Mobile developer thinks Google Glass is the future

Just as much as the iPhone helped bring the smartphone into the hearts, minds and ultimately hands of the masses, Glu Mobile CEO, Niccolo de Masi believes that the next revolutionary hardware in the mobile market, especially when it comes to gaming, is Google Glass.

“Every five or 10 years, something more revolutionary than evolutionary comes along,” de Masi said. “It's been six or seven years since the first iPhone. This could be one of those moments. The next seven years could well be a wearable wave. It could happen as fast or even faster than the smartphone, this PC in your pocket.”

To that end, his company has created its first game to take advantage of Google Glass, known as Spellista. A completely hands free game, it uses Glass' built in gyroscope, accelerometer, camera and voice recognition to control the action on screen, which boils down to a simple puzzling experience, but does allow for the simple creation and sending to other players, of custom levels you create.

De Masi goes on to discuss how the unique customisation of a game like Spellista, allows gamers to send content to one another, share levels with friends and family – which according to him, makes it all the more personal.

But that doesn't sound particularly unique to Glass. In-fact people have been making their own levels for games for a long time and the ease of distributing them can be very easy if the game in question is designed for it.

“Headshot! Now to teabag him while I dice these onions.”

Of course Glu Mobile has been a bit of a Google fanboy for a while now. It was one of the earlier game developers for Android, starting way back in 2008 and it has a common board member with Google, so perhaps there is some reason for the cross promotion. It could really be that de Masi thinks Glass is the future and having learnt more about it through the shared connections, is more convinced than ever. Or it could simply be to his company's benefit to talk up the benefits of Glass.

While the Google technology has certainly drawn a lot of attention from the technology world, it's hardly set it on fire, compared to say, the Oculus Rift. Gamers that have tried the Rift, have hailed it as the next big revolution in gameplay, a thought that's mirrored by Valve and several other big technology developers. Glass on the other hand, seems more like a curiosity.

However, phones as we know them now, are quite a disruptive technology. Using them often removes you from the situation you're in, which can be a good thing, but in social settings it's also a little jarring. Something more nuanced like Glass could be the answer to that.

Kitguru Says: Gaming though? I don't really see it. Why would I want to game on Glass when I could do it on a nicer screen in my hand or on a Rift? When I'm gaming I don't tend to do something else at the same time – unless it's sip a fine mug of tea – so why would I want to do it on a piece of tech that is designed to make it easier to do something else while I game?

Augmented reality, apps, calls, sure. But not gaming. 

That's just me though. Do you guys think Glass could be how we all play in the future? [Cheers Venturebeat]

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