The Wii was a surprisingly big success considering Nintendo ignored the arms race towards more powerful tech and instead focussed on accessibility. By going for the mass market instead of pandering to hardcore gamers they captured a whole new audience of people who don’t traditionally buy game consoles or play games. Naturally Sony and Microsoft want a slice of that new pie and so we have the PlayStation Move and Microsoft Kinect.
You are the controller is the idea behind Kinect and as you’ll see from the advertising Microsoft is going for the same mass market that fell in love with the Wii. The problem is the traditional Xbox 360 audience is hardcore gamers and so the complaints about the dumbed down experience of Kinect are pouring out. The thing is Kinect isn’t really aimed at hardcore gamers. The point is made really well by Fraser Simpson in this article on Develop Online – Opinion: Kinect assist critics miss the point.
I worked with Fraser when we were both game testers as VIS many moons ago and he’s now the Lead Designer at Zoe Mode. He always had a talent for putting his point across so it’s well worth a read.
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