Catan board game to get a holographic AR update

The Future. After striking a deal earlier this year with game publisher Asmodee, AR company Tilt Five is making a 3D holographic version of Catan. Selling over a million copies per year, Catan is one of the most popular board games on the market. That could be enough to convince people to give the relatively untested Tilt Five AR glasses a try when they become available to the public.

Beyond the tabletop
The Verge reports that the strategy board game Catan is getting way more immersive.

• Catan — Tilt Five AR will bring Catan to life with a holographic board (and game pieces) using augmented reality.
• The AR game will be exclusively available to play with Tilt Five’s AR glasses and a “wand” that allows players to interact with and manipulate digital objects.
• Players can play it around a table with friends, online against other players, or even against “AI opponents.”

The game is expected to roll out in spring 2023.

Inside gaming
The AR version of Catan is possible because of Tilt Five’s unique approach to AR. The Verge’s Sean Hollister notes that the headsets “project their light onto a retroreflective game board that bounces it back at you.” That makes the game pieces feel like they “live inside” the board or that the games can “leap up off” a player’s table. Additionally, the tech makes the view of the board seem different depending on where you’re standing.

Tilt Five has a long road to mass adoption. Developed by two former engineers from Valve, the headsets have been in development for ten years and have just started shipping to Kickstarter backers, with the general public still needing to pre-order them ($359 for one pair). And they’ll need a Windows PC to power the whole thing to start.

But it already has 21 games available, so when they do release to the public, at least people will have plenty to play.