Post updated to add the following video of the actual demo at E3:
Late tonight at E3, Sony announced a new Harry Potter interactive video game for the Playstation 3 along with yet another piece of hardware peripheral for the PS3 system: Wonderbook.
Wonderbook is a tablet that communicates with the PS3 and allows the user to flip through pages of a digital book with in the game. It is intended to be used as a type of controller alongside with the move controller for an interactive reading experience. (Sound familiar?) Here is the official Sony promo for it:
A couple things that stick out to me in this promo. First, is the prime placement of Pottermore at the beginning. The logo appears prominently as if the two products are directly correlating. Second, and the most distressing for me, is it advertises “new writing from J. K. Rowling”. Something that up until now we thought was an exclusive idea associated with Pottermore itself.
Don’t get me wrong, Book of Shadows looks quite spiffy in its demo at the E3 convention. It’s augmented reality, so the player is shown on screen holding a wand and a mystical looking spellbook. These appear in place of what the player is really holding: a Sony Move controller in one hand, and the new Sony Wonderbook in the other. The wonderbook is a grey and white folding tablet and I’m not clear on the electronics involved inside the book itself, as the unit costs only $40. What I can tell you is that it works in conjunction with the Playstation Eye camera. (That’s right folks, to play this you need three pieces of peripheral hardware in addition to the Playstation 3 itself.)
For more information on the Wonderbook, and an adorable non HP related promo for it, CLICK HERE to visit Sony’s official anouncement.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any confirmation in either direction as to whether or not the “new writing” featured in Book of Spells will also appear on Pottermore. According to J.K. Rowling’s official site, she had decided to publish all her additional Harry Potter writings for free on Pottermore instead of immediately publishing a Potter encyclopedia. Up until now I was operating under the belief that the remainder of Rowling’s Potter scribblings would be housed fully on Pottermore.
I’m sure I wouldn’t be the only Potter fan that would feel downright frustrated to find out that a certain portion of Rowling extra writings were going to require four pieces of Sony manufactured hardware to read the information.
According to DigitalTrends.com:
“Book of Spells lets players literally practice like a Hogwarts student. With the book laid out in front of them, the pages are animated on your television and the Move controller appears like a wand in your hand. This being Harry Potter, the book is animated on the screen; a note written by an ex-student can be touched with your wand to reveal a paper dragon. Once the spells have been mastered, the game reveals mini-games inside Hogwarts for you to try them out and earn points for your house, whether it’s Gryffindor or Slytherin.
All the passages of text are written by Rowling herself and once a certain number of spells are mastered, narrative poems about old Hogwarts students are your reward.”
I expect we will hear from Pottermore on these developments tomorrow, as Pottermore is Sony as well. I shall keep you all updated here on the blog and on twitter.
Have any thoughts on Wonderbook: Book of spells? How do you feel about how Sony is fully taking advantage of it’s partnership with J. K. Rowling?
I don’t have a PlayStation 3, let alone the other hardware needed, so I probably won’t get this. However, I also thought that all information would be on Pottermore. Maybe it is just being released earlier and it will appear on Pottermore later. On a side note, is it only allowing you to be a Gryffindor or Slytherin? Why not a Ravenclaw? Ravenclaws(like me. Ha!) are awesome! Oh well. If I’m only missing out on pretending to draw spells, then that’s probably all the info. will be about. Do you think there will be information on Harry’s adventures, like on Pottermore?
I’m going to have to disagree on this one… Every new Harry Potter product is passed through J.K. Rowling before it even gets near the factories. She would have to know about the new product – especially if she had been supplying new content for it. And we all know that the information isn’t going to stay hidden for long… people are going to upload it online. I also think that the new spells aren’t a big deal. I mean, if it’s content like for Professor McGonagall, then yes, that’s a big deal. If only spells, then no.
I’m sorry, what exactly are you disagreeing with? It being a big deal?
And also, where did you et the idea that anyone believed J’K Rowling was unaware of the product? Obviously in writing the content she has been perfectly aware of this and I never said differently.
Well I mean how you said Sony is taking advantage of their partnership with J.K. Rowling. It wouldn’t really be taking advantage if she knows about it.
Taking advantage is not always a bad thing. Like fully taking advantage of an opportunity at work or in your personal life. They are taking every opportunity they can to develop new products from their relationship with JK Rowling. That is all I meant.
Oh okay! Sorry for my misunderstanding…
While I do thoroughly enjoy my PS3, I have not purchased any of the peripherals for it, and unless they come out with a few more major titles that all need these peripherals, i think i’ll just occasionally log in to Pottermore instead. I have a Kinect, don’t need a Move.
Sabrina, there is a fun looking Kinect Harry Potter game coming out, where the camera on the Kinect scans your face and puts it on your video game characters. You need to get it so I can play it on your Kinect.
Disappointed.
Ditto.
Well, I dont have a PS3. So, this is something that I will never have. As for “new from J.K.Rouling” I think it will be just moe info on the magic spells
I want to believe this too. Then I read about the poems in the game. She wrote poems?!? I’ve seen no such poems on Pottermore yet.