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Defend the Earth in a new immersive SPACE INVADERS game

Jul 18, 2023

min read

The video game “Space Invaders” is turning 45, and to celebrate, Taito and Google are teaming up to create a new immersive AR game, where you can defend the Earth from your neighborhood.

AuthorImage_StevanSilva
Stevan Silva
Senior Product Manager
Female player defending London from 3D Space Invaders in augmented reality.
10:25

In honor of the 45th anniversary of the iconic game “SPACE INVADERS,” we partnered with TAITO, the game’s developer, and Unit9 to transform the world into a playground — thanks to augmented reality (AR).

“SPACE INVADERS: World Defense,” a mobile game on Android and iOS, invites players from around the world to get outside and defend the Earth. Space Invaders spawn from buildings and rooftops, hide behind structures and hover in the sky. Through global immersive gameplay, players from all over the world have to work together to save the planet.

Players explore their neighborhoods to discover new Space Invaders and score points by taking them down. They can unlock special power-ups, compete with friends for the top score near their location and share their achievements on social media with an AR selfie.

  • Space Invaders: World Defense augmented reality gameplay showing 3D Invaders popping up around buildings in a city.
  • 3D gameplay on the phone screen showing the ship aiming at a special Space Invader that carries a power up.
  • Japanese man taking an augmented reality selfie showing him as a pilot of the World Defense team and his rank and score he achieved in the game.

The game is powered by our ARCore and Geospatial API, using the player’s immediate surroundings as well as nearby buildings, landscapes and other architectural elements to design engaging levels in the real world with AR and on the screen only with 3D. The immersive gameplay adapts to the player's real world, including location, time and local weather.

  • 3D Space Invaders shown in AR the real world and a player is finding them with their camera and taking them down.
  • Black portal appearing in a city skyline, taking over neighboring skyscrapers as the game transitions from the real world AR environment to the 3D gameplay inspired by the architecture of the nearby buildings.
  • A moving image showing the spaceship navigate through 3D gameplay during a thunder, showing how the gameplay environment adapts to the current weather and location conditions of the player.

Augmented reality (AR) is blending the physical and digital worlds, transforming the way people shop, learn, play and interact with content. Brands and creators can use AR to bring their content closer to people and help them experience the world in a whole new dimension. We recently announced Geospatial Creator which lets developers, creators and animators create and publish immersive location-based AR experiences easily, without the need to code, and in the tools they already know and love: Unity and Adobe Aero.

Want to save the planet? Download the game on Android or iOS today1 and join the ranks of an elite Earth defender force to compete in your neighborhood for the highest score. Plus, you can learn more about SPACE INVADERS and the 45-year evolution of the game.

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More Information

1

The SPACE INVADERS: World Defense game is available on ARCore supported devices with operating system versions of Android 11.0+ and iOS 16.0+.

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