When the creation of an innovative product is as exciting as a World Cup football game ;-)

The team enters on the field...
The Shootpad story starts in XKPad's headquarter, a company who invents innovative accessories for the video game industry.

XKPad has two passions - sports and video games - brought together to create revolutionary accessories allowing the player to use his all body to control the best selling video games. This trend called "exergaming" (contraction of exercise and gaming) is getting bigger and bigger.

Kick off...
Which sport is the most popular in the world? Football (soccer), of course!
Football video games simulations are incredibly realistic best sellers, accurate and funny games, but it's really tricky to get used to the controller signals. On the other hand, everyone knows how to kick in a ball and has fun doing it! What is more simple than kicking in a ball for real - even for a video game - to pass or score and feel the real football sensations?

Following this idea, XKPad started to think about a game interface allowing to get closer to real, intuitive & fast football sensations, and as efficient as a traditional gamepad.

Straight to the goal...
Nevertheless, how can we give players realistic football sensations and allow them to do all the actions they could do with the gamepad - dribbles, passes, shoots, defensive pressings...- and also take the power of the shoots into account???

Our team got "closer to the goal" when came the idea of transforming a real football... into a gamepad!

The first result of this idea was a prototype, manufactured by the company Alciom, made of a ping pong net, a board and... a foam football filled with electronic sensors discerning the different kinds of passes and shoots, but also the intensity of the shoots... (see pictures)

These sensors were connected to a "smart software" transposing the ball signals into game signals. Different elements came to complete the system:an infra-red barrier allowing the "smart software" to make a difference between the different passes and shoots, and a wireless handle, used to give a direction to the players.

The prototype evolved... until it became perfect to play every football games. To achieve this result, XKPad worked with many football video gamers, real football players of different levels and ages and even with people who had never played football video games. The comments and feedbacks of these people where more than useful to create an accurate and efficient prototype.

The Shootpad was born!...nearly!

A decisive pass...
Then XKPad presented the Shootpad to the European leader of video games accessories Bigben Interactive, its historical partner since the Bodypad (fighting simulator), who has been impressed by the concept and the prototype's efficiency.

With a great reactivity Bigben Interactive started to work on an industrial prototype.
After months of collaboration between there Research and Development department and XKPad, the first industrial prototype was presented at IDEF (Cannes, France) in June 2006 and received a warm welcome by the video game industry professionals.

...and GOOOOAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!
The final Shootpad version was presented to the public at the Leipzig Game Convention 2006 and received also a GREAT welcome, thanks to its realistic gameplay and accuracy.

Judge by yourselves:
Shoot and passes? Kick the ball in four different ways to send the four major shoot and passes signals.
The intensity of your kick into the ball is taken into account!
Want to dribble? The Shootpad ball can become a right analog stick: dribble with the ball for real to do the different dribbles!!
Defensive pressing? Press the ball as if you were pressing the opponent.
Personalize the power and angles of your shoots etc.
The Shootpad ball becomes your new pad, accurate, realistic and intuitive!

All you can do with the gamepad can be done with the Shootpad, but in a more realistic and athletic way which brings you closer to the football essence!

If you want to discover football games as if you were on the field, alone or with friends, just plug one or several Shootpad to your PS2 and kick in the ball!