Razer Hydra successor the STEM System launches on Kickstarter, hits funding goal in mere hours

News by Ewan Miller Contributor

Published on Sept. 13, 2013

Sixense, the team behind the Razer Hydra's core technology have launched their new motion controller on Kickstarter: The STEM System. The STEM system consists of a base station and up to five wireless STEMs, which track motion and can be clipped to your body (head, hands, legs) or inserted into the back System's wireless controllers. The base with just two controllers will set you back $200 while the pack with a STEM for head tracking will cost another $50. There's a video of PAX attendees looking excited after the jump.

Each STEM based supports up to five of the sensors, which mean you can either track all four limbs and the head or the head, both legs and arms via the two wireless controllers. The wireless packs don't use line of sight to track at all, so you can play games through walls or keep the sensors in your pockets if you don't like wearing wristbands. Sixense estimate the range of the STEM as about 16 feet from the Base unit.

In the pitch, Sixense also advertise the fact that utilising the Sixense MotionCreator, you can use the Sixense with any game by emulating more traditional inputs, which presumably won't work as well but does probably mean it'll be fairly widely supported.

Developers such as Denny Unger, the President of Cloudhead Games seem pretty excited by the STEM:"Previously simple interactions like climbing a ladder suddenly become an intense and virtual experience". As do users evidently, with the project receiving more than 150% of its $250,000 funding target within its first 24 hours.