Monday, April 04, 2016

Sweden: Lovin' VR

Sweden may be a bit ahead of the US, as that is the country where McDonald’s is now testing VR headsets that can be constructed out of a Happy Meal box.  McDonald’s will feature the boxes in 14 northern Swede restaurants for a total of 3,500 headsets.  Mashable was able to secure a prototype and recently reviewed the ‘Happy Goggles’ initiative. 


Most similar to Google Cardboard, the headset can be assembled with simple folding and popping in the additionally provided plastic lenses.  By placing your smartphone inside the contraption, users can then attempt a ski game that translates to “Watch Out on the Slopes,” a play on a Swedish holiday tradition.  Mashable concedes that although the game and hardware isn’t high tech, this is a great alternative to Oculus Rift or PlayStation VR, which can cost hundreds of dollars. 


Currently, there are no plans for McDonald’s to distribute the Happy Meal VR boxes in other markets, but it opens the question on a company that has wide reach making VR more of a mainstream technology.  Wired acknowledges that this is certainly a marketing gimmick, but it could have legs.  And similarly, Coca-Cola has announced that it will offer a similar makeshift VR device from select 12-pack soda cartons, also leveraging an app.

No comments: