These black and white barcode squares will be used for the mobile game instead of NFC technology.
In a growing trend throughout the mobile games marketplace, as was seen in the case of Skylanders among others, Angry Birds Star Wars 2 will be linking the real world with the digital world, only in this instance, it will be using QR codes to do so.
Many had expected that NFC technology would be chosen for this game, but this was not the case.
The QR codes will be used for the Angry Birds Star Wars 2 figures, so that the toys will have a digital element that can be experienced by smartphone and tablet users. To benefit from the feature, the toys must be placed onto a physical “Telepod”. This will allow the characters from the toys to immediately be transferred into the very latest slingshot game from Rovio, the creator of Angry Birds.
One of the reasons that QR codes were selected is because they can be used by a larger number of people.
As fascinating and easy to use as NFC technology may be, it is not yet supported by the majority of smartphones and other mobile devices. Near field communication was used by Skylanders in order to achieve the instant data transfer to connect real world and digital game experiences. However Rovio opted not to use that technology quite yet so that it would appeal to a broader range of consumers.
In order to support this instant digital import of characters from the real world, Angry Birds will be using a magnifying glass, it seems. The game was launched at Comic-Con in San Diego and was met with fascination and heavy interest. The “Telepod” turns out to be a form of unique magnifying glass that allows QR codes to be enlarged from being hidden on the underside of the game figure.
When the Telepod device is placed over the smartphone or tablet’s camera, its QR codes can be scanned in order to unlock those characters within the game that has been loaded on the mobile device.
Upon further analysis, some believe that players will soon be able to generate and print their own versions of the QR codes found on the toys so that they won’t be required to purchase all 32 of the various Angry Birds Star Wars 2 figures in order to unlock all of the characters.
