We’ve been extremely excited about Leap’s gesture-based controller since we first heard about it in May of 2012 – and after almost a year of waiting, Leap Motion has announced that the revolutionary new gesture controller will finally hit shelves at Best Buy on May 19th. Shipments for those those who pre-ordered before March will ship on May 13th, giving early adopters a slightly earlier delivery than everyone else.
From the official announcement we received from LEAP:
The Leap Motion Controller will begin shipping globally to pre-order consumers on May 13, and will then have a retail launch exclusively in the U.S. at Best Buy stores on May 19. The launch price, in place today, is $79.99. LeapMotion.com continues taking pre-orders in the U.S., and is the only channel currently for international orders. BestBuy.com will also begin taking U.S. pre-orders today.
In addition to the device itself, Leap Motion will also be launching an app store called AirSpace, featuring a selection of apps that are designed to work with the device:
Leap Motion’s app store will be called Airspace™, and will offer a wide variety of app categories including gaming, music, education, art, productivity and more. Some of the expected applications for the Leap Motion Controller announced today include:
- Plug-ins for 3-D design software leader Autodesk
- Corel’s Painter apps
- Disney Interactive’s Wreck-It Ralph: Sugar Rush Speedway racing game
- Double Fine’s music game Dischord (made exclusively for Leap Motion)
- The Weather Channel app
- ZeptoLab’s Cut the Rope, a top casual game
I could not be more excited to finally be getting my hands on one of these! Check out the video below to see it in action. Pre-orders are available now at Best Buy – I’d recommend ordering sooner rather than later to make sure you get one as early as possible! Check out Leap Motion’s website for more details!
