Sony PulzAR Augmented Reality Game Goes Live On Vita

A lot of excitement swirled around Sony's new augmented reality demo at last week's E3 conference – the Wonderbook project on PS3 could take AR technology to a completely new level. But until that happens, Sony wants to ensure that augmented reality gets all the credit it deserves, and has just launched a new game for the PlayStation Vita that turns the player's surroundings into part of the experience.

"You see, in PulzAR, the Earth is in grave danger. Somewhere just beyond our planet's outer atmosphere, a series of colossal asteroids are spinning ever closer on a deadly collision course to wipe out humankind. So far, all attempts to divert their trajectory have failed. Now, in mankind's desperate last stand against certain catastrophe, it's up to you to command a network of explosive rockets and try to blast the asteroids into a harmless meteor shower before they reach Earth," described Sony in an earlier PlayStation Blog post.

Augmented reality has become one of those technologies that seems really captivating and fascinating on paper, but in practical execution it ends up seeming clunky. It is a part of both the 3DS and the PlayStation Vita as they try to differentiate themselves from smartphones and tablets, although there are AR applications from Android and the iPhone as well. It just isn't really taking off.

[via PlayStation Blog]