Sony wants to add 'digital spice' to card games
Project Field brings card games to life using smart pads that pair with a phone or tablet.
Sony wants to change the way kids (and some adults) play card games.
Sony on Wednesday unveiled Project Field, a gaming platform that uses Bluetooth and NFC-like technology to connect card games and mobile games. Project Field consists of smart pads that connect to a phone or tablet. When a card is placed on the pad, it shows up in the game. Moving the card in the real world translates to in-game action.
"We believe this is a brand new platform that will allow for a playing style that has not existed up until now," said Sony's Kazuyuki Sakamoto a press conference in Tokyo, according to Bloomberg. "To sum up the concept in a few words, we want to add a digital spice to the experience of touching an analog thing."
Bringing together analog toys and digital games isn't exactly a new idea. Activision's Skylanders franchise kicked off the games-to-life genre in 2011, with figurines that transformed into digital characters when placed on a pad connected to a game console. Nintendo, Lego and Disney all now have their own versions of toys-to-life games.
For now, Project Field is only slated for release in Japan. The first Project Field game will be based on Yo-Kai Watch, a popular Level-5 RPG, though no release date was given.