, the tides appear to be turning in a positive direction for Facebook as of late. The sales numbers for virtual reality gaming saw an uptick during the COVID pandemic quarantine as homebound gamers sought out VR escapism. According to The Washington Post, Facebook saw 60 of its VR game titles top the $1 million sales mark in 2020 with six games grossing more than $10 million, marking a high point for VR gaming.

AR Gaming

AR and VR video games have proven that the gaming industry is big enough to encapsulate multiple formats at once. They have not been without their struggles over the years, of course, but each has steadily carved out its own space in the greater video game landscape. In the summer of 2016 AR mobile game Pokémon GO entranced the world, sending droves of players stumbling about the real world to capture rare Pokémon for their collections. Word of the game’s popularity dominated news headlines throughout the summer and the addictive nature of the game even spurred its own health fad. To date, Pokémon GO has earned a whopping $5 billion in sales, a number that is sure to hold the attention of mobile and AR gaming developers who hope to recapture some of that Pokémon GO magic.

Mobile Gaming

Mobile gaming is one of those corners of the industry that has drawn a lot of attention over recent years. Portable devices, like smartphones and tablets, are ubiquitous and, through them, mobile gaming is available to essentially the entirety of the world’s population in a way that computer and console gaming simply aren’t. The popularity of Pokémon GO addressed above was one particularly bright spotlight on this subset of the industry, but mobile gaming is much more than a single success story. In fact, it is heavily credited with the current boom of the greater gaming industry. In 2020, smartphone mobile games accounted for nearly 50 percent of worldwide gaming revenue, according to Statista, and it is on route to surpass the $100 billion mark by 2023.

Hologram Gaming

These examples of alternative gaming options depict an industry open to new experiences and large enough for multiple platforms to prosper simultaneously. As holographic technology continues to develop, we will soon see holograms start to test video game waters. Presently, it is unclear how exactly hologram games will look and function, but we have some inklings based on past experiments, more modern tinkering, and plans mapped out by those leading technology companies who are working to bring holograms to the fore of video games.

Time Traveler: The Past Experiment That Was Sega’s Hologram Arcade Game

One of the first entrées into holographic games came way back in 1991 when legendary video game company Sega tried its hand at a hologram arcade game titled Time Traveler. “The World’s First Holographic Video Game,” as it was promoted, was an oddball experiment, to say the least. The system ran on LaserDisk and used live-action footage of actors to play out recorded videos to tell the story of a time-traveling cowboy. Though technically not a true hologram, instead the system used a curved mirror to create crisp 3D footage. Still, the effect was impressive and similar in result to the dimensionality of modern holograms.

Holographic Doom

In a more modern example of holographic tinkering, Twitter user Jan Kaiser ran the 1995 first-person shooter game Doom through a modern holographic screen. This holographic rendition of Doom comes as the latest effort in an ongoing viral trend to play the classic game on increasingly outrageous devices, with past platforms including an Apple Watch, a graphics calculator, an ATM, even on a digital pregnancy test and a plate edge bevelling machine. The holographic approach, however, introduced a new level to the gameplay not present in the original: the ability to look around corners. Because of the inherent 3D nature of holograms, running Doom through a holographic screen instantly added more realistic dimensionality to the world and the gaming experience, something hologram companies hope to capitalize on as they pioneer modern hologram games.

IKIN: Making Moves Toward Hologram Games

IKIN is one of the leaders in modern holography. The company sees their holograms influencing several industries and they identified hologram games early on as a top prospect for their cutting-edge tech. IKIN’s hologram systems operate without headgear, making their approach to 3D gaming drastically different from traditional VR and AR. Their RYZ hologram system works in tandem with existing mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, to convert 2D content into volumetric 3D holograms, expediting the prospect of accessible holographic games. Like VR and AR, IKIN sees their holograms pushing the limits of realism in games as well as heightening user engagement. A 2021 white paper, written by analyst E. Brent Kelly, Ph.D., argues that “holographic technology can radically amplify the emotional engagement people feel.” The emotional impact of holograms is a regular consideration at IKIN, whose co-founder and CTO Taylor Scott regularly discusses the company’s matrix for evaluating hologram’s emotional impact on users, which he terms Emotional Engagement Per Frame (EEPF).

Hologram Games Are On The Horizon

As holograms continue to find their place in this world, it is becoming increasingly clear that hologram games will soon be on the agenda. IKIN is making headways into holographic technology that will make 3D holograms accessible and intuitive to use. Convincingly realized dimensional worlds combined with the interactive process of modern gameplay and the captivating storytelling promise increased engagement for players of holographic games. The question is not “Will hologram games be the future of video games?” but rather “Are you ready for their arrival?”