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Preview: Wonderbook and The Book of Spells

At this year’s E3, I had the chance to preview Sony’s new augmented reality (AR) peripheral, Wonderbook, together with its first release, J. K. Rowling’s Book of Spells.

The Wonderbook itself is a twelve page book that, in the case of my preview, contained the software required for Book of Spells. The Wonderbook representative confirmed that each large title will be shipped at retail with a new Wonderbook of its own, but there is the possibility for downloadable titles at cheaper price points. Those aforementioned downloadable titles can be used with any other Wonderbook you have in your home.

Thankfully, the Wonderbook worked much better in the normally lit preview room as compared to the spectacle that was Sony’s press conference. The Wonderbook itself was tracked remarkably well by the Move camera, and was a sight to behold. Move controller motions were tracked accurately as well, so there’s no worry about that.

As explained previously, the Wonderbook itself has only 12 pages. In the case of Book of Spells, a Wonderbook which will consist of five chapters, you’ll just use your twelve pages once and then head back to the start for a second pass with each chapter. You can turn pages forward or backward to move ahead or back in your story, and you’ll be able to use a chapter select as well.

We have not been able to confirm a price point for the Wonderbook in Australia, but we expect the peripheral to be priced at $39.99 in the United States. Its release date is also unknown.

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About the author

Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.