Mobile games are played by more than a billion people worldwide, but esports on smartphones have not yet experienced anything near the growth that the traditional—PC, PS4, and Xbox One—esports industry has seen over the past couple of years. Now, Guns of Boom, a first-person shooter game, is trying to buck that trend, with help from an industry-first augmented reality viewing component.
Guns of Boom’s first esports season will close this weekend when eight teams compete for a $120,000 prize pool at ESL’s Intel Esports Arena in Los Angeles.
Game Insight, the developers of the Guns of Boom mobile game, debuted an AR spectator mode back in 2017. This allows users to view the action through their phones as if it were taking place directly in front of them. (The mode is available within the free Guns of Boom app, downloadable via the App Store and Google Play.)
“When our players use the AR spectator mode, they can watch other matches take place on any flat surface in front of them, and have full three-dimensional control of the camera simply by moving around the table and looking through their device,” said Nikita Sherman, Head of Strategy at Game Insight. “It’s something that nobody else is doing yet. While other games in the space seem to be treating augmented reality as a novelty, Guns of Boom leverages the power of AR to give players a better way to experience game spectating.”
Game Insight, a Lithuania-based company that was founded in 2009, has partnered with global esports organization ESL to expand upon the game’s augmented reality integration for this weekend’s finals. The two-day event will be livestreamed on the official Guns of Boom YouTube channel in both English and Russian.
Commentators at ESL’s broadcasting studio in Los Angeles will also be able to watch the live action unfold in augmented reality. And fans watching the livestream will then be able to see the commentators’ reactions to the AR action inside the studio. ESL and Game Insight believe this will be the first esports broadcast to utilize augmented reality.
“By repurposing Guns of Boom’s AR spectator mode into a tool for use in an esports broadcast, we’re able to give viewers a chance to see all the play unfold from a unique viewpoint that’s shown alongside the commentators on screen as they discuss the action,” Sherman said. “The AR presentation is being used to augment the live broadcast component, much in the same way you may have see AR technology used to bring virtual objects into a studio during a news broadcast.”
Plans for Guns of Boom’s second esports season will also be revealed this weekend. Through innovate usage of technology, Game Insight hopes that the AR integration can help attract fans and professional gamers, and reach the point where mobile esports enjoy the same level of success as the industry as a whole.
“Mobile games are played by more than a billion players—that’s more than all other platforms combined—and yet there’s a stigma around mobile games among those who traditionally identify as gamers. Given that this demographic is the primary audience for esports, shattering this stigma is essential if mobile is to achieve the same levels of esports success,” Sherman said.