Watchers on the Wall attends ‘The Dead Must Die’ augmented reality experience!

The Dead Must Die augmented reality experience

Yesterday, I had the honor of attending the augmented reality experience The Dead Must Die, at HBO and Magic Leap’s invitation. My verdict?

It. Was. Amazing.

At the AT&T Flagship store in Boston, I was fitted with a Magic Leap One headset:

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I walked around a physical space outfitted like a wight-ridden King’s Landing while carrying a a control that, through the headset goggles, resembled a torch. I surveyed the space covered in digital frost and lit a wight automaton and later a CGI wight on fire.

Ice coalesced over the far wall of the room and my torch transformed into a dragonglass dagger, at which point the ice splintered into a portal to the Land of Always Winter. A White Walker charged at me through the portal and I had the pleasure of stabbing him in the shoulder and watching him dissolve.

The experience lasted for only two minutes but it was well worth the wait.

The AT&T store also featured costumes worn by Isaac Hempstead Wright as Bran…

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…Sean Bean as Ned Stark…

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…and Kristian Nairn as Hodor (who, as we just reported, was at the store earlier that day and whom I was unable to meet, unfortunately).

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There was also a clock counting down to the season 8 premiere.

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And, of course, there was an Iron Throne!

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The Dead Must Die experience is available through June 10 at AT&T Flagship stores in Boston, Chicago and San Francisco. If you are within travelling distance of any of these cities, I can not recommend The Dead Must Die experience enough.

15 Comments

  1. Stannis Baratheon would not appreciate verdict being spelled incorrectly, but then again, he’s dead, so who cares? 🙂

    I’ll be in Chicago in a month, so I might have to seek out this experience for the wife and myself. Looks like a lot of fun!

  2. No way I was right by this yesterday and was going to stop in but got a call and head to head somewhere. Sad I missed it I didn’t know anyone on here was close to this lol

  3. (Whinging voice) Why can’t there be one in the AT&T store in NYC?????

    Petra, that is a totally hot pic of you on the Iron Throne. And good for you for killing wights!

  4. This looks awesome!!!

    I should drag Saner Half to it before our flight to Nashville for Con (we live in the boonies and must fly out from SFO)!

  5. “Coalesced” (to take form)

    To say the ice convalesced makes it sound like the ice was recovering from an injury! 🙂

    Sounds like a cool experience, though. Glad you had a good time!

  6. I also got a chance to go beyond the VR wall. Highly recommended if you get the chance!

    I started off in the tunnel under Castle Black with a ranger giving me a sword, then the portcullis went up and I was hit with a blast of artic air. I followed the ranger through blinding fog and snow, when suddenly I felt the hot breath of a wight polar bear as he lunged at me. The ranger tossed me a flaming sword and I was lost in a battle for my life with the bear, then wights rushing me from every direction. Finally I crashed through the ice down into the lake and my experience was over. I am not a gamer, but it was fantastic and truly immersive!

    Props in Chicago included a Sansa dress and the Tears of Lys necklace, Jon and Arya’s S7 northern leather armor, armor and helmets from Brienne and the Hound, Karsi”s outfit, one of Cersei’s crowns, the catspaw dagger, Robb’s sword, Oathbreaker, Longclaw and Ice. I’m sure I forgot others.

    Definitely glad I stopped by!

  7. LadyGoodnan,

    I was at the Chicago experience as well and saw: Needle, Hound & Brienne’s Costumes. The Throne of course:) As an FYI – The experience will be around for a couple weeks – they didn’t have an end date to tell me and they will be hosting a special event and may get one of the actors for it, they wouldn’t tell me who or when. Maybe someone else can get it out of them. Special Note: It’s really difficult to take pictures of the item/costumes in the glass cases they have them in – tons of glare – if you go when it’s dark out it may make picture taking better

  8. Looks great Petra, hoping you can share a similar experience for the premiere last night!

  9. Buffy:
    LadyGoodnan,
    Special Note:It’s really difficult to take pictures of the item/costumes in the glass cases they have them in – tons of glare – if you go when it’s dark out it may make picture taking better

    I completely concur. All of my photos were glare-ified. I even waited around to see if the worst glare, on the Jon Snow costume naturally, would get better but by the time I left at 7p it was still terrible.

  10. LadyGoodman,

    I had asked them why the glare and they responded that people will touch the costumes if not glass encased. I understand completely, but if they closed the drapes on the big windows it would be better but I know they will not do it. All in all, its best to go to see these costumes in person so you can get the full experience. They are wonderfully made and I was really pleased with being able to see them in person, a rare opportunity.

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