I think board games on table touchscreens would already be common if there were an open platform/framework to program them on, and they took advantage of additional phones/tablets over IP. The manufacturing cost on big touchscreens is already pretty low.
The term you need to google for is "vassal engine"
Note the engine might be open but there's all kinds of schemes WRT the data files ranging from "we don't care" to DMCA takedowns to the max.
Also some people are simply tactile and really want meeples and feelies in their games, so an ipad is going to be a very rough sell to them simply because they very explicitly don't want a screen experience.
Also the resolution of a tablet is incredibly low. Maybe some kind of google glass thing can be implemented, walking around in a backyard? I've occasionally considered this problem and I feel cramped at a mere 5-ft round table and 5 feet at 300 dpi is something like eighteen thousand pixels, assuming you can "invest" in a 5 foot round screen and the best COTS available now is only about a tenth of that resolution at that size...
Most interesting, thanks! I don't expect board games on touch screens to take over and your points about allowing games to spread out is well made. But it will be interesting to see how they continue to evolve in parallel.
Thanks for this! I'd started creating a spreadsheet to hold state for Twilight Struggle so my wife and I could enjoy a game over a week without our toddler destroying the board. This looks much better.
