Dubai: Gaming journalists, accustomed to writing about blood-and-gore hardcore shooter and adventures games, seemed a bit puzzled earlier this week at Microsoft's official rollout of Xbox 360's new controller-free Kinect technology.
At Microsoft offices in Dubai Internet City, officials said the new webcam Kinect add-on device and the 15 new game titles to be released November 10 in the UAE will allow families to partake in a new era of social gaming.
Xbox's Kinect is a "controller-free gaming device" in the form of a black sensor unit with cameras which work in tandem to map and recognise body and facial movements to instruct computers to perform certain tasks.
It will also work with the estimated 40 million Xbox 360 consoles sold globally.
Kinect representatives gave live demonstrations of the game by dancing to music, playing with electronic pets and engaging in a fitness routine, all thanks to the new Kinect technology that doesn't require plastic handheld controllers.
One journalist asked if the new Kinect games could be played sitting down — another query was whether popular hardcore first-person shooter games, that helped build Xbox into a successful brand, would be released in the future.
Social focus
One journalist muttered the new games were "boring" adding that millions of core gamers would be disappointed with the Kinect technology and its apparent social-gaming focus.
In an interview with Gulf News, Armagan Demir, Head of Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division, said that Xbox was not abandoning its hardcore gamer audience.
He assured longtime users that as the new Kinect platform matured, more games would come on to the market.
"This is a new platform — it takes some time for [game] publishers to explore what kind of genre they can come up with. Game development takes some time," he said.
Demir didn't rule out the future roll-out of shooter and adventure games within the new Kinect platform, noting that there are already some games in the pipeline designed to get the heart rates of core gamers pumping.
"You need to have a completely new approach to gaming with this new technology," Demir said. "I think it will take some ramp-up time."
Demir said he couldn't divulge the kind of new games coming to Kinect because he didn't "have the visibility at this level" but said there are "fighting titles such as Star Wars" in the works. "There are plenty of titles under development," he said.
That said, Demir stated that Kinect is more of a complementary platform to the existing Xbox 360 console. The central thrust of the new entertainment and gaming system was to attract a new audience, not familiar with traditional core gaming, those who, perhaps, are not particularly interested in learning the intricate controls of the plastic gaming controllers that have dominated play for years. "Definitely this type of technology is more fitting to social and family gaming," he said.
Longer hours
"Hardcore gamers can sit and play for 10 hours straight. You can't do that with the Xbox Kinect. There will [always] be controller gaming. I don't think the audience will let that go. But there is an audience who finds hardcore gaming intimidating."
For new owners of the Xbox and Kinect, Microsoft has carefully developed 15 new games that will be launched on November 10, with Kinect Adventures game being bundled with every purchase of the Kinect sensor for Dh699 (the suggested retail price). The complete bundle of Xbox 360 4GB will be sold for Dh1,399 and the Xbox 250 GB bundle will be sold for Dh1,650.
Kinect Adventures, said Demir, offers 20 different gaming adventures including white-water rafting and a mountain obstacle course.
Other new releases include Dance Central, a dance game to 30 chart-topping tunes that doesn't require floor mats to record foot movements.
One of the new titles Xbox believes will be a top-seller is Kinect Sports, featuring all kinds of sporting activities including football, or soccer as it's called in North America.
Unlike hand-controlled soccer games, Kinect players can actually use their feet to virtually kick the ball during the session.
One of the more unusual games demonstrated at the roll-out last week, Kinectimals, featured electronic virtual pets that can learn tricks and interact with Kinect users. Gamers can use their hands freely to reach out and pet a baby lion, for example, and the user's hands magically appear on the screen.
How Kinect will control your game
- Previously known as top-secret Project Natal, Kinect will be launched on November 4 in the US along with 16 new Xbox 360 electronic gaming titles.
- The new Kinect technology can perform full-motion tracking of the human body at 30 frames per second.
- The sensors track 48 points from the human body.
- Three cameras work simultaneously to monitor body and facial movements.
- Kinect is compatible with older versions of Xbox 360.
