In some ways Microsoft's E3 conference was the wrong place to announce Xbox SmartGlass, a revolutionary but very deliberately quiet contribution to Xbox 360's swelling assortment of cross-platform gadgetry. The presentation in question may have been a noisy affair, with the phrase "Wii U killer" definitely in the air, but the whole point of SmartGlass is that it's only as intrusive as you want it to be.
Rather than creating a new market with SmartGlass, Microsoft hopes to capitalise on the existing plethora of tablets, touchscreens and network services, "surfacing" data to users dynamically via a single lump of software, available for every mobile device. Activate the app on your phone or tablet and, like an iPad-era English butler, it'll discreetly monitor what you're doing with your Xbox and pull down complementary content from the web. You're not obliged to pay attention, but it's there if you want it.
Microsoft detailed a few early and prototype applications for SmartGlass at E3 this month. The focus is firmly on film and movies at present, with more sophisticated gaming functions to be unveiled closer to the app's autumn release, but what we've seen in motion tickles our fancies. You already know about pop-in Halo lore and draw-your-own Madden plays. Here are a few other possibilities to chew on.
Kinect crossover!
"There's another game we're shipping called Homerun Stars, it's an Arcade title, and it actually integrates Kinect, Microsoft's senior global marketing manager Peter Orullian told us at E3. "With SmartGlass you'll be able to pitch or bat, and it's not just tapping a button, you'll articulate how that pitch goes into the batter. Someone stands in front of Kinect and hits, you can reverse that, and the person on SmartGlass can bat. It takes two great Microsoft technologies and couples them."
Hassle-free karaoke!
Microsoft has a new, currently untitled karaoke game on the way this year, armed with an unprecedented 8000-9000 tracks. However will you get through rounds with friends without spending 10 minutes per song browsing the offerings? Answer: thanks to SmartGlass, players can skim, pick and queue songs using a tablet or phone while other people are performing. What's more, you can tamper with the songs themselves to minimise embarrassment, doctoring the vocal range to skim past those painful high notes.
8 comments so far...
voodoo1102 on 21 Jun '12 said:
I used to work for one of the major electrical retailers (think Indian cuisine) and at one of our supplier expos about 5 years ago, Sony had a demo booth running; promoting the PS3 and PSP. They showed us linked functionality between the PSP and PS3 very similar (pretty identical actually) to what Microsoft are doing with SmartGlass.
The Sony reps explained how you could remotely program your PS3 to download stuff using your PSP as a kind of remote...you could also remotely "recall" stuff like music files - so you could use your PSP by the pool and grab an album or movie off your PS3 at home. All you'd need is a regular wifi internet link.
They also showed gaming benefits - specifically using the PSP as a rear-view mirror for a racing game (no idea what the game was now unfortunately.) It was a neat gimmick, but just that. A gimmick. Would anyone really want to buy a £200 rearview mirror? Probably why the concept seems to have died a death.
Anyway - point is, this idea has been around for a while. Sony were toying with it 5 years ago. Obviously I have no idea how long Microsoft have been developing SmartGlass, and it does seem to be a little more advanced. But I fear it could struggle to find any real practical use beyond making it easier to share content stored on different devices. Like Kinect, the tech is only going to be worthwhile for gaming if developers use it. It's bound to have functionality outside of games - some fluff, some worthwhile. Having said that, I'm very curious about SmartGlass, and what potential it might have.
Bezza89 on 21 Jun '12 said:
The advantage, and difference over psp and maybe even vita is that the smart-glass isn't a peripheral - you don't need a certain bit of kit that you can't really use for anything else - you just need some form of tablet/touchscreen interface which is very much considered to be popular at the moment, what with iphones/pads/tablets/ipods that new surface thing too.
The chances are most consumers will have something like this already, whereas we all know psp and vita haven't done anywhere near as good as the tablets/phones stuff I mentioned before. Big market, big audience - big win? We'll see.
msbhvn on 21 Jun '12 said:
SmartGlass is aimed at people who already have a tablet or smartphone. They aren't expecting you to go out and buy something new for it. It's still a gimmick, of course, but the success of Kinect suggests people will fall for it anyway.
voodoo1102 on 21 Jun '12 said:
Absolutely. I should've said something similar in the previous post. I know one of the main ideas behind SmartGlass is it's linking devices that people are already likely to own - phone, TV, etc. No purchase necessary. That's where Sony went wrong I think. They were desperately trying to find reasons for people to buy a PSP and tried to think outside the box. A good concept, poorly realised.
There's loads more to do with an idea like SmartGlass now. Smartphones are more prevalent. Media centres have more internal storage. Gaming is constantly evolving. Kinect has joined the fray.
It's not so much that the basic idea is new, because it's been around for a while. It's that the technology around us has advanced that little bit further, and makes the potential so much greater than it was just a short time ago.
Bezza89 on 21 Jun '12 said:
Only problems I can see are;
My iPod is something like 3 years old, it doesn't run half the stuff new Touch's can, I'll probably be left out
Lag - unless it links directly via the xboxs bluetooth(for controllers right?)/wifi then you're going via you're internet hub then into live etc.
Decent Jams claim that we only have two hands (still not researched fully) - for something like CoD/BF generic FPS 'x' you look away from the screen to look at a map - you'll be dead. It might have limited functions for games (seems great as a remote, music thing, film/tv thing), especially for real time gameplay and online.
And lastly - the tv interaction, who is betting that is for american tv only?
CunningSmile on 21 Jun '12 said:
I'll just be happy if I can use my iPod as a pipboy in Fallout 4
voodoo1102 on 21 Jun '12 said:
Genius! Apple can make a supporting app that overcharges the battery to irradiate you, for that full Wasteland experience.
I also like Edwin's suggestion that SmartGlass will be like an English butler. If it acted like Stephen Fry as Jeeves, I'd be fine with it. I could finally realise my dream of pretending to be as cool as Hugh Laurie.
Thos. on 21 Jun '12 said:
This system would really work in a local multiplayer game where secrecy is needed:
A card game. A turn-based RTS, where you each program and submit your moves simultaneously. Even some sort of D&D game where the Dungeon Master uses his screen to drop monsters onto a map for the other players to fight in first person.
While I would go crazy for any of these, I'm guessing the actual market for these would be fairly small.