Games blog
Matthew Ray | 15 February 2012
While all eyes are on the forthcoming launch of the PS Vita (Feb 22 – get your pre-orders in now), Nintendo has been quietly revealing some interesting new techy details about the forthcoming Wii U.
We already know that Wii U is no standard console. It will come with a giant tablet controller that has built-in motion sensor technology, a camera, microphone, speakers and a 6-inch touchscreen on its belly.
The tablet acts as a second screen for a different view of the action and a way to access additional menus and options. You can also use it as a separate screen so you can play games without using the TV. So think part-iDevice mixed with part-console and you’re pretty much there.
But what we didn’t know was that Wii U is the first home entertainment device to come with NFT – otherwise known as Near Field Technology. Not heard of it before? You may well have used it, or a technology very similar, without realising.
If you travel around London and have an Oyster card you will already be familiar with the contact free system where you simply swish your travel pass over a circular scanner. It’s also in most modern Android mobile handsets, and in the future, mobile users will be able to make small purchases by simply holding their mobile handset near a payment scanner – without the hassle of reaching for real money.
Nintendo’s decision to include this technology opens the door to lots of gaming possibilities with the Wii U. For a start, it will be possible to play augmented reality games with cards and figures that when placed near the tablet controller, will appear in game. If you played the excellent Skylanders game last year, you’ll have an idea about placing plastic toys on portals that are then visualised on screen. This built-in technology means it will be possible to do that with any game that comes with a card or figure.
There’s also the hassle free advantage of a micro-payments system, where a pre-purchased payment card can simply be swiped across the controller to allow downloadable content – very convenient for anyone not old enough to have a credit card.
Just think – a Pokémon title where you physically buy a collection of plastic characters that can then be used in-game. I can already hear the Nintendo cash tills ringing in anticipation.
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