A handful of daringly creative teams have made it their mission to reinvent the way we'll view and play our games in the generations to come.
Nintendo took a big risk introducing the Wii's motion-based controls in 2006, but once word spread that Wii Sports was the best thing since sliced bread, sales of Nintendo's innovative hardware skyrocketed. The financial success of Nintendo's experiment inspired the likes of Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's PlayStation Move, although neither was able to match the Wii's acceptance rate within the gaming and mainstream community. Nintendo followed up the Wii Remote with the Wii U's GamePad, and though it's too early to judge its success, the latest sales figures aren't pretty. To Nintendo's credit, it struck gold with the Wii, setting the bar for lucrative innovation incredibly high as a result.
Everyone's seemingly squirming under the pressure to introduce the next great leap in interactivity, but a handful of engineers and developers have already made serious headway towards reinventing the way we'll play games in the years to come. Here are five of the most promising and revolutionary technologies that may one day find their way into our PCs, consoles, and mobile devices.
The Leap Motion Controller may share a few similarities with Microsoft's Kinect, but its form factor and approach to gesture controls are quite different. It's small, reasonably priced at $69.99 and designed to track minute finger or stylus movements at a threshold of .01 millimeters. Though the Kinect is capable of tracking your entire body, its strict lighting and relative-orientation requirements are a major turnoff for most customers, and in turn, developers. Leap Motion's tech eliminates these barriers, and while it may only capture hand/finger movements in its current form, that in itself is an invaluable capability rife with potential. Most Leap Motion demos take place at a desk in front of a PC monitor, but there's no reason the designers couldn't simply extend the cable or implement wireless functionality to adapt it to consoles and coffee tables.
Eye Tribe's goal is to integrate hands-free controls into devices such as cell phones, tablets, and feasibly, gaming devices like the 3DS or Vita. While tracking retina movements isn't groundbreaking in itself, it has generally been too expensive for consumers and too large for manufacturers to embed in their products. Eye Tribe was more than happy to upend these notions at CES 2013, demoing its external and embedded retina-tracking solutions running on Windows 8 tablets. In the video above, CNET's Bridget Carey takes on Fruit Ninja, deftly slicing citrus and berry alike. Retina tracking may not be suitable for every type of game, but once the tech establishes itself as a must-have bullet point for hardware manufacturers, it's only a matter of time before we start to see new game types and mechanics designed around its unusual functionality.
We may never gain telekinetic powers in real life, but if InteraXon manages to deliver on its promises, we may be able to interact with software using our thoughts in the near future. The Muse, InteraXon's brain-wave-sensing headband, is leading the way for consumer-grade thought-controlled interfaces, which may one day find their way into the realm of gaming peripherals. Nintendo dabbled in biosensors with the Japanese-only Tetris 64, a Nintendo 64 game, but its pulse-sensing accessory failed to leave a mark and was left to wallow in obscurity. InteraXon's focus on brain-wave sensors expands the possibilities beyond passive heart-rate monitoring, allowing you to directly control software by focusing your thoughts. Beyond the example shown in the Zenbound demo, thought control will let people, especially those with physical disabilities, interact with software in ways many of us have never imagined.
Head-mounted displays have come and gone over the years, promising a future where virtual reality will actually be relevant outside of events like CES and the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The latest, Palmer Lucky's Oculus Rift, stands a better chance than most thanks to his experience researching and developing HMDs for the US military. At 110 degrees, the Rift totes the widest diagonal field of view for an HMD to date. Its accelerometers, gyroscopes, and pair of low-latency, stereoscopic 3D displays convincingly re-create your movements almost as fast as you can make them. With developer kits potentially shipping in late spring, the Rift may finally bring VR to the masses as soon as 2014.
Microsoft quietly revealed a trailer for a new project during CES that maps the geography of your living room and projects games onto the surface of your walls and furniture surrounding your TV, mixing real and virtual environments in an entirely new way. Whether the IllumiRoom is simulating snow or extending your view of the battlefield, it will open new avenues of expression for developers and artists. The teaser video was created without the use of special effects, illustrating the already impressive capabilities of the WIP technology that may find itself bundled with your new Xbox in the near future.
Most of the above products are still a ways off from reaching the market, but if all goes to plan, the majority of them should be released during the next console generation. What's most interesting is that all but one are coming from private companies without ties to Microsoft, Nintendo, or Sony. Can innovations in the PC space lure console owners away from their allegiances? Only time will tell, but if the Wii was any indication, new technologies can be unexpectedly lucrative and motivating when paired with the right software. Anyone up for a game of Oculus Sports?
Peter Brown has been writing about video games and hardware since 1999. He grew up with the NES and has an unwavering love for retro and arcade games. Though he's a New England native, he's called the Bay Area home since 2004.
The Rift and Leap look the most promising in my opinion. Everything else looks good as well, but I feel like will be harder to execute. Like the Illumiroom seems like a neat and really innovative concept, but lets see how well its executed before we can complain.
I like the idea of all of them but rift probally stands out the most for me gaming wise. Its as close to VR as you can get with the tech we have today. Though i am hoping to see true VR within at last 20 to 25 years before i get too old, lol. And by True VR i mean the VR that taps into your brain and lets you use your senses as if your in a real world. Like your leaving your body and heading into a virtual world.
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That $*** from MS is going to be another fail. Leap Motion Controller looks to be promising unlike the crap Kinect which I never bought.
The Muse thing would be pretty bad for me to use, seeing as I have ADD. Only ten seconds in, I'll have thirty tabs open up, eight for TV Tropes, five for Cracked.
ij must waiting for VR i really want VR before i leave uni, but it better not have 3D vision i cant see in 3D (eyes are sh!% after car crash so cant watch 3D things)
I think we should focus on how bad it will impact our health in the short and long run. I personally liked most of the ideas especially the Occult Rift, but wait a moment, it involves 3D Vision? Most of us know the fact that 3D Vision is bad for health and children are not advised to use it.
I know some of you have a different opinion.
The illumiroom is the coolest thing ever. I love it, but I fear what it's connected to. A lot of talk about tighter security has me worried. RFID chips in game discs is bad enough, but MS has suggested using the Kinect or some kind of camera system to actually count the number of people watching your TV so as to turn off the content or charge more if the viewer limit is too high. That's just wrong. I don't care who you are, it's wrong. While companies may be creating some cool stuff, the coolness factor is only there to get you to buy it, far more nefarious purposes lie beneath the cool tech.
Most of ppl will not use any expennsive things and then coz of super small popularity no one will make games for these gadgets, if devs cant make something cheap, dont make it for gaming!
old gamers will stop gaming at some time. The current generation of games is fine as it is. Younger gamers will find it fascinating. Let it go.
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No matter what, nothing will ever be as reliable and accurate as a button and a thumb-stick.
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all of these things are just gimmicks. They are cool for about 5 minutes and thats it. Why cant we just get some cool games with great story, controls and graphics and just call it a day?
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*sigh* where are the times we could have sit and enjoy on couch instead of paying thousands of bucks for some gimmicks that are breaking after 4 months of usage.
Rift looks awsome, but i guess unless u have bottomless pockets only the wealthy will be able to spends loads on this sorta stuff.
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@alexini23 umm not sure if you've looked around at the world today. it's more like the lazy present. I think what you mean is the "lazier future"
The IllumiRoom looks like it could be cool, but I don't have space or money for such a thing. I bet in 10 years the new thing will be "Back To Basics" with just controllers.
woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow some of the Technologies is really coooooooooooool god i want most of them but the Eye Tribe not sure i hated it i mean that is wroung for the eye but the rest if i can buy the i will for sure
If I could pick one of these, it would be the OR. Playing a Bioshock game in VR would be... oh my...
The Oculus Rift seems amazing. They´ve got the support from the developers already, which is even better, I can see this coming to life and not getting stuck as just a "project" or someone´s ambition. I also like the Ilumiroom, only con there is that you would always have to play in a dark room, don´t know, just thought about it. Well, maybe this will encourage some gamers to go outside during day time and take some fresh air...or not.
all those seem really cool but I think what hit or misses will depend on the masses and what they like in gaming, that eye thing for example sounds like it will be a large strain your eyes, I get it bad enough for my late gaming I end up with red cracked sore eyes, probably from lack of blinking lol I can only imagine the strain this could give me but on a lighter note, the eye motion controls could hand the gaming over to handicapped players who normally cant move, bringing us a new family of gamers to the scene
The Leap Motion Controller and Eye Tribe completely blew my mind, did u see the lady playing fruit ninja with her eyes? wow!
Just when you think there is nothing new to think of, someone comes out with something crazy. Wonder why I couldn't have thought of that myself.
I WANT A HOLLODECK!
They forgot the cloud gaming system nvidia works on ? Its all verry impresive but not as impresive as cloud gaming
depends on the media being presented...if accuracy is necessary i doubt cumbersome controls will cut it....
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All of them are amazing but they won' t be out for some years and when they do I doubt I' ll be able to afford them.
I want most of these... yes!
I had already noticed the Occulus and I would love to try one, to see whether it puts strain on my eyes or not (and if not then be delighted, of course!)
The Illuroom is interesting. Of course I would not need it with an Occulus, but still, for multi-player games, it would be a nice touch.
The real thing I had not seen coming is the Leap Motion Controller. I am not sure I want it for games (I mean, I want everything I can get for games, but not sure I want to DJ with my fingers without a solid object), but I would love the experience of using my fingers instead of a mouse. Even litterally: not carrying a mouse around is a nice thought for a PC. (Yeah, I am not tablet user, sorry, not convinced yet about what I can do with a touch screen that could match what I do with a keyboard and mouse.)
I mean, I am curious about the eye tracking thing; I am not yet sure how it will really change my interactions, but surely a little help with scrolling pages would be welcome.
I thought we would see the ultimate FPS gaming rig listed too (or at least the part you put on the floor to walk in all directions).
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I don't want to game with my index finger, so tired of all this motion crap and tablets junk. Wireless controller is all I'll ever need, until we get to holodecks, everything else can **** off!
If selling 3 million consoles in 2 months isn't "pretty" then what do we make of the PS3 only selling 900,000 in its first 2 months back in 2006? or the 360's 425,000 sales in 2 months back 2005?
Seems like the media can't wait to ring the death door for Nintendo, they have been ringing it since the SNES.
HMDs need to get to the point that 1080p Stereoscopic 3D is capable with 7.1 surround sound headphones.
Once that happens, I will never need a tv ever again.
