A right Smart Glass...

As an avid Xbox user, I have been playing about with Smart Glass for a few months. Smart Glass is an app that Microsoft released to allow your smartphone or tablet to act as a companion device to your gaming console. It can act as a remote control complete with swiping the screen control for moving around the Xbox interface, as an adjunct to your gaming experience, as another screen for playing back your Xbox media or a browser controller that is more familiar than using the gaming controller.

It is undoubtedly a very cool move by Microsoft, especially since they took the bold decision to create an app for a number of platforms. Old-thinking Microsoft would have only made it available on Windows Phone, giving it zero traction, but it can thankfully run on pretty much anything, ensuring a broad appeal amongst the Xbox user base.

The current usage options are a great start but I believe the system is only now scratching the surface. Only a few games have integrated in to it in any way but at simplistic levels (e.g. stats whilst playing Halo 4) and once the Smart Glass becomes more integral to the gaming experience it should be an even bigger boost to the platform. I could imagine a scenario where the gamer is fighting his/her way through a level in a first-person shooter and reaches a locked door that requires the lock to be picked. This might take the form of a puzzle that runs on the Smart Glass that needs to be completed before proceeding, bringing a focus to this narrow element of the gameplay that takes the gamer out of the big screen action and down to a macro level. Another example might be to have Halo’s Cortana (if she’s still alive of course!) solely depicted and talking from out of the Smart Glass device in the next game, mirroring many of the interactions Master Chief has with her throughout the various Halo games. It could also easily mimic many of the uses seen in the tablet controller that comes with the rival Wii U but without the heft.

The possibilities for Smart Glass are limitless really, especially as second screen devices such as tablets and phones get more powerful and it will be a platform that is worth watching closely, especially as we near the unveiling of the next Xbox. I also have little doubt that a similar approach will be used in the rumoured Android-based gaming platform Google are working on....

Trans-media Storytelling – An untapped opportunity…

The more I think about the trilogy of Matrix movies, the more I think how much of a missed opportunity they represented. The Wajchowski brothers took what I believe to be a unique approach to telling their story by expanding the tale of Neo and his fellow humans in their battle with the machines across various forms of media, in this case including a video game (Enter the Matrix by Atari/Activision) and anime-style cartoons (The Animatrix - only on DVD).
The concept was incredibly clever – the mainstream products (the movies) would stand alone as a story-telling medium but if the ardent fan wanted more depth to the storyline, he or she could dip in to the other outlets to get a bit more background. The pc game merged in nicely with the beginning of the ‘Revolutions’ movie for example. However, the execution was left lacking as the game featured brutal gameplay and graphics akin to an Eighties console game – not in keeping with the cutting-edge high-flying visuals of the movies. Also, anime cartoons are not necessarily to everyone’s liking.

The only other example I can think of such a cross-media approach prior to the Matrix movies was the prequel comic produced for the Independence Day movie but more recently a more measured and careful approach has been taken with the hugely popular ‘Halo’ video game franchise - an approach likely to be replicated in many other areas in future.

Halo was the original launch title for the first Xbox and has become a cultural phenomenon with the sequel ‘Halo 2’ setting awesome sales records. Low key expansion of the storyline has included a series of books (currently numbering four) and a graphic novel which again grew the storyline for the ardent fan but critically has always left them (us!) wanting more and the casual fan at no loss for having delved further afield. The hype surrounding the upcoming Halo 3 has left every gamer at a fever pitch and this despite a very cloak and dagger approach from the game’s developers (Bungie) who seem to actively restrain the promotion of the game rather than cynically milking it for all they can. The recent hold put on the planned Halo movie showed incredible restraint from Microsoft (Bungie’s owner), and clearly illustrates the high value they place on the franchise.

When the movie companies behind the film (20th Century Fox and Universal) tried to leverage their position to obtain a bigger slice of the revenues, Microsoft called their bluff and walked away from the deal, confident in the power of the intellectual property of their product. They should be applauded for this less is more approach, one that is bound to be followed in future as the power (and money-making success) of Halo grows. Halo 3 is set for release in 'Fall 2007' - likely to be October-ish.