Whether you’re a fan of ‘motion control’ gaming or not it seems that Microsoft and Sony are committed in following Nintendo’s lead into this style of gaming.
Now the Wii has been out for nearly 4 years now so you’re probably wondering what new can be offered… well lets take a look
Kinect for XBOX 360;
Described as ‘controller-free gaming and entertainment experience’ it’s based around a webcam style add-on peripheral which enables users to control and interact with the 360 without the need to touch a game pad. Gestures, spoken commands or objects and images. Microsoft are looking to widen their audience beyond its typical gamer base.
Not to be outdone Sony have ‘jumped the gun’ and recently released their motion controller, ‘Move’. Based on a handheld motion controller wand, Move uses the Playstation Eye camera to track the wands position and sensors inside the wand to detect its motion. Sony have backed their release with an aggressive marketing campaign.
Now many of you will be reading this and thinking, “Isn’t this what the Nintendo Wii already does?”
Whilst there are some slight differences to what the Wii does, it’s also worth mentioning that some could argue that Sony and Microsoft are just improving on the features that they’ve provided with the camera detection gaming service.
It seems that both companies have the support of their game developers and patches are being worked on for Sony games which have already been released, M.A.G for example.
Will I be buying either Move or Kinect…. I don’t think so. Not that I don’t like the concept, but I’ve got a Nintendo Wii and to be honest it’s been sat collecting dust under my TV in the living room for a while. I’m hoping that next year when my kids are a little older they can make use of it.
The Wii in my eyes wasnt what I was hoping for, sure the Mario Galaxy games are great. But unfortunately other games which should have sold high numbers didn’t. This is probably the marketing behind the Wii, pushing it towards casual gamers. Maybe that’s what could be the difference with Microsoft and Sony’s latest accessories. Maybe they’ve got the time and money to make games which appeal to the gamers rather than at a family Sunday dinner.
Jay McNeill's Blog 