Microsoft and Sony are finally set to throw their hats into the motion control arena later this year with the release of Kinect and PlayStation Move. Both companies have jealously eyed Nintendo’s dominance of the casual gaming market since the Wii shook up the industry in 2006. The only surprise is that it’s taken them so long to respond.
Kinect and PlayStation Move offer a distinctly different take on the Wii’s familiar brand of flailing gaming. Indeed, Microsoft’s device caused quite a stir when it was announced at E3 2009. The technology seemed to be the stuff of sci-fi movies – your whole body was now the controller, every hand-wave or nod of the head mapped in 3D and recreated on screen in real-time. Sony’s offering, meanwhile, seemed impressive but slightly less exciting – more an evolution of the Wii Remote than the revolution offered by Kinect.
Since then more details of both devices have been 
drip-fed to the press, with journalists now able to try them for themselves in hands-on previews. The responses have been somewhat mixed. Yes, both Kinect and Move will no doubt prove popular with the casual gaming market Microsoft and Sony hope to capture. But will the games be good enough to sustain long-term interest? And what about core gamers – will there be anything to excite them too?
Microsoft’s current line-up of Kinect compatible titles borrows liberally from the Wii software library. Kinect Sports, for example, allows you to experience motion controlled bowling and boxing (sound familiar?) along with football, volleyball and track & field events. Kinectimals, meanwhile, seems to have been purposefully designed to drive young Nintendogs fans into an ‘I want one!’ frenzy. Over in the Sony camp, Atindriya Bose, head of PlayStation India, recently stated that launch titles for PlayStation Move will also focus on a family audience, with compatible action/adventure/shooting games slated to appear at a later date.
All of which is great new for the casual crowd but will leave core gamers feeling somewhat underwhelmed – Dance Central, another Kinect title that sees you gyrating along to songs in your living room, is unlikely to have Call of Duty fans queuing round the block on launch day. Nevertheless, the potential for some excellent core gaming experiences is evident. Using Kinect to lean around cover would be a subtle but excellent addition to many shooters, while the precision of the Move controller and Sony’s desire to bring 3D gaming into the living room could create some mind-blowing experiences. However it seems converting non-gamers is very much the focus for the time being.
It will be fascinating to see how Nintendo responds to Sony and Microsoft’s attempts to siphon off their casual gaming demographic. This Christmas will be the first where all three consoles offer motion control experiences (prepare yourself for a titanic advertising battle) and compared to its competitors the Wii is a featherweight in the graphics department. Still, having sold over 70 million consoles, Nintendo has done plenty well out of its motion controller already. Whether it can continue to do so, and repeat the trick with the Wii’s successor, remains to be seen.
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Sebastian Gorgon
I wouldn’t say Kinect is a controller….
Charles Nelson
I may be the only one who thinks this but isn’t Kinect basically an enhanced Eyetoy? Not judging it but it’s got very similar principles, in fact Sony could potentially do both Kinect and Wii motion type games… Not knocking it or anything, competition and different ideas keep the industry moving as it were.
Steve Hawtin
Kinect isn’t simply an Eyetoy remake. It has the potential to go so much further than that. The real test will be who comes forward to make core games for it.
Wii sales have been falling rapidly recently, people are realising the small, short term appeal it has. People are looking for more, they’ve had a taste of gaming and are now looking to move up a level and Kinect could provide that step up.
Its a shame they’ve priced it so high, as at a lower price point it could well have encouraged more casual gamers to buy into the 360.
As for Move, its laughable to be honest. I just fail to see how the manufacturer of the most technologicaly advanced games machine could only manage to come up with a Wiimote rip off. Sony pride themselves on bringing out the most spec’d consoles with the most flashy gismo’s, yet they just copy the Wii?
As I said, the games that are released will seal the fate of both.
Harry GoldStrong
I find it funny when people are not informed.
malcom
could say the same for every console that users a controller…. they copied it.
Elliot
EyeToy FTW that was the first and the best, Kinect just copied it, aswell as Kinectimals which is like EyePet.
Then I would pick the Wii as I found the Wii Sports game the best game on the Wii, especially the tennis game on it.
The PS3’s SixAxis was quite useless, hardly any developers used it in their games, and the pad would be a lot cheaper.
Paul
having seen the playstation move in action its is clearly the winner, especially for price.
Microsoft have shot themselves in the foot with the Kinect especially with the price!
As for the Wii, one word “gimmicky”
James
The move gives the ps3 all the wii capabilities, thus giving ps3 gamers what wii gamers wanted in the first place.
The kinect idea doesn’t really work in practice, it’s just a gimmick which will die in good time.
stephen
well im beta teting kinect at the moment and i was never a fan of it from day 1. ever since eyetoy and xbox vision camera (which are the same thing). they were both horrible and honestly useles. which is why i was not too hopeful on kinect.
but kinect on the other hand well its amazing i speak of it very highly not because im a xbox fan boy or whatever you call them but because its brilliant. its very responsive and extreamly future proof in the sense of there will be more to come over the years after its realese im sure of that.
as far as the 3ds, move and kinect will sell more 3ds is 90s style,
i have played on ps3’s move and it was fun but like the wii it wont last long its a novalty item like the wii also the same concept. its identicle to the wii.