Now you play chess in AR just like R2-D2 and Chewie. On Wednesday, Star Wars Holochess was released as an additional game mode on the Star Wars Jedi Challenges iOS app. This version of Holochess uses ARKit and allows users to play the game right on their smartphone. Holochess, officially known as ‘dejarik’ in the Star Wars universe, is a chess-like augmented reality game where players compete against an opponent with holographic monsters on a game board. Holochess was one of the early mainstream examples of augmented reality in the media, first appearing in 1977 in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
Source: StarWars.com
Holochess was previously available with Star Wars: Jedi Challenges, but the hardware was required to play. It’s now available on the App Store, but it’s apparent that it was ported over from the headset version. The experience isn’t perfect, and the controls aren’t very intuitive, but for Star Wars fans, the novelty of playing Holochess on your table is enough to download the app.
The game’s visuals are crisp, the creature models look good, and each has their own animation (faithful to the films) for both doing damage to an enemy and eliminating one. However, the user can’t change the size of the board or choose its location once it’s been placed. In order to get a closer look or read descriptions and stats for creatures, the user must physically get closer to the board with their phone. The creature in the center of the picture below is an example. Its name, number of hit points, and damage dealt are all displayed but very difficult to read and there’s no way to make it more legible short of peering closely.
If anything, this edition of Holochess is an example of the high expectations we have for augmented reality being met with the harsh reality of what the technology is, or is not, capable of today. Yes, it’s true that you can now play Holochess in your living room and don’t need to travel to a galaxy far, far away, but it’s not something you will spend hours playing. This is not the Star Wars AR experience you’re looking for. For that, you’ll have to buy the headset and controller from Lenovo, which allows you to have full on lightsaber battles in your living room, among other things.
Disclaimer: We actively write about the themes in which we invest: virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and robotics. From time to time, we will write about companies that are in our portfolio. Content on this site including opinions on specific themes in technology, market estimates, and estimates and commentary regarding publicly traded or private companies is not intended for use in making investment decisions. We hold no obligation to update any of our projections. We express no warranties about any estimates or opinions we make.