Marvel joins Apple in a completely unexpected way

Apple’s VR/AR glasses, the Vision Pro, are about to receive a mixed reality video experience from Marvel Studios and ILM Immersive, which is something that the platform urgently needs.

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The two companies, Apple and Disney, have announced What If…? – An Immersive Story, the first original interactive content for Disney+ so far. It will exclusively arrive on Apple’s virtual reality glasses and will use a combination of augmented and virtual reality.

Marvel claims that the experience will allow users “to visit these strange worlds, not as observers, but as real participants” and that they will be able to interact “with the world around them using their eyes and hands”. Apparently, part of that interaction means that “they will learn the mystical arts and will be entrusted with the task of harnessing the power of the Infinity Stones”.

This is great because once you’ve mastered the trick of immersive video where you can look around during a video and see things happening around you, the Vision Pro library quickly becomes obsolete.

I’m worried that What If…? may not be really more convincing in the end. There is a curious lack of actor credits in today’s Marvel announcement, so I wonder how much “story” is really here.

And the description that the company offers reminds me a bit of the interactive “video games” from the 90s that companies tried to make a reality when the first CD-based consoles emerged, with videos of people talking to the camera and players choosing options on what to do next.

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There is a possibility that it will be an equally striking experience. But the What If…? series has been fun to watch, so let’s hope it has something more to offer than that or the vibes that all the other immersive content from Vision Pro offers. Marvel has not said when it will be released, only that it will be “soon”.