Sifteo Cubes Get an Update, New Partnerships

Last year's award-winning game platform - Sifteo Cubes - are due for an upgrade. Sifteo will release updated hardware for their award-winning tactile game blocks later this year, along with a few high-profile game titles to push the system.

The original Sifteo Cubes connected via bluetooth to a Mac or PC program that actually ran the games. This wasn't such a drag as long as you had a laptop, but the cubes were obviously meant to be totally portable; the just-announced "ultra-compact" Sifteo Base will make good on that vision when it's released this November.

The system will now support connecting as many as 12 of its $29, 1.7-inch blocks (the previous limit was six). The most exciting of Sifteo's announcements comes on the development end: a new software development kit (SDK) available to game makers Oct 1st should help expand the library of available games.

Sifteo Cubes are clearly best suited to kid-appropriate puzzle games (the entire platform is "Rated E for Everyone"), and Sifteo's partnership with Nickelodeon to bring out a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles title - called Ninja Slide - is clearly a further step in that direction.

More interestingly, a game made by Richard Garfield, the designer behind Magic: The Gathering (among other games) is slated for an early 2013 release. Details on this one are scarce, and while it's almost certainly not Magic-branded Garfield has said he's "creating a game that I think will be as fun and engaging as Magic: The Gathering has been for many.”

The new Sifteo Cubes, which will ship in November this year, are available for pre-order. But be advised: Sifteo told IGN that the new blocks are not backwards-compatible with last year's model; you may want to be careful where you shop.

Are a Ninja Turtles title and a (potentially) awesome Richard Garfield game enough for you to shell out for the $199 6-block set? Let us know in the comments.

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

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