Magic Leap has laid out a new program called the Independent Creator Program that aims to promote independent developers. They plan to offer a grant that would range between $20,000 to $500,000, and in exchange, they would ask the independent developers to create interesting content for their AR headsets. It is an exciting program for all the emerging individuals in the field because they will get a chance to develop creative content while having full control over the Project IP Code and all the money, they will make from what they create.
The Chief Content Officer of Magic Leap, Rio Caraeff shared, “This is essentially the first wave of a multi-wave program. The program is designed to support the world’s best independent developers and creators with financial grants, hardware support, dedicated engineering support, and marketing support. We think it is a big deal for us in terms of embracing the independent development community.”
With these programs, Magic Leap aims to create a wave of grants for individual developers. Currently, less than 20 programs are running, but they plan to add at least 10 more this year. In fact, Caraeff said that he would love to end this year with 25 such grants. He went on to say, “It is about having a range of developers and use cases. We don’t want to have 30 applications in development that are in the same category. The goal is to get high yield and have as many applications come out as possible, as quickly as possible. There will be a limited foray into retail.”
Although the actual number of Magic Leap headsets that have been sold until now is not known, the company is pleased with its performance. Of course, entertainment and gaming are an essential part of Magic Leap software, but they plan to increase their focus to have a large number of use cases and enterprise applications. According to Caraeff, there has been tremendous interest in this program. Hence, they are expecting robust sales of the headsets in exchange for their generous grants.
