Three motivating factors for mixed reality enthusiasm.

While virtual reality aims to completely immerse you, mixed reality has the capacity to incorporate digital aspects into the actual world or to blend the two.

I identified and outlined two reasons why mixed reality will be a game-changer for the medium in parts one and two of my three-part series.

Second, it makes possible brand-new experiences that draw on the actual world and, in certain situations, may even be more immersive than virtual reality.

The third and final reason I’m enthusiastic about mixed reality is this, and perhaps you ought to be, too.

Local cooperative

At its own conference almost five years ago, Meta showed off an innovative new way to play VR games.

Participants in Oculus Connect 5 might team up with others in a 4,000-square-foot arena and engage in combat using Oculus Quests in a Western-themed setting. The technology demonstrated enabled headset co-location and the mapping of the virtual to the real world.

Meta Quest 2’s API for local multiplayer with numerous Quest devices didn’t debut until the beginning of 2023.

Meta waited for an unknown amount of time. The primary justification is safety. Because participants in multiplayer virtual reality games are oblivious to their surroundings and only perceive each other as avatars, accidents and injuries may occur more quickly.

This is different with mixed reality since you can always see the surroundings and the other person. Meta Quest 2’s gradual integration of mixed reality APIs made it logical to ultimately add local multiplayer.

But research on this genre of gaming is virtually lacking. Only a few demos have attempted to investigate these possibilities.

This will alter with the accessible mixed reality of Meta Quest 3, and headset technology may at last receive a rival to communal couch gaming. It will be simple to share and interact with spatial content in one location. Additionally, when the area for play grows, new game ideas might appear on playgrounds, sporting fields, and in arcades.

Since not every household has two or more Quest devices, this will take some time. Hololens and Magic Leap AR headsets are currently too pricey and technologically undeveloped to even approach the masses.