Ubisoft’s R.U.S.E. & the future of multi touch experiences

Even though the Microsoft Surface has been around from conference hall to conference hall showing up how cool their technology is for the last few years, I haven’t been able to see one single implementation in a large scale where this really interesting interaction medium is at the front of the experience.

Now, I know the piece only went live last October at PDC and that its near $12000 price tag ain’t a really accessible price, but… remembering the day I first lay hands on one in Schematic’s LA office back in 2007, there were a myriad of opportunities flashing thru me mind on stuff that would be possible once this toy hit mainstream; yet I’m still waiting.

What if there could be a way were we could take these experiences a little bit further? I know my friends at Identity Mine, VectorForm and my buddy of whacks Rick Barraza at Cynergy Systems, have been able to take it a little further, creating really cool demos of their own… but what if we could all make it into something engaging? Something that will make us remain interested after 10min of using it… something that transcend the feeling of “just a demo”.

We as experience designers are as responsible for engaging our audiences, as the medium we use to deliver them is. The Nintendo Wii showed us that you don’t need fancy graphics and 3D life-like experiences to entertain us for hours. The iPhone and iPod Touch brought gestures and natural  interaction to regular non-tech savvy people, lacking features even the cheapest phones had at the time.

Today I saw Ubisoft’s R.U.S.E. teaser, and that’s when I saw there is a compelling future for table top experiences out there.

It might not be available today… but it serves as inspiration for the stuff we might have to ship tomorrow.


Enjoy!
G.