In January 2010, adidas Originals will introduce their new Augmented Reality Game Pack, which expands on the Neighborhood backdrop of their Celebrate Originality advertising campaign. Five new shoe designs will be embedded with codes in the tongue, which, when aimed at the wearer’s webcam, will activate the Augmented Reality Game within the Neighborhood. Once inside, players are invited to explore the Neighborhood and play games that will be offered beginning in February 2010. Three games are scheduled for release. The first game to be released will be a tie-in to Star Wars, allowing players to shoot at stormtroopers using their shoes as their game controller. Adidas hopes to challenge Nintendo’s Wii game console for augmented reality game play.
As shoes, these hold little promise. Athletic shoes are supposed to make the wearer run faster, jump higher, kick harder, or even get more dates. These have not been designed for any of the above. The focus is very much on the novelty of the game play, making functionality and fashion both low priorities, and it shows.
They also hold minimal appeal as game consoles. Game consoles should entertain, and with only three games on the horizon that haven’t generated much advance interest, there is little incentive for consumers to invest in them when they may have another game console with a proven entertainment track record. The games also appear to be shorter games than a player might find on another console, thereby minimizing the number of hours of game play.
The games themselves do not sound particularly interesting, despite celebrity involvement and cross-promotions like Star Wars. Each of their games is to be tied into advertising campaigns that will be launched in tandem. Although there is a long history of athletic apparel consumers turning themselves into ad space for athletic apparel manufacturers, there is only minimal appeal in buying and playing a game that is less about entertainment value than it is about being an AR advertisement for other Adidas products.
Also, comes the matter of whether players can realistically play their games in the AR of the Neighborhood from within the confines of their living rooms or bedrooms. By making the players shoes their controller, much more footwork is required, especially if game play is to be at all realistic. Running and jumping, key elements of footwear, are problematic in front of players’ home computer screens.
The least expensive of these game packs is $64.99. The most expensive is $94.99. As a shoe, they fail to be worth the cost, and as a game console, they fail to be worth the cost. Adidas’s marketing team seems to think that as a combination of a mediocre shoe and mediocre game console, the price tag is justified. In today’s age, gadgets all serve multiple purposes, and it is only the ones that do most of them well that succeed. The adidas Original AR Experience has only two purposes, and neither is done well. I expect that these game packs will be enjoyed only as a novelty gimmick until they languish in clearance bins.
