AR vs VR: How Two Games Show Us the Future of Immersive Worlds

The gaming industry has always been about innovation. From 8-bit pixelated classics to hyperrealistic open worlds, every step forward has been about creating a more immersive experience. 

Today, two technologies are at the forefront of this immersive experience: augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

But they are not the same. AR uses the user’s existing environment and augments it with digital components, while VR replaces the user’s existing environment with a virtual one. 

Together, they are expanding a market expected to be $297 billion by 2024, almost a tenfold increase from $30.7 billion in 2021 (Statista).

To understand the distinction further, let’s examine two games that utilize AR and VR, respectively, in compelling ways—Pokémon Go (AR) and Beat Saber (VR).

The AR Game: Pokémon Go and the Magic of Layering

Pokémon Go was launched in 2016, marking a cultural tectonic shift. Suddenly, people were running around downtowns, sidewalks, parks, and malls looking for Pikachu and the gang. What made all this possible was augmented reality.

The Mechanics of AR in Pokémon Go

• Use your smartphone’s camera, GPS, accelerometer, and gyroscope to identify your location and direction of movement.
• It overlays a digital Pokémon onto your physical environment, such as your living room, your neighborhood park, and the hallway of your office.
• The beauty of AR in this way is that the physical and digital worlds become fused. You are still in your world, but it is augmented with interactive elements disguised as games.

What it Means

Pokémon Go wasn’t just a game, but it also proved that AR is a viable platform that can scale rapidly. At its peak, it garnered over 250 million monthly users, helping to normalize AR in our everyday lives. But that’s just the beginning of where AR will take us:

• Retail: IKEA uses AR to provide customers with quotes for how their selected furniture will look in their home.
• Healthcare: Neurosurgeons use AR brain maps as a surgical guide.
• Sports: Broadcasters overlay AR graphics on live football games during analysis.

In 2020, approximately 14.94 million AR/VR devices were shipped, representing a 54.9% increase from 2019 (IDC). We are now at the foothills of a steep adoption curve. For AR, the key strength is simple: it builds on the world you already live in and interact with.

The Virtual Reality Game: Beat Saber and the Virtue of Immersion

If AR adds digital signage to your surroundings, then VR places you elsewhere. Beat Saber (2018) is a prime example of what VR can achieve.

What Makes Beat Saber Work in VR

• Players are given two luminescent sabers to slice through blocks, shooting at them in rhythm with electronic beats.
• But unlike a traditional rhythm game, VR makes you move your whole body — ducking, swinging, dodging, and sweating.
• The headset disconnects you from your physical surroundings and takes you to a neon-clad rhythm arena.

When you’re in Beat Saber, you aren’t watching the game—you are the game. This is the magic of VR: presence.

Why It Matters

VR is growing, and use cases are starting to go well beyond entertainment:

• Retail: Virtual try on for clothing and accessories.
• Automotive: Mercedes-Benz and Tesla are building virtual showrooms.
• Training: Observation in flight simulators with pilots or VR shore onboarding for factory workers.

The automotive VR market alone is projected to exceed $54 billion by 2026. In retail, the adoption of VR is projected to generate an additional $18 billion by 2028. 

Based on the recent release of Meta Quest 3 by Zuckerberg and Apple’s announcement about its entry into VR, it’s clear that momentum is building.

AR vs VR: The Key Differences

Both Pokémon Go and Beat Saber give us the perfect lens to compare AR and VR:

Types of AR and VR (A Quick Overview for Aspirants!)

If you want to become fluent in these areas, it helps to be even more specific.

Types of AR

• Marker-based AR: Spurred by pictures/ logos in your physical world (i.e., scanning a QR code)
• Marker-less AR: Using GPS plus phrase recognition (i.e., Pokémon Go)

Types of VR

• Non-immersive VR: Traditional games played on consoles/PCs, interacting in limited ways
• Semi-immersive VR: Such as virtual tours, flight simulators, etc., with some sensory realism
• Fully immersive VR: Such as VR arcades or Beat Saber, where you feel fully present

Where AR and VR Come Together

The best part? AR and VR are not telling you to choose sides – they unite to become Mixed Reality (MR).

Examples of this artfully celebrate the wearables and digital experiences that synergistically exist within augmented realities and immersive realities:

1. AR glasses wear VR-like immersion
2. Training simulations that use AR overlays of information, while VR recreates hazardous conditions
3. Future metaverse spaces where AR and VR flow seamlessly within streams of immersive interaction

Many industries (oil, gas, and manufacturing) – as predicted to lead most of VR’s recently predicted annual growth rate of 28% through to 2028 (by Grand View Research – details below) – are already testing these “mixed” opportunities.

Why This Matters for Gamers and Aspirants

In AR vs VR, for students and young developers, this is not a discussion about which side of the AR vs VR argument you belong to. It is a conversation about skillsets.

For AR, a narrative designer will be a storyteller who uses their art to create experiences with a blend of digital creativity, physical location, and gameplay experience, which could be thought of as location-based gaming, AR shopping products, interactive media filters with gamified brands (like TikTok’s AR “Shrek in the Sky”?!)

For VR, a designer will become a worldbuilder – this means a credible understanding of how to build using engines such as Unity / Unreal, spatial audio, and even haptics.

Conclusion: AR vs VR and Beyond

Pokémon Go has proven that AR can transform our own backyard into a digital playground filled with animated characters and games.

Beat Saber has proved that VR allows us to be fully immersed in alternate realities. Essentially, they both proved that entire doors were lost upon the initial launch of AR and VR.

For the futurists, it isn’t simply Junepolis and VR that will shape their world; they will also add emerging art forms and a digitally progressive society.

The future will be a combination of AR and VR, transforming entertainment, training, retail, medicine, and education.

And for students and creators at MAGES Institute, that is both the issue and the opportunity: do not merely consume these worlds. Learn to create them.