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SITEX 2015 lives up to the name as a digital playground

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SITEX 2015

Not sure what to do this weekend? Head down to SITEX 2015 at Singapore Expo and try out some of the cool gadgets on showcase. From Samsung Gear VR contest to rock climbing competition, even if you have nothing to buy, you can get to experience some of these latest gadgets first hand.

For the adventurers

Who says geeks are not sporty? Right at the Adventure IT Arena, you will be greeted by an eight meter tall rock wall. Climb your way to the top and win gadgets like Go Pro and drones. Just make sure you come in with the proper attire. Harness and helmets are provided courtesy of Safra Adventure Club. For me, I managed to win a drone with camera by clocking the best time amongst the other competitors! You can be a winner too!

Conquering the 8m high rock wall

There is also a dive pool to showcase the latest waterproof camera casing. Talk about product showmanship! The organiser brought in this pool with fully gear-ed scuba diver just to demonstrate the ability of these casings.

I thought this was a dunking pool!

For the gamers

This year the Gaming Ground is more exciting than last year. Besides ogling at the latest gaming laptop and accessories, you can have a go at a UFO catcher or take the driver seat in a game that feels almost too real to be a game.

Kingston UFO catcher

Driving experience right in your living room!

If you are into e-sports, there will also be competitions held at the corner itself. For the League of Legends SITEX 2015 Open, there are already 80 teams which have signed up for this tournament all within the first day of registration! The semi finals and grand finals will be held on the 26 and 28 Nov respectively. For more details you can check out their website.

E-sports at SITEX

Those who wish to try out the Samsung Gear VR can head down to their booth and take part in the Anshar Wars 2 game competition. Winner will walk away with a Galaxy Note 5 and a Samsung Gear VR! However, you have to be the top scorer of this entire show to win this competition. After 3 minutes in the virtual reality world full of twirling and swirling, I do feel a bit giddy and almost lost my footing. But hey, if I can win the phone and the VR set, everything is worth the while! Queue may be long so be sure to be there early for registration.

Can you beat the high score and win home a Galaxy S5 with Gear VR?

Welcome to Samsung Gear VR

 

For the shoppers

There are tons of gadgets for you to buy at SITEX. Other than your usual laptops and phones, this year VR-Zone brought in some interesting gadgets that will tempt you to spend your money on.

First of the list that caught our eyes is PowerCube which is a multi-face power extension point. At around $30 plus (depending on the models you take), it is rather affordable compared to those old bulky power bar which could cost around the same price. We really like the design and portability of the PowerCube. Some models even come with USB points that you can use for charging your devices straight off the plug.

PowerCube

The other gadget is a 360 degree speaker that is from a local company call Archt. They are a kickstarter backed company which is now producing these patented speaker which, unlike traditional speakers, provides a full 360 degree audio. You can buy their speaker from SITEX as they will be retailing it there.

ARCHT One – 360 degree speaker

 

Ah finally the luck draw! One of the top prize for this year lucky draw is a Can-Am Spyder! It is on display at the show, so even if you cannot win it, feel free to take a photo with it.

Win a Can-Am Spyder!

With so much to do, see and buy at SITEX 2015, it will be a pity if you miss the show. So do head down to Singapore Expo starting from today till Sunday.

GameTrader.SG and GadgetTrader.SG is proud to be the official media partner for SITEX 2015.

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Welcome to the Matrix. VR gaming is real.

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VR is coming to PS

More than 10 years ago, there was a game called Kid Chamelon on Sega Gensis. The game is set in the future where people no longer play game using controller and screen but they would enter a machine to play game in virtual reality. Fast forward to today, VR gaming may indeed become the mainstream way of playing games in a year or two.

So is VR gaming the future of gaming or a hype? I’ve got a chance to try out the latest Sony PlayStation VR at the GameStart Asia game convention held at Suntec this weekend.

What is VR gaming?

Put it simply, it is as simple as putting 2 small screens near your left and right eyes respectively via a head mounted device. Each screen shows what a left and right eyes would see similar to how 3D glasses work. Voila! You are now transported to a whole new world! With a controller, you can move and interact in the new world and get totally immersed in virtual reality. More details here for those who are interested.

Who is in the VR space?

Virtual reality (VR) has been made popular by a company call Occulus with their Occulus Rift headset funded on Kickstarter. Since then, many other companies are getting into VR.

Google with their famous low-cost Google Cardboard which is essentially a cupboard head mount for your Android phone to be placed over your eyes similar to the Rift.

Microsoft announced its own Hololens in Oct 2015 slated for shipment in 2016. Hololens however is a mix reality headset. Wearing it still enables you to view your actual physical surrounding with its transparent glasses. At the recent E3, Microsoft has demo-ed a Minecraft gameplay using Hololens.

If Microsoft is in the game, you bet Sony is. Sony’s very own VR headset, originally called Project Morpheus, was announced way back in 2014. It is now known as PlayStation VR and of course it will be powered by PlayStation 4. This is the set that I’ve tried at GameStart Asia.

Other notable mentions include HTC Vive and Samsung Gear VR which is essentially an Occulus Rift design to fit over a Samsung Galaxy  S6 or Note 4.

The experience at GameStart Asia

PlayStation VR

The PlayStation VR booth is undoubtably one of the most popular booth at GameStart Asia. I was given a chance to try the famous Summer Lesson PlayStation VR demo .

For those who don’t know about Summer Lesson, it is a demo built for the PlayStation VR where you meet this virtual blonde girl who asked you to teach her Japanese. Yes, it maybe weird and creepy for some, but I am absolutely certain that this makes having a virtual girlfriend even more real for some Otaku. You really need to experience this yourself.

After being ushered into the demo area, a crew member helped me put on the headset and earphone. While the screen is supposingly HD at 1920 x 1080 ( 960 x 1080 for each eye), the display is not as clear and sharp as I would hope to be. Also the headset has to be at a ‘correct’ angle for it to be in focus. A few times I was fumbling with the headset with my hand trying to get it to focus probably. To be fair, it could be because I am wearing glasses and that the set could still be a prototype.

Aside from the display, the entire experience is really immersive and surreal! The demo started with a beautiful blonde lady asking you to teach her Japanese. You reply using head gesture, nodding or shaking your head. Additional control via PS Move is detected by the PlayStation Camera setup in front though it is not available on this demo.

Your potential virtual girlfriend

The girl was sitting beside me asking me to teach her Japanese. When I tried moving in closer to her, she actually shifted backward saying that I am getting too close! Wow! What a surprise! She is actually aware that I am there. There is also a moment when she bends in front of you and that really makes me feel that she is just beside me. Talk about an immersive experience!

I don’t have the opportunity to try out other demo, one which you are involve in a heist and get to use PS Move to shoot and another where you get to swim with a great white shark. The wait at the queue was simply too long. But overall, it was a memorable experience like your first time watching a 3D movie.

VR gaming is coming

Yes that is right. VR gaming is real and it will likely transform the way we play game today. I believe that console games will first take the lead with PlayStation VR and Hololens leading the way towards VR gaming. However, we have yet to try the headset on for a prolong period of time. Problem with such technology is that people may experience discomfort or giddiness over some time and this may affect how well gamers adopt this technology.

Nonetheless, we are excited about this piece of technology and hope to be able to review a full game on the VR or Hololen soon when it is out hopefully by next year.

PS: Check out Tow Kay New’s vlog on the actual event below:

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Console War in Singapore

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Being an avid gamer myself, the topic of console war is always close to my heart. Before I reveal which camp I belong to, let us take a look at the new dashboard I have created using figures from www.gametrader.sg. Approximately 60,000 game posted on the platform from Jun 2010 to Aug 2015 are visualized in this dashboard.

Some key points to note on launch date of some consoles in Singapore:

  1. Feb 2012: PS Vita launched in Singapore
  2. Jan 2013: Wii U launched in Singapore
  3. Dec 2013: PS4 launched in Singapore
  4. Sep 2014: Xbox launched in Singapore after a year it was launched in US and Europe.

Who is leading the console war? Our 3 charts below can provide some indication:

1. Market Share

Market Share

Based on the number of posts on GameTrader.SG, market shares of PS4 has increased tremendously from 2014 to 2015. It is now at 44% of the combined numbers of posts of PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Xbox One is the tiny portion over at the bar chart for 2015 which account for 2.58%.

A point to note is that PS4 has close to a year head start compared to Xbox One which was release in Sep 2014. Desperate for getting their hand on a next gen-console, gamers may not have the patience to wait a year for Xbox One and have move on with PS4.

2. Price

Price

Price of PS3 and Xbox 360 games have been declining steadily over the years. With the launch of the new PS4 console, we see a greater drop in PS3 game pricing. The average PS3 games also cost about 35% of a PS4 game.

While Xbox 360 game is the lowest among the XBox and Playstation family, Xbox One game remains slight pricer than PS4. Could price be a reason why PS4 popularity is higher? Anyhow, a quick check on Qisahn for the game Watch Dog shows that Xbox One and PS4 price is the same at $39. Perhaps the data could be bias since trading for PS4 game is a lot more than Xbox One.

Nonetheless, it is good to know that game prices are decreasing over the years!

3. No. of Game Titles

Game Titles

The number of game titles definitely plays a part in the popularity of a console. Again, we see the number of titles traded on GameTrader.SG for PS4 is about 4 times more than Xbox One. Without a doubt PS4 titles are stronger than Xbox One. However, most big titles Metal Gear Solid V, Grand Theft Auto 5 and Final Fantasy 15 are usually available on both platforms. At least what we can conclude is that more titles are being traded on GameTrader.SG for PS4 compared to Xbox One.

Other findings

If you have time to play with the dashboard, you will be able to find other interesting insights. For example, pre-owned game cost about 35% less than the brand new counter part and average of preowned PS3 game can be as low as $22. Of course, some games are even cheaper depending on the seller.

Have fun with this dashboard! You can try it here.

PS: You should be able to guess which camp I am now 😛

 

Original Post by jaxxie.me on 2 Sep 2015.