LAS VEGAS: Chinese company Snail Games is best known in North America as the publisher of MMO games Black Gold and Age of Wushu, but it’s demonstrating two new products at CES that aim much higher than massive multiplayer titles. The W 3D and the Obox are two unique devices that offer new features in Android gaming.
CES bug art (update)The W 3D is an Android smartphone with built-in physical game controls and a 5.5-inch glasses-free 3D screen. Instead of a simple filter to split two separate pictures across even spacing like the Nintendo 3DS, the W 3D takes a more active approach to 3D. It uses the front-facing camera to track your eye position and adjusts its picture accordingly.
I tried the W 3D here at CES. After a few seconds of getting used to my face, it began to follow my eye position and offer a fairly immersive 3D picture from the trailer for The Adventures of Peabody and Sherman. It wasn’t perfect, and I experienced some ghosting, but it seemed more comfortable to use than the Nintendo 3DS, which requires holding your head and the device at specific sweet spots to get the best results.
The physical game controls felt good, and don’t completely take over the W 3D’s body. The analog pads and face buttons are very flat, and while they extend past the top and bottom of the phone’s touch screen by a good inch, the W 3D remains a sleek-feeling device.
The Obox is an Android-based home game console similar to the Ouya and Mad Catz M.O.J.O. While the aforementioned devices focus on small form factors based around the term “microconsole,” the Obox is more PC-like in its size and design. Snail Games designed the Obox to be modular and customizable, with different components available for various budgets and performance levels. Specific technical details haven’t been revealed yet, but the Obox will be capable of outputting 3D graphics, and will feature a gamepad controller that doubles as an air mouse.
