Assassin’s Creed Mirage lets you feel punches with haptic vest compatibility

That should teach you how to dodge, at least

Haptic feedback on a controller is always nice to have for intense moments in video games, but the range of such effects is obviously limited to the player’s hands. But what if you could feel the punches, stabs, collisions, and jumps all over your body? Well, it’s going to be possible in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Mirage thanks to a collaboration between Ubisoft and OWO, a company producing specialized haptic vests that translate what’s happening in a game into physical feedback at the appropriate spots.

That means if you let main character Basim get punched in the gut, you’re going to feel a bit of that impact on your own body. OWO says that the vests can produce over 30 sensations from feeling the wind to getting shot by a gun. All of that, of course, in moderation. Users can tune the severity of these sensations to their liking, so you don’t have to worry about getting hurt.

OWO’s vests use electric pulses to convey various sensations, which is a bit different from the vibration you’ll experience from regular gamepads.

OWO will sell a new edition of its haptic gaming vest, which is visually inspired by Basim’s outfit. This can be purchased on the company’s website initially, but there’ll also be bundles available at retailers that include the game.

A release date and price point have not been revealed yet, though the vest will be compatible with the PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S versions of the title. The price of a regular edition of OWO’s haptic vest is 499€. They are available in nine sizes and wear less than 600g.

Aside from Assassin’s Creed Mirage, 25 other games are currently compatible with OWO’s vest with Fortnite, Rocket League, Halo Infinite, Apex Legends, and League of Legends being the biggest names.

Haptic vests are a neat piece of technology that doesn’t only find application in gaming – they can be enriching accessibility tools for people with hearing or sight issues, so this is an area where advances in video game technology could have positive effects on the lives of many.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage will be released on October 12, 2023.