Sony’s grand conference was, for the most part, a wonderful spectacle delivering the sort of real games that real gamers want to play.
And then, in the most embarrassing moment of E3 so far, they showed Wonderbook.
In an unnecessarily lengthy stage demo, Sony – proving that they really have no idea what the heck to do with PlayStation Move – showed Wonderbook, a dedicated augmented reality plate that’s meant to add magic to the written word.
It’s aimed, it seems, mostly at children – so why they chose to first show it to a stadium full of gaming journalists and an entire internet’s worth of core gamers is beyond me. The premise is interesting; using augmented reality to bring story books to life; so interesting that it’s been endorsed by J.K Rowling and will form part of the “Pottermore” experience – but the execution falls very, very flat – with adults, sitting demoing software clearly aimed at kids.
Personally, I think reading books should require imagination – and this takes that magic away. don;t get me wrong; I think it could be a very cool product, especially for reference material like encyclopaedias – but E3’s probably the wrong the place to show it off.
Here’s the official trailer.
Here’s how it went down at E3.
Last Updated: June 5, 2012