Airbus A380 concept design includes Nintendo Wii games area

[SteveJohnson]

"An Airbus A380 with a dedicated Nintendo Wii gaming zone? It'd certainly take some of the tedium out of long-distance flights, and loaded up with the right games it could also offer some welcome inflight activity rather than remaining stuck in that chair for over 16 hours (as is the case with the world's longest A380 flight)."

Airbus A380 concept design includes Nintendo Wii games area - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller



Good luck getting airlines to ditch six rows of economy seating to fit this in.

 

[harvyk]

I've always felt that airlines could do well promoting games on-board.

Years ago I used to attend / host lan parties, they would typically start mid afternoon and easily go under 2 or 3 am (the longest one I know of went for 24 hours straight). That would easily cover the full amount of time of even the longest flights.

 

[TonyHancock]

Good luck getting airlines to ditch six rows of economy seating to fit this in.

Not to mention the queues to get five minutes of fun!

 

[harvyk]

Not to mention the queues to get five minutes of fun!

Me thinks it would be an J / F only perk. That or charged at similar rates that a games arcade would have charged if they still existed...

 

[RooFlyer]

German taxes at work. Possibly the stupidest 'concept' for airline travel ever seen.

 

[MrHyde]

All the airlines really need to do is upgrade their in-flight entertainment systems to actually have proper games, not games stuck in the 80s. With the quality of games available on mobile devices, you would think they could get some of the same games into the inflight systems by now.

 

[samh004]

All the airlines really need to do is upgrade their in-flight entertainment systems to actually have proper games, not games stuck in the 80s. With the quality of games available on mobile devices, you would think they could get some of the same games into the inflight systems by now.

BYO controller by way of a smartphone that can be charged in-seat, connected via bluetooth to the TV in front of you, and a seat-to-seat system that doesn't require you authorise your seat before playing, rather, it's ready to go when you get on board. And of course, games that can take advantage.

 

[UP4014]

Sounds like a mess waiting to happen.

 

[SeatBackForward]

I do agree that there is a lack of wee zones on most planes these days

 

[harvyk]

All the airlines really need to do is upgrade their in-flight entertainment systems to actually have proper games, not games stuck in the 80s. With the quality of games available on mobile devices, you would think they could get some of the same games into the inflight systems by now.

The only problem is their IFE is based on systems which have the processing power to play movies. "Games" on them are simply using spare CPU cycles. (At least in the QF B747 system, it is based on a very old processor, don't know about the A380 system, but then again for simple video streaming / control you don't need a lot by today's standards)

A big problem is the amount of power which would be required to power an unmodified modern console, you'd be looking at nearly 60kW's of power for a 500 seat aircraft. In comparison, the average IFE system installed on a 500 seat aircraft, from what I can tell sits around the 10kW mark. You do have the option of issuing iPads or some other tablet style system, as they would only be around the 6kW mark (assuming you had them wired in), but there the problem is most tablet games do not require separate controllers, and where tablets have been issued (thinking QF's 767's) it feels very cheap and stop gap measure.

Of course, an airline / group of airlines with a large enough order would be able to get modern consoles modified so that games are loaded onto a NAS, thus removing the requirement for a bluray drive / internal storage beyond base OS. (technically even that could be streamed from a NAS thus removing all internal storage requirements), and that would reduce the power requirements down considerably.

 

[TonyHancock]

In this day and age of the competitively priced tablet I'm not sure I'd be chucking money at IFE if I was running an airline.

I should add that I rarely watch or listen to IFE when I can carry GB's of movies, TV's and games with me.

 

[harvyk]

In this day and age of the competitively priced tablet I'm not sure I'd be chucking money at IFE if I was running an airline.

Not everyone who travels has a tablet / takes it with them on trips.

 

[TonyHancock]

Not everyone who travels has a tablet / takes it with them on trips.

Maybe not today...but tomorrow and the day after etc?

 

[harvyk]

Maybe not today...but tomorrow and the day after etc?

I still know people who will leave their mobile phone behind at home when travelling who would otherwise be glued to it, and that's a pretty standard piece of kit which is pretty much issued to everyone over the age of 12...

 

[TonyHancock]

I still know people who will leave their mobile phone behind at home when travelling who would otherwise be glued to it, and that's a pretty standard piece of kit which is pretty much issued to everyone over the age of 12...

I am sure there are many examples, however if the choice is bring your tablet or sit bored for many hours I suspect pax might be encouraged to bring the tablet.

i am at the other end of the scale, there is little on IFE I want to watch or have not already seen. I could request that airlines change content more frequently, however I choose to take responsibility myself and bring my own IFE. Consequently I watch movies, TV, and music content that I enjoy.

It it is not a subject I feel overly strongly about, but if it was a choice of an airline spending money on IFE or spending money on providing WIFI, I would take the WIFI.

 

[MrHyde]

I agree... these days you can get pretty powerful Android tablets for about $200. I'm sure the airlines would be able to negotiate far better prices. These tablets have the CPU capacity to play far far far better games than what is currently available on the IFE. These games are don't require much space - I'm not asking for the latest and best games that you would get on a PS4 or XBox One, just something a bit more playable than the current IFE games - even Angry Birds.

The problem is power though... the tablet power does not last long enough for a full long haul flight.

 

[TonyHancock]

The problem is power though... the tablet power does not last long enough for a full long haul flight.

If I don't have access to power I get round this by carrying three backup battery packs with USB connections. Not ideal but practical at least.

It is pleasing to see newer aircraft adding power outlets and USB charge outlets too.

 

[djfuzz]

If it's a Wii or a Kinect, it would certainly provide an option to mitigate the risk of DVT. But yes, which airline would sacrifice seats for comfort?

 

[harvyk]

If it's a Wii or a Kinect, it would certainly provide an option to mitigate the risk of DVT. But yes, which airline would sacrifice seats for comfort?

Well EK have their inflight bar...

 

[dodgeyhack]

I remember way back (1989) when I was a kid on a SQ 747, they had a portable game dispenser at the back near the loos.
Borrowed mum's credit card and played frogger for the rest of the trip. Fun times!