With 8 hours left to go, Jeri Ellsworth's Tilt 5 Kickstarter for a new augmented reality system is already a runaway success, raising at least $1,660,865 -- nearly 4X its original $450,000 goal target goal. Even more impressive, she just announced the Kickstarter has sold over 6,000 HMD units.
To put that 6,000+ in perspective, that's nearly as many units sold in Oculus Rift's original Kickstarter (about 6,900), which launched this new generation of VR. And by some industry insider estimates, the extremely well-funded Magic Leap has only sold about 6000-7000 of its own first edition HMD. To be sure, Magic Leap's "Creator Edition" sells for $2,295 and up, as opposed to Tilt 5's $299 entry level price. However, if that estimate is fairly accurate, that still means Tilt 5's install base is competitive with Magic Leap's.
For Jeri, in any case, it's a validation of Tilt 5's vision for augmented reality.
"We're thrilled that the market is hungry for a social AR experiences," as she puts it to me.
To judge the Kickstarter, the social aspect seems important to Tilt 5's success:
"We have a $299 entry-level kit and a slightly nicer $359 kit with a few perks," she explains. "The majority of people are opting for the more premium kit. We intentionally didn't have a 2 player pack for logistic reasons and we're seeing many people first pledging to a single player kit and then returning some time later to increase their bid to have more glasses. Right now we're averaging around 2 pairs of glasses per backer. We're very happy we have so many people buying 3 at a time."
This should help maintain and grow consumer interest in Tilt 5, since every owner of an HMD has an incentive to use it with fellow owners -- especially because Tilt 5 is consciously designed as a social board gaming device:
“Our focus to take what you love about video games and board games and marry them together,” as she put it to me in September. So Tilt Five’s AR experience is tightly integrated with its game board, and integrates well with many existing tabletop gaming systems -- including Fantasy Grounds, which holds the license to miniatures for Dungeons & Dragons and other major franchises.
Read my profile of Tilt 5 here. While many challenges lay ahead, it's fair to say Tilt 5 is already a major player in the AR market.
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