Microsoft Surface Gaming Demo at CES 2010 [HD Video]

March 30, 2010 by EnzoTen

Microsoft Surface is a lot of things to the hotel, retail, financial, and health care industries- but that’s because they have the $10k a pop to drop on each Surface. However, I dont think we are too far off from seeing the price drop on this technology to the point where they will be in our living rooms. At this point we will see a new genre of gaming what I will call "Coffee Table Gaming". Sure you could put some serious graphics hardware in a Surface, but I think the real charm comes with the casual gaming of you and your friends and family sitting around the coffee table all interacting at the same time.

The first demo was a Tetris-ish game supporting many simultaneous players.

YouTube Video

Thought even more awesome game was the tower defense game called Galactic Alliance. What made this cool was the ability to play 4 players simultaneously. It takes a bit of collaboration with your teammates for properly strategizing your efforts to defeat the enemies. I got sucked into this game for hour or so with some total strangers at CES 2010- afterward becoming good friends and exchanging business cards. Talk about a team building! Perhaps you can leverage that to get your boss to buy one for your office.

In this video there are two guys playing two accounts at the same time.

YouTube Video

What I’m curious to know is at what price does the Surface need to hit before consumers would pull the trigger. After seeing these demos, what would you pay for one of these in your home? $3,000? $2,000? $1,000?

Read the original thread on Talk Video Games!

Comments

ravenpilot Administrator	I got to see this at the microsoft booth last Friday. It was very cool to play around with. I can't really say I would pay a lot for it though seeing as it probably wouldn't get a lot of use. It could be cool for when company is over, or if you have a younger child in the house. Did this have internet capability also? I cant remember since most people were just playing checkers on it.
01-13-2010, 04:35 PM	#2

Tobey

It is a lot of fun, but I can't see a demand for Surface in the consumer market. Why would I spend thousands on a table which is only really good for arcade-type games when I can get a full fledged console for a fraction of the price?

If it was in the 350-500 range I might consider it. However, I think the novelty would wear off quickly and it wouldn't be long before it was buried under stack of old newspapers...

Surface works well for helping people pass the time in busy public spaces, and I think that's where it will stay.

Last edited by Tobey : 01-14-2010 at 07:54 AM.

01-14-2010, 07:51 AM Tobey is offline

froggy12	maaan wish i bought a ticket!
01-14-2010, 04:27 PM	#4

ravenpilot

Administrator

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tobey

I agree, if the price point was lower. Also maybe if you could wifi it and surf the net it might go a little better in the home.

01-14-2010, 07:35 PM ravenpilot is offline

Enk1du

Super Moderator

I like it, but I really can't see it being a common thing, upscale clubs/hotels/restuarants/etc. will definitely use it. Not sure if you've seen this raven but there's a Dungeons and Dragons project that's using Microsoft Surface called Surfacescapes. It looks really cool, imagine Fantasy Grounds with a huge touch screen.

Walkthrough demo of Surfacescapes: