The Design blog

ePawn Arena gives figure-based board games a fresh chance

Posted: 28 Jan 2012 12:16 PM PST

Asmita Prasad:

While kids born in the new millennium may not even know what board games are, anyone born a generation before certainly must have lot of childhood memories with long, lazy afternoons that were spent playing board games with family and friends. Sadly, board games have lost their allure to a generation that treasures their MMRPG titles over good ol' Monopoly. But that hasn't stopped folks like Christophe Duteil from trying to capture a part of their own childhood and trying to pass it on to the tech-obsessed youth of today. The ePawn CEO has created a digital board game tabletop called Arena that lets people play figure-based board games together on a tech-infused tabletop.

ePawn Arena

The super responsive tabletop uses patented magnetic technology to recognize the little figurines as they move along in the course of the game. Making board games more interactive and immersive than ever, these digital elements mix traditional board games with the technology that today's kids are more comfortable with. Unlike traditional board games, however, users don't need to buy a different board for every game. Rather, they can simply hook their tabletop to a PC, Android or iOS device to turn into a board for many different titles from Dungeons and Dragon to Air Hockey, though you would still have to buy the interactive figures for each title.

Picture Gallery

ePawn Arena

Figure-based board games go digital with ePawn Arena

The ePawn Arena is still being promoted by Duteil who hopes that a major toy/game manufacturer would pick it up and develop it for the market. Without adding the cost of each game title and figures, the 26-inch Arena tabletop is expected to retail for target price of about $400 which may just be a little too steep for folks who still like to play board games!