Lenovo: next-generation video game console competitor?
The eighth generation of console video gaming is approaching. At the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) next month, Nintendo is expected to unveil the successor to the Wii, the company's now five-year old console that popularized motion-based controls.
In China, however, the generations of mainstream video game consoles have been disrupted by cultural regulations placed on the video game retailing in the late 90's. As a result, when Americans and Europeans were buying up consoles such as Xbox 360 and Wii in the tens of millions, they weren't even being sold in China.
Nintendo only vends its products in China under the name iQue, a joint venture with Wei Yen, founder of AiLive. Coincidentally, AiLive is the company responsible for the LiveMove motion-based context learning engine used in both the Wii and Sony's PlayStation Move.
Despite this fact, motion-based game systems like the Wii, PS3 Move, and Xbox 360 Kinect have not been introduced to the Chinese market, and motion-based gaming is still virgin territory.
But that could change this year.
China's largest PC maker Lenovo funds a venture called eedoo Technology Ltd., which last week officially unveiled a new video game system for the Chinese market called iSec that is expected to launch in the second half of this year.
Instead of using a traditional hand controller, iSec will be controlled by a 3D motion and depth-sensing camera for full-body controls similar to Microsoft's Kinect.
"iSec is China's first family sports and entertainment machine…through the use of 3D human identification technology, all of the constraints of the mouse, keyboard, joystick are eliminated and players control the game directly by waving their hands, lifting their legs, kicking, jumping, and other body movements," eedoo's website says.
iSec's camera is built using Softkinetic and Namuga's CMOS DepthSense 3D camera sensor technology to enable its gesture-based input.
A little more than a dozen games have been announced for the console so far, and on Monday eedoo announced iSec will be bundled with DanceWall, a game we had some first-hand experience with at CES 2011 when we met with the folks at SoftKinetic.
"It is a true honor for us to provide a game to be part of the launch of the iSec," said Mike Nichols, General Manager of SoftKinetic Studios. "We're looking forward to the release of the platform and to providing more high-quality gesture-recognition titles to one of the most important gaming audiences in the world."
China's audience is the key, and eedoo is shooting for placement in 120 million Chinese homes.