We’re suitably impressed by the appearance of a Microsoft tablet with a full screen. (A split screen tablet may yet be on the way from Microsoft). We’re also far from surprised that the first full screen tablets will be expensive and lack certain features, (e.g. touch/ touch and pen is a key consideration to watch out for).
Pen input should allow a touch tablet to act as a graphics tablet
Display sizes and resolutions will take a couple of years to ‘pan out’ into new niches, including gaming. So it’s already pretty clear that 2011 is more likely to be ‘The Year of Touch’ rather than 2010.
Nevertheless, Microsoft’s thin, flat Windows 7 touch tablet, (in a range of sizes), makes a big difference to gaming. A vast back catalogue of PC games will be playable simply by plugging a mouse into a USB port. It also seems likely games developers will be interested in porting touch and pen features into existing games.
In addition, the same games developers may be more inclined to develop PC versions of their major console titles. Features that encourage shared and community gaming will probably follow, both to build brand loyalty and open up subscription options.
Console titles and PC games can be scaled to touch screens at zero or minimal cost. The first wave of tablets probably won’t have the CPUs and graphics processing to play the the best games at their best. However, AMD and nVidia have plans and products which should allow touch tablet graphics to start well and improve quite rapidly.
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty – one game we’d like to play on a tablet
The press reception for Microsoft’s tablet was less enthusiastic than ours. The Windows 7 software was not sporting a designer touch interface operated through intuitive gestures. Despite that, it seems we are within a couple of years of being able to afford slim, fast touch tablets, which should make games and gaming more social and shared.
Here’s a short selection of the latest touch tablet news and rumours:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8444672.stm
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/07/dell-slate-exclusive-hands-on
http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=526&doc_id=186417
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