Soon to be released, Kinect is being touted as a controller-free peripheral. You ARE the controller, and other such marketing hyperbole. Turns out though, that some of the people involved in the project wanted Kinect to have one.
Seems like the guys from Rare and Peter Molyneux himself wanted the device to ship with a controller of sorts.
"We were absolutely adamant that we needed a button, something with haptic feedback, that would initiate an action" Rare’s George Andreas told Edge magazine. "It took a long time – we threw some prototypes together and then we saw you didn’t need one."
"We were very vocal to Kudo [Tsunoda] at the time, and Peter Molyneux was as well, that you needed something in your hand." Kinect though, will release in two months times without a controller of any sort, with Andreas admitting that "You end up falling back on the [gamepad] control scheme. It’s a crutch really."
I still think we – as (ugh) core gamers – would have better experiences and better, non-rail games if Kinect had a single-hand controller – not unlike the optional navigation controller that can be used with Sony’s Move. I’m still waiting for evidence of a single game that’ll utilise Kinect to enhance traditional, controller-based gameplay – and until that happens, my interest in Kinect is fading, fast.
Source : CVG
Last Updated: September 7, 2010
Lefornicator
September 7, 2010 at 13:39
Maybe they’ll come up with a patch that lets you play with the controller to move as well. and it will pick you up when sitting on the couch…
MMMmmmm…. so Kinect can be like a big brother… it can have Video chat while playing games… awesome…. Screw the “You are the controller” change marketing strategies now!!!!
AC!D
September 7, 2010 at 15:05
I still think a controller is incoming for Kinect next year. It was probably cut due to the already high price point of Kinect. I wont be surprised if some new FPS Kinect game will come bundled with it and the Price of Kinect gets dropped next E3.
doobiwan
September 7, 2010 at 16:05
I think when people/developers stop thinking of Kinect as a way to interact “without a controller” and rather approach it as a way for games and apps to interact naturally with people, the penny will drop and we’ll see some awesome stuff.
Nick de Bruyne
September 7, 2010 at 16:09
I feel exactly the same way. 100% agreed.
AC!D
September 7, 2010 at 16:54
@Doobiwan: Thats what i thought also last year at E3 when i saw Milo and Kate. Unfortunately it was only a scripted tech demo so even that natural interaction is so limited its lost a lot of its appeal for ppl.
Here in lies the problem with Kinect for me. Its like deciding whether you want to use the remote or get up to turn the TV on. The time taken to get to the TV is the lag. Then when you get to the TV it doesnt have all the menu option buttons built on it like the remote does and therefore is limited as your body is substituting for the controller.
Now if the technology for Kinect was more advanced the way they demonstrated last year at E3 with the finger recognition and other advanced features then your body as the controller wouldnt be so limited and maybe ppl would be more excited. At the moment the tech doesnt seem up to it and seems to use too much CPU power for it to be included in lets say an interactive cutscene chat in Mass Effect for example. Last year Kinect looked like a massive advancement in gaming. This year it looks like a suped up eyetoy. Lets face it guys its been stripped down and im betting it would have been a hell of a lot better if MS had saved this for a stronger next gen console. It just doesnt look ready.
When the lead man Peter Molyneux comes out and says he and Rare wanted Kinect to also use a controller then you know Kinect is below par. Even Kudo is talking about using a controller with Kinect in his Eurogamer interview on the front page right now.