NFC stands for "near field communication".This technology has been used in mobile phones but never in the gaming world. Nintendo has however announced that the controller (also known as the wii u gamepad) of the brand new console called wii u will have this unique feature. Uses of NFC in mobile phones include:
- to make payments like you do with credit cards,
- for data transfer (transfer of photos,videos etc.),
- for multiplayer gaming in mobile phones,
- for buying items which are capable of NFC, by waving your phone over the items ( only if your phone supports NFC),
- for integrating with items that have NFC chips and
- for social media (e.g facebook,twitter)
By looking at the uses of NFC in mobile phones it is quite understandable that mobiles are integrated with this element but what importance does it give to the gaming industry, and how will it help to improve games and the overall experience of gaming?
This feature is as important to games as it is to mobiles, why?Take a look at this video and the answer will come to you automatically.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h0rbWJPs8s
In this video the wii u gamepad uses NFC to interact with the NFC chips inside the toys which are used in the video.When the toys are placed on the wii u gamepad the wii u gamepad interacts with them thanks to the small square at the bottom left of the controller,(http://www.qrcodepress.com/wp-co ntent/uploads/2012/06/Wii-U-GamePad.jpg).
Thesquare scans the NFC chips inside the toys and animates them so that they can be used in the games.
Please note that if you wish to use toys in games which support NFC (such as rayman legends for the wii u) the toys must contain NFC chips in them so that the wii u gamepad NFC scanner can scan the chips and animate the toys.
As NFC stands for "near field communication" the toys must be placed on the screen of the gamepad for the interactions to work, but generally NFC can work at 3-4 centimetres apart however I don't really know if that works with the gamepad too or if its necessary for the toys to touch the screen of the controller.
Luckily the toys don't have to be powered which means that the toys don't need to have batteries or any other source of energy for the interactions to work with the wii u gamepad as long as they have the NFC chips.
The only game that will be supporting NFC currently is rayman legends but more titles will be released after the console comes in the market.
From my point of view this new technology will work splendidly with games and developers developing for the wii u will be happy and excited about it.