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DAILY MANIFESTO

Are You Ready to Be the Controller?

Posted on Thursday, October 28 @ 10:54:03 Eastern by Anthony Severino

The era of controller-less gaming is about to begin, that is if Microsoft's Kinect "sensor" for the Xbox 360 takes off as planned. And it will.

Microsoft is pulling out all the stops on this one folks. On top of a 500-million dollar marketing campaign and a promo spot during Justin Bieber's tour, Kinect is also privy to what some call the "Oprah effect".

Since we're pretty sure that the Game Revolution audience aren't regular viewers of Oprah, you might have missed a recent episode where Oprah gave everyone in the audience a Kinect to take home. This sent sales for Kinect through-the-roof. Oprah has had similar "effect" in the past, sending the careers of Rachel Ray and Dr. Phil into the spotlight, even boosting President Obama's chances at the White House.

There is no doubt that the "Oprah effect" is powerful, but is it enough to help Microsoft get the upper hand in the console wars? With Nintendo Wii sales diminishing steadily, the casual audience is looking for the "next big thing". Couple that with the holiday rush, and Kinect instantly becomes a shoe-in for that must-have item this year.

Being what I'd like to consider a "hardcore" gamer, I have to wonder how this is going to affect the industry. The Kinect design is eye-catching. The interface is unique. It certainly opens the doors for new experiences in the future, but nothing I've seen at this point appeals to the hardcore gamer. The gamer in me wonders if I will ever feel comfortable without buttons or something tangible in my hands. The lazy in me definitely isn't interested in actually running and jumping just to play a videogame. But the casual crowd that welcomed the Wii's motion control with open arms (and wallets) will eat it up. With casual interest comes the inevitable shovelware. I'm not at all trying to discredit Kinect, it just isn't appealing to me... yet.

Will Kinect bring even more shovelware to the industry or offer a new way to play our favorite games? Only time will tell. There is one thing that we believe to be true: Kinect will own this holiday season.

Kinect releases November 4 in the US. You can view the full launch line-up by clicking here.

So... Are you ready to be the controller?

Tags: Microsoft, Kinect, Sales, Xbox, Xbox 360

Comments

ryandebraal
Joined: Jul 2006

Posted: Oct 28th, 2010 at 11:24 am
Kinect's launch lineup alone is enough to ruin it.

If Microsoft really expected to have a successful launch they would have had either a FPS\space sim game to really drive the technology home or put a mascot game in the lineup - Sonic is supposed to be Nintendo's ambassador of motion controlled games? eeeshhh...

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UpAndAtThem
Joined: Mar 2009

Posted: Oct 28th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Actually, the "era of controller-less gaming" began 7 years ago when the EyeToy was released for the PS2.
I'm sure Kinect will be a major refinement, but it's not the first time this type of thing has been done.

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Xarathion
Joined: Jan 2007

Posted: Oct 28th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Actually, the "era of controller-less gaming" began back in the early 90's, with the Sega Activator. Oh yeah, I've got one of those things collecting dust in the attic...

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Paulmichael
Joined: Oct 2010

Posted: Oct 28th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
I think pretty much anything will sell if you put $500 MILLION USD behind it for marketing. Also, the casual gaming market is a lot bigger than the core audience, though they do tend to purchase far less frequently than the core gamers, sticking to whatever is bundled with their consoles and playing free demos or what have you.

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Battousai8
Joined: Mar 2007

Posted: Oct 29th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
I agree with Antony, and that "yet" for me will be if either Microsoft or Sony can make motion control truly beneficial to gameplay, and in a "hardcore" gamer's genre of game. This industry is still driven by the non-casual gamer, but that influence is quickly fading, The saving grace would be if motion control can be integrated well enough to satisfy "us." Then maybe it would open new doors for developers to make gaming that much more intense, and that much more real.

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