Project Porg Makes Your Dream of Raising Baby Porgs a Virtual Reality

If there’s one character from Star Wars: The Last Jedi that deserved more screentime, it’s the adorable and highly meme-able porgs from Ahch-To. I mean come on, look at these little guys. If Episode 9 only features the porgs forming an army and taking down Kylo Ren and the First Order, I would be endlessly delighted. I mean, it worked for the Ewoks, right?

Now, a new virtual experience from ILMxLAB and Magic Leap promises to bring porgs off the big screen and into your living room. Project Porg, a new virtual mixed reality experience, allows you to raise a little porg family of your own. The game is played using the augmented reality headset Magic Leap One, which layers 3D CGI on top of real world environments (think Pokémon GO).

The game begins with Chewbacca leaving you a holographic device and a porg of your own. The holographic device shows C-3PO (voiced by Anthony Daniels), who gives you instructions on the raising and caring of porgs. Over time, you learn how to feed and play with your porg, which leads to hatching baby porgs and raising a little porg family.

The game creators wanted to mimic the experience of having a pet, which means you can give porgs little snacks, and play with toys such as a stuffed Chewie and stormtrooper doll, a ball, and a laser pointer (porgs! they’re just like cats!). The entire enterprise is pretty adorable, like a high tech version of a Tamagotchi. You can play with porgs in your own home, or take them out on the town (if you don’t mind being the weirdo in VR goggles talking to non-existent critters. You do you.)

Now, the bad news. The Magic Leap One headset costs a whopping $2,295.00. And that doesn’t include the control stick or the various accouterments, which will set you back another couple hundred bucks. At that price point, you’re better off adopting a dog or cat or other IRL animal to play fetch with. For that kind of money, I’m expecting a living breathing genetically engineered porg.

But if you’ve got the expendable income and hunger for porg raising, go nuts. People may criticize the porgs for being easily an easily marketable cash grab, but honestly, who cares. Give me all the porg merch and give it to me now. As long as it’s under $20 bucks.

(via CBR, image: Disney/Lucasfilm)

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Chelsea Steiner

Chelsea was born and raised in New Orleans, which explains her affinity for cheesy grits and Britney Spears. An pop culture journalist since 2012, her work has appeared on Autostraddle, AfterEllen, and more. Her beats include queer popular culture, film, television, republican clownery, and the unwavering belief that 'The Long Kiss Goodnight' is the greatest movie ever made. She currently resides in sunny Los Angeles, with her husband, 2 sons, and one poorly behaved rescue dog. She is a former roller derby girl and a black belt in Judo, so she is not to be trifled with. She loves the word “Jewess” and wishes more people used it to describe her.

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