Sony gaming concentrates mostly on teens and adults. Correction: the whole gaming industry is geared toward teens and adults. However there is a new title coming out that offers an innovative spin in the kid’s gaming genre. It’s called Wonderbook.
Wonderbook is an augmented reality book that kids (and adults) can interact with on the TV screen in interesting ways. Kids can turn the page of the real book and see it animated on the screen. Animations of characters from the book’s pages bring the story to life. New content is currently being created for the Wonderbook that will include educational and gaming applications.
The Wonderbook will launch this Fall with the title Book of Spells. Book of Spells is a J.K. Rowlings title that brings the world of Harry Potter into the living room via a “real” spell book from the wizarding world. Players interact with the book, creating spells with the Playstation Move controller (on screen it appears like a wand in the players hand.) These spells are straight from the Harry Potter series – Incendio, Wingardium Leviosa, Expelliarmus and others that Potter fans know and love.
Book of Spells is presented as being written by Miranda Goshawk over two hundred years ago, and can be found in the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts library. It is an advanced textbook for students, which will assist them on their journey to becoming an accomplished witch or wizard.
The book combines a real reading experience, featuring new stories along with the playing experience. So there is some (not much) educational value. Other books are being introduce, however, that do include more educational material. Sony is currently working on unique science and history stories, but have not disclosed the titles yet.
