Core Audience Will Love Kinect, Predicts Microsoft Exec

[TerribleAssassin]

Only reason the hardcore gamer is interested is because of voice commands, and video chat between matches of w/e game they happen to be playing.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, $150 is fairly steep for voice commands and video chat.

And that shit can be fixed with a headset and an Xbox Live vision camera, which works cheaper..


OT: Meh, I doubt it will, I'm not sold, I'll play the new Fable on my big cluncky remote, you know, the thing that people have got used to for 20 years..

 

[V8 Ninja]

Predictions, predictions, predictions. Show me some proof before you go blabbing on about how your product will sell millions and how everybody will love it.

 

[Tarakos]

Yeah, because Kinect Sports and Kinectimals look like real winners. Sorry Microsoft, I'll need to see actual games before I'll jump on that boat.

 

[SelectivelyEvil13]

It looks like after each screw up/ er sorry/ "demo" of kinect, they can't make up their minds on how to market the bloody thing. I don't think motion controls have zero potential, but a lot of it comes down to how the controls actually function. Of course the Wii is popular considering it has a straight-forward control system that is flexible enough to allow more than just Wii Sports Resorts but actual games. Nintendo may have a lot (okay, a TON) of shovelware taking advantage of the control system as a gimmick, but who can argue when they have Metroid, Mario, Zelda, and so on?

Until there are games that are not petting zoo sims, why should I as a consumer take the plunge into another Microsoft Product? I still have an older 360 (replaced several times), how can I honestly trust this will work either? When my old 360 eventually keels over and burns itself to electronic death, I'd rather put the $150 that I didn't spend on stroking the air in my living room towards another 360. Or a Wii.

 

[ItsAPaul]

Yes, I take my opinion not from my experience with motion controls, but from what the Microsoft VP says. My bad everyone, I was wrong to assume I hated the blasted things with a passion (when it wasn't bowling anyway).

 

[drkchmst]

Im sure they are just saying that crap bc maybe some day it will be true...when all hardcore gamers thumbs fall off and go blind. I almost guarantee they are hiding a huge IR interference problem. Ever play the wii in your very bright living room on a hot summer day? Any room that gets direct sunlight will pose a problem to the workings of Kinect.

 

[Unrulyhandbag]

Motion controls could one day be the best control system we have but at this point it's barely past infancy and now awkwardly flailing into toddler-hood.

Mr VP you offer us big arm waving detection with some fancy recognition software, Sony offers us fine control with the big stuff done with motion sensors and Nintendo shows us that this stuff can be sold.

How about coming back one day with a system Kinect type system that combines good depth perception and spot on recognition allowing for subtle detection with an optional motion sensitive fine manipulation controller that works as a 3d mouse and has some form of feedback?

I will buy your current offering but only to support development of greater controllers in the future.

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

I might pick it up if only for the voice controls uses it has in the Live community. I suppose I'll just wait and see how it is once it's actually released.

 

[subject_87]

...He thinks that fans of things like Gears of War and Madden will like the kind of cheap minigame collections that you find for $20 in the back of GameStop?

 

[poiuppx]

The honest fact is, they NEED to say this. They HAVE to say this. Why? Because the Kinect was never meant to keep their core from jumping ship this holiday season; the promise of more exclusive Bungie and Valve games, the promise of Mass Effect 3, the exclusive hardcore content they've thrived on, was suppossed to do that. When you already have that market locked up, you don't bother trying to cater FURTHER to it; you spread your resources elsewhere.

Except... that didn't hold water through this summer. Instead, Valve and Bungie are now going multi-platform, Mass Effect is leaving, Dead Rising 2 is an all console release... the list goes on. Right now, Microsoft NEEDS to convince its core, the same core they more or less ignored with this product, to buy it and to love it. In spite of, quite logically to a certain extent, never really marketing it to them to begin with.

 

[thedeathscythe]

The second I heard that it was both limited to both being used by only 2 players at once, and you had to stand up, made me say "yup, this'll flop". You gotta stand up at all times? Not all wii games make you stand, PSmove won't make you stand. I can't imagine the position you'd have to be in to play that racing game, standing and sort of stepping on the gas... 2 players at a time? I remember having 4 player fun with wii sports, I was a HUUUGE skeptic, but 4 player really did it for me and my friends. 2 people standing and jumping some raft? Thanks, but I'll pass.

 

[Gasaraki]

Joy-Ride? Seriously? Why the hell would the core gamers want Joy Ride when they already have Forza, NFS, MC:LA and Burnout?
Besides, don't they already have an overpriced webcam accessory? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_webcam#Images]
(I'm not saying that Natal is just a webcam, just that it's stupid to list video chat as a main feature like as if it's some big new thing.)

 

[DTWolfwood]

Seeing that the hardcore gamers are probably the ones with the most disposable income (seeing their willingness to drop $60 on a 8 hour single player experience, or yearly iterations of sport franchises) He isn't wrong in assuming the majority will be actual gamers in the beginning.

$150 is a hard sell to some1 who doesn't play video games all that often or ones that don't already own a true gaming console like the 360.

 

[Jfswift]

I don't know about this. At first I was excited that Xbox users get a motion sensing controller like the Wii has but I don't like having to use gestures all the time. At least the Sony version will have buttons.

 

[Optimystic]

Calumon: Same goes with Move!

Move has the advantage of combining Wii-esque control with PS3 hardware. RE4 sold well on the Wii despite being a rerelease of a Gamecube game, so I expect the Move version of RE5 to do well also. Red Steel and Madworld were also hardcore titles that did well with Wiimotion.

Kinect... Well, I don't think it's impossible for the Kinect to work with similar titles, but I'm not quite seeing how it'll work. For example: sure you can aim fine, and maybe move, but how does it know when to fire?

$150 is a hard sell to some1 who doesn't play video games all that often or ones that don't already own a true gaming console like the 360.

Uh, tell that to the legions of casuals that dropped over $100 on the Wii Fit, only to have it gather dust in the corner. Make it shiny enough, and people won't even think of how often they're really going to use it.