Recently there has been a lot of discussion around the launch titles for Kinect, mainly around the fact that there are no hardcore or core games being released and the video footage that we are seeing isn’t filling anyone with much confidence about the device.
But here’s the thing, Kinect is not being designed for you. If you are reading this you are a core gamer, you spend part of your free time playing games or reading about games and you are not the target market for Kinect.
The target market for Kinect is your wife/mom or more specifically her friends who don’t even know a gamer and have absolutely no interest in games. She is going to be targeted in places like Stutterfords, Woolworths or Virgin Active. She is going to be shown awesome fitness titles and games that keep her kids active instead of being stuck on the couch.
Do you really think she is going to care that her kids can’t sit down while playing a videogame? That’s a selling point for her and Microsoft know this.
The other market is your kids, the ones you won’t allow to play Red Dead Redemption or Call of Duty. The ones who don’t yet have the ability to target accurately or solve hugely complex puzzles.
My youngest (5) comes to me about once a week with her Kinectimal asking when she can play this game and every time she sees the Kinectimals video she is hooked. She isn’t a gamer but as soon as Kinect is released and she see’s it in the shop she is going to be begging for it.
It’s these markets that Microsoft is aiming its first wave of Kinect at and in my opinion they have a winner on their hands. I enjoyed playing Kinect and can’t wait to play Kinect Adventures with the family, the game isn’t anywhere near as good as Mass Effect or Killzone but that doesn’t matter to the family and that is who I would be getting Kinect for.
This is not to say that Microsoft (or other developers) won’t at some stage target the hardcore market it’s just that when it releases in November if you don’t have a family or a non gaming partner then Kinect is most probably going to disappoint.
However I am predicting that Kinect becomes the go to device this holiday season when families get together and while we can all complain about the price, in reality a Kinect bundle is only $50 more than the Wii launched at and that didn’t stop the Wii selling out for months.
What do you think, have Microsoft turned their backs on gamers with Kinect or do you think they are simply increasing the gaming market to the benefit of all of us?
Last Updated: August 20, 2010
DarthPenguin
August 20, 2010 at 12:45
They are enlarging their market. They doing the right thing with Kinect, I just won’t pick it up for a long long time.
abe
August 20, 2010 at 12:57
So we are now selling the inability to sit down as a positive?
WeRRieS ZA
August 20, 2010 at 12:58
Kids will love it, hardcore games will not! :angel:
Uncle
August 20, 2010 at 13:31
MS care about profits and beating PS. They want to take a chunk of the market away from the Wii and they’ll probably do that to a small extent with the Kinect.
ACID
August 20, 2010 at 13:46
I have to disagree with Gavin yet again in so many ways:
– Kinect is being touted for everyone just read the PR and see the gimped Star Wars, Forza 4 and Uncaged fighting core games. It is supposed to be for everyone.
– Resources creating core experiences are now being diverted to create casual games. Even more resources are being diverted to create core csual games like the ones i mentioned above. MS have sold off or lost so many developers like Bungie, the Project Gotham guys, Ensemble and many others so is this really the right way to go? Take their new found effort into PC gaming with the announcmenet at Gamescom and resources are dwindled even more. Take Nick’s article just below this about MS losing big exclusives and with the ever increasing PS3 install base thats going to be more expensive than ever to keep the Gears of war series and Splinter cell’s exclusives otherwise Bulletstorm would have been exclusive also. Suddenly it looks like MS has too many eggs in too many baskets without the resources and more and more articles like Nick’s will pop up.
– History has shown us that Nintendo followed this route while Nintendo’s core gamers were crying for great core exclusives. Eventually they got labelled as the Casual console and finally now at this years past E3 they learnt the error of their ways and announced tons of core exclusives. The problem is its probably too late for Nintendo. So why is MS following the same route? Especially when history tells us the casual crowd are a fickle bunch jumping from the singstars on PS2 to the MC on Wii. They are a fickle bunch and your core crwod keep you strong thats if you keep them happy.
– Why would your kids and wife want to play on something so gimped and so laggy when Wii and Move offer the same experiences. Kinectimals is a Eye Pet rip off, the fitness games are on Wii, the fighting game is less laggy on Move even though they both suck, the sports games are the same on all sytems. Did i miss anything? The only game seemingly worthy of purchasing Kinect is the dance games which look laggy as hell if you saw the asian video released earlier this month. Again why would kids and family want to experience a worse experience on Kinect? Anyone with sense would explain this to them.
– Your last point about Kinect costing near the same amount as a Wii doesnt make any sense because if this is only aimed at casuals like you say then they will need to buy the console also and fork out even more for a Gold membership for what i can only assume will be an even worse experience than the offline problems Kinect already has. Also you have to compare the current Wii price not the launch price because they are the direct competition. I guys not going to go into a store and look up what Wii cost four years ago. He is going to compare current price tags for value.
I have to respectfully disagree with everything in your opinion piece Gavin sorry.
ACID
August 20, 2010 at 13:49
By the way i registered and still cant edit my comments for spelling and other errors in the article comments section? Am i doing something wrong?
Nick de Bruyne
August 20, 2010 at 14:08
@AC!D
While you make some valid points, they mostly don’t prove Gavin wrong in anyway. You say that Nintendo is suffering for being called a casual console. How? They have made TONS of money on the Wii, and everytime they bring out a game like Mario Galaxy, Zelda or whatever, the original fans flock to buy it and praise them for their greatness. I don’t see how Nintendo is regretting their decision at all.
Gavin’s point is that the Kinect is aimed at families, and he is right. The Forza and fighting core games are merely an attempt to try and quiten the core gamers for now, because trust me , when the core games are complaining about lack of great games, but Microsoft is making a killing selling Kinect to families, they really really won’t care.
We can all happily ignore Kinect if we really want to, because companies like Bioware, Rockstar, Naughty Dog, Bungie etc. will still be pumping out great core games for the PS3 and Xbox 360, because that’s what they do best.
Nick de Bruyne
August 20, 2010 at 14:09
You should have the option to edit right next to the reply button, what browser are you using?
Bobby Kotick is a fad gamer
August 20, 2010 at 14:10
You’re spot on, Gavin, they’re target demographic has never really been the core gamer, but they’ll have to convince non-gamers, causal gamers (and/or fad gamers) that instead of a wii, DS or even a PSP, that they should rather get an xbox 360 with kinect (even separately you’re looking at a pretty expensive purchase).
It’s the same problem Sony will face, however they seem to be targeting both the Core and Casual market. Maybe they learnt something from the Eye Toy years, which Microsoft will learn soon?
It’s a dangerous strategy (MS) though, but at least the xbox has a reputation for delivering quality shooters and other fodder for their core gamers, otherwise… this could turn out really bad for them.
Nick de Bruyne
August 20, 2010 at 14:11
Oh, also double check that you are still logged in
Bobby Kotick is a fad gamer
August 20, 2010 at 14:13
It reminds me of the mid-to-late 90s when console gaming had a revival with the PSX, the Nintendo 64 and the Dreamcast, and PC gamers (then the hardcore gamers) actually said the very same thing.
“Kids will love it, hardcore gamers will not!”
It’s amazing how things have changed.
ACID
August 20, 2010 at 14:16
There is only a reply button and i am logged in since theres only a logout icon next to my username.
Gavin Mannion
August 20, 2010 at 21:48
1. Microsoft are obviously not going to say they don’t care about core gamers so I don’t see how you disagree with me there.
2. Resources are being used for this instead of core games, I fail to see how that is disagreeing with me though?
3. History proves Nintendo did the right thing, just check their bank balance
4. The wife and kids don’t care about lag, they want to play on it because it looks fun. They also like the idea of no controllers. Also the fitness game on the Kinect is far superior to the Wii, the Asian video’s were being affected by the cameras as it’s not that laggy in real life.
5. The cost includes the Xbox 360 console at $299 so it does make sense. Also they don’t need a gold account as they don’t care about online gaming.
You are more than welcome to disagree with me but honestly I think you have actually agreed with me more in your comments than you think.
PS: The edit function is an admin only thing (we just didn’t realise it as we are all admin) I will be upgrading the comments this weekend to add the ability to edit.
dan c
August 21, 2010 at 05:26
excellent article, yeh kinect isnt going to be for the core gamer yet. but instead of devolpers ruining our favourite games they will sell them to the unexpierenced make huge profit at then move onto us. kinect is a great technolgy but has flaws. giv ms and devolpers timw to work out the kinks and give it a year or 2 and well have games devolped for us and theyll be great (assuming kinect is a success) i hate all the stories how kinect will fail (how can they know the deviece isnt released yet) most reviews of the expierence from people who have actually played with kinect admit its a good technolgy good games just not for them.
GET OVER IT THE GAMES ARENT FOR YOU!!!!! YET :angel:
doa766
August 22, 2010 at 04:41
MS said time and time again that Kinect is for the hardcore and there’re many games being developed
but like the Harry Potter games showed in Germany, they’re all on rails
mike
August 22, 2010 at 05:13
the games will be simple and they will have to implement peripherals for it then it becomes the ps move, or wii hardcore games wont work hell most games wont work, just think about how will u play it. why do think ps stop making the eyetoy. atleast the ps move is what the wii should have been in the first place.
ZLoserKing
August 22, 2010 at 07:08
As a core gamer its not like there are a shortage of core games anyway. I doubt the majority of the core has played every core game released in the last 6 months. There isn’t enough time it seems.