Space Invaders’ return to New York is heralded in an AR out-of-home campaign

For the past 4 days, New Yorkers have been able to defend their neighborhoods against intraterrestrials in a new augmented reality game marking the 45th anniversary of the iconic Space Invaders game.

Google partnered with Taito, the game’s developer, and Unit9 to transform the world into an augmented reality playground—where players find and eliminate invaders floating in the sky, sprouting from buildings and hiding behind structures. The new mobile game is called Space Invaders: World Defense.

“The original Space Invaders first broke barriers in gaming, teaching us to dream in pixels. We hope that with Space Invaders: World Defense it will once again redefine the rules, expanding the playground from our screens to our streets with augmented reality,” said Matthieu Lorrain, global head of creative innovation, Google.

A campaign promoting the game—as well as an AR tournament in Times Square on Saturday afternoon—was led by out-of-home media network Outfront and its Xlabs innovation shop in partnership with Google’s AR team.

“The 45th anniversary of Space Invaders was approaching,” said Chad Shackelford, VP, head of creative of Outfront Media. “That's something that was on Google's radar. They already had a relationship with Taito, and when we were looking for what's the next opportunity to demonstrate geospatial, that's when Google brought to us the partnership with Taito.”

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Outfront/Xlabs and Google used augmented reality—the blending of the digital and physical worlds—to enhance the way people interact with the content. The game is powered by Google’s ARCore and Geospatial API, which uses surroundings and architectural elements to adapt a specific game's experience to the user's location, time and local weather.

“Each time you play this game, depending on where you're out in the world, that game is going to show up differently because your surroundings are different,” said Shackelford.

Outfront leveraged its MTA advertising network to install system-wide digital countdowns promoting the game launch with QR codes to register. It also deployed dynamic digital leaderboards that display the highest-ranking scores for each neighborhood in real-time across all New York transit systems, allowing players to compete and share victories on social media with an AR selfie. Outfront also deployed in-car digital full-motion screens and panels along street-level subway entrances for game download and dynamic wayfinding.

Contestants in Saturday’s Times Square tournament can see their names on the world’s largest leaderboard during the one-hour event. Space Invaders: World Defense is available in Google and iOS app stores.