R.U.S.E tabletop interface pricing
The first time I saw the trailer for Ubisoft’s real-time strategy game, R.U.S.E., I was pretty impressed. I watched as two armchair generals directed their armies from a tabletop interface that displayed the game and allowed them to manipulate their land, sea and air forces. Pretty impressive stuff, right? But here’s a little surprise for anyone that wants to enjoy that game with that fancy interface: you’d better be independently wealthy.
The device being used in the video is called the Intuiface and it is developed by a company called IntuiLab. Intuiface is a surface computing platform that is mostly used for commercial endeavors like touch screen photo printing centers, banking, traffic surveillance programs, and more. In other words it is very, very expensive.
A little leg work at Ubisoft’s booth revealed just how much this wonderful technology would cost - $20,000. Yes you’ve read that number correctly. So while R.U.S.E. might look fantastic in the video, the interface that made a serious impression on readers is out of the average consumer’s reach.
The company that makes it says that it may someday have a consumer friendly version of the technology that will be compatible with the next iteration of Windows and will offer a smaller price tag, but that doesn’t really soften the blow for players who instantly fell in love with the launch trailer’s magnificent tabletop battle scene.
If you saw Ubisoft press conference this week then you probably noticed an odd video for Eugen System’s strategy game, R.U.S.E. In the video two armchair generals go at it using a touch-enabled tabletop battlefield. What you were probably thinking is “this is bullshit.” Well, that battle was actaully played out on a real device called Intuiface.