Xplored On AR Board Game Platform Teburu, World Of Darkness, And The Rise Of 'Phygital' Gaming
It felt like the early-to-mid 2010s were the height of ‘phygital’ gaming. Skylanders and Disney Infinity led the way with the entire toys-to-life genre, but we also had the likes of Rock Band, the Wii U, and even less popular attempts like the Wonderbook. With the collapse of Disney Infinity in 2015, it felt like augmented reality was over for video games, but the spirit of the days had quietly continued in the board gaming space. Whether it's simple free services like Magic: The Gathering's Spelltable, or grander projects like the AR-glasses-powered Tilt Five, tabletop has been picking up where video games left off.
One particularly exciting project is Xplored's Teburu. Being marketed as something of a 'console for board games', it's been a popular fixture at gaming events ever since its reveal in 2019. Combining digital services with physical game pieces, Teburu got a big boost recently with a newly-announced partnership with Paradox Interactive to bring the classic tabletop franchise World of Darkness to the platform.
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It's easy to look at Teburu and not be entirely sure what you're looking at. Is it an AR thing? Is it toys to life? Is it one of those metaverse things the New York Times keeps banging on about? According to Garofalo, not precisely. At its core level, Davide Garofalo, Xplored's CEO, describes it as "a smart board, smart minis, wireless dice, LED ring, and an interconnected game app". The board has sensors to detect the RFID chips inside of each miniature, which can track their location and even the game piece's status – keeping a tally of their stats, equipment, and status, for example. The figures can also be upgraded with the LED ring to show, for
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