Cheers! I’ve recently bought a Wii set, and it is a really great system. PS2 graphics aside, it really gives you a different kind of fun from the PS3. And it is really enjoyable to play a game with the whole family, even adding a few relatives would be fine. A good choice to buy it so far, well so far that is.
The thing is, I have been wondering if my choice over Kinect had been a right one. Recently I saw a Kinect demonstration at IMM. People were playing table tennis (GO WII SPORTS RESORT!) with their bare hands. The funny thing was, their hands were shaped like a bats. This may look normal to everybody, but if you change your vantage point you would see something different. This controllerless technology isn’t really that controllerless after all. An irony hidden well between the lines.
Of course, this is very natural. Since time immemorial, people have had been using tools to do various things, from cooking to writing to even personal pleasure. It has been wired in our systems to use tools for majority of the tasks that we do. So essentially what the Kinect does is it detects the “controller” that our hands are trying to imitate. That is where the limitation of Kinect lies, at least that is what I believe.
Just think about it. While it would be easy to detect equipment like tennis rackets and baseball bats, the challenge would be at objects that have more detail. Take rifles and pistols for example. I am not a technical expert, but I believe that the minute action of one pulling an imaginary trigger would be pretty difficult for the Kinect to detect. This means that shooting games might be out for Kinect. According to Gamespot, shooting games account for 38% of the Last 12 Months Top 50 PC games. It also accounts for 40% and 52% for All Time Top 50 games for PS3 and Xbox 360 respectively. That is one hell of a market that Kinect might be missing out on.
Onto the next lucrative market – Role Playing Games. Blizzard’s World of Warcraft series have been great hits, among other free to play MMORPG games like Maplestory and Dragonica. Even single player RPGs like Dragon Age: Origins and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion are now all time classics. But imagining RPG games on the Kinect seems to be a little tough. While melee weapons like swords and staffs might be possible, the tricky part lies with ranged weapons. Bows and guns have the same problem highlighted earlier, and it is puzzling as to how one will control a mage. Perhaps a wave of the hand will cast frost bolt.
With so many barriers of entry for the Kinect into the top 2 markets, it really seems to have a tough time ahead. Right now my eyes are on PS3 move.
Ya that is also what I think the kinect detect your movement without controller.personally I feel that ps move is better than kinect cause ps move still has alot of potential not unleash yet and for me I also feel that shooter will not be on kinect cause of the same reason above.but the ps move camera is not very good so if they could combine the kinect camera and the move controller it could very well be the best gaming experience up to date
There are rumours that Sony is developing a 3D stereo camera as well to detect 3D space. Also, there are newes that Microsoft is updating the firmware of Kinect to make it capable of detecting more human joints including fingers. So basically the war is still on going. Seems like Nintendo is now focusing more on its 3DS than its Wii.