Microsoft and Dreamworks Are Augmenting Your Reality WITH DRAGONS

Here’s a cool new app I’ll bet you didn’t see coming: Dreamworks and Microsoft have partnered up to released Dragons Adventure World Explorer for Windows Phone 8 smartphones and tablets. It’s an augmented reality app that turns anywhere you are into the fantasy land of Berk (aka, the village from How to Train Your Dragon).

The game uses real time data from HERE Maps, Foursquare and The Weather Channel to create an in-game experience that mirrors the real world you’re living in. HERE Maps determine location and direction, Foursquare determines how many vikings you’ll see, and The Weather Network figures out… well, I think you can guess that one.

Whether or not the game is actually fun is anybody’s guess at this point, but as a game that’s being marketed as the perfect time-passer for kids in the back seat on road trips, they really couldn’t have timed its release for a better season.

What’s really interesting, though, is that this is a Windows Phone exclusive. As the real underdog in the current smartphone wars, is this a sign that Microsoft is ready to spend some money to set themselves apart? If Dragons Adventure World Explorer is any indication, maybe we’ll see Microsoft open up to funding unique mobile titles that think outside the box. One can hope, anyway.

Windows Phone 8 owners/parents can grab this one for free from the Windows Phone Store right now.

Jim Squires

• 

Jim Squires is the Editor-in-Chief of Gamezebo. Everything you see passes his eyes first, so we like to think of him as "the gatekeeper of cool stuff." He likes good games, great writing, and just can't say no to a hamburger. Also, he is not a bear.