New Microsoft Kinect to get the whole family gaming
This Christmas, instead of gathering around a board game after lunch or flopping on the sofa to watch The Great Escape, many families will be powering-up the video games console – at least, they will if Microsoft has its way.Kinect, launched in the UK yesterday, makes it possible to play games on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 without using a controller. Instead, a camera tracks the player’s movements, allowing them to control the action with their body, using gestures and voice control. It takes the Xbox one step further than its rivals. The Nintendo Wii has had motion controller since it launched in 2006 and Sony released its own motion control system – PlayStation Move – for the PlayStation 3 a few months ago.
Neil Thompson, who runs Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division in the UK and Ireland, believes removing the controller is crucial to attracting casual gamers and those who think games are too complicated. He says: “In the research we’ve done, one of the barriers we did find was that learning the controls was putting them off.”Instead, he says, Microsoft has opted to “take the technology away” or, at least, to make it invisible. “It’s so natural to play,” he adds.
The downside is that it doesn’t come cheap. Existing Xbox owners will have to pay around £130 for Kinect, while any new gamers who are tempted will have to pay about £250 for Kinect and an Xbox 360.
Thompson acknowledges that this is not a climate of extravagance but says that games represent very good value compared with films or music. A £30 video game offers hours and hours of playing time and the consoles themselves are becoming more rounded entertainment machines. Both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 offer TV catch-up services and HD film rentals and, in the case of the Xbox, you can use your voice to control playback via Kinect.
And the idea of having a games console under the television is no longer just something for the children. Thompson says: “People whose kids are teenagers grew up with gaming so it’s not such an alien concept.”
If Kinect gets mum and dad on their feet this Christmas, ready for a party game or two, they might have to force the more serious gamers in the family off the console. Call of Duty: Black Ops, released earlier this week, is set to be the biggest-selling game of the year and its blend of full-on military gunfighting and convoluted plot has many serious gamers salivating.
Of course, the Call of Duty series is so big with fans that plenty will have finished it long before Christmas morning rolls around, so perhaps the console will be free for some Kinect-powered family bonding after all.
Posted by Darey
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