iBeacon is an interesting piece of technology that so far has been used in retail settings. It was first rolled out to Apple’s own retail stores where the technology would help guide shoppers around, and it was also recently used by the origanizers of CES 2014 to create a scavenger hunt, and we are also seeing its implementation in some supermarkets in the US where it will alert customers to potential coupons or specials available that day. So how about gaming? Can iBeacon be used in the gaming context as well? As it turns out, it can. The folks at The Tap Lab have unveiled a demo for a game called Tiny Tycoons, and basically what it does is that it allows gamers to purchase properties and buy them as well, allowing them to transform themselves into virtual real estate moguls.
How iBeacon comes into play here is that instead of buying virtual properties, players will have to actually visit the properties themselves physically in order to make an offer on it. In the video above, they demonstrate how walking into a Starbucks will allow gamers to see who owns it, and how much they will have to pay in order to make an offer on it. It’s a very cool idea although we’re not sure how this will work out since the gamers probably have no claim on the actual properties, and we’re sure there are organizations out there who probably aren’t too thrilled about being used that way either.
Perhaps the developers and certain outlets can work together to offer promotions, such as the “owner” of the property getting discounts on drinks and whatnot, and at the same time allowing the actual venue to advertise through them. Either way there are some kinks to work out but what do you guys think? Pretty interesting idea, don’t you think?
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