Kinect - The Future

The motion sensor device Kinect has been in stores for a good few months now and has slowly been encouraging people around the world to part with their hard earned cash. The concept is simple – play games with the movements of your body – pushing the boundaries of fun for the whole family.

I’m probably going to sound like a cynic here but the Kinect hasn’t really achieved enough so far to grab my attention. The potential is there and the ideas are starting to head in a direction where the hardware may become more appetising in the future.

The set of games currently heading the Kinect range have their focus in one of three groups. The first is the health and fitness market which allows games to show exactly what the system can achieve and how exercise at home is both fun and productive like the hugely popular Zumba Fitness. The second major group includes many varieties of games that compete for the whole family - mainly offering the quick pick up and play options. Finally the third group is still a newbie to the system and focuses on sports games that can be played from the comfort of your lounge like the recently released Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13.

These broad groups show the main targets that Kinect has focused on since its release and as you can see the hardware mainly caters to the causal gamer. It’s a hard market to break and one that Microsoft obviously looked at as an opportunity missed.

Nintendo’s Wii console has been one of the greatest examples of a casual video game success and its release in 2006 was only assisted by the global war on laziness. At the time it was a regular occurrence to see campaigns and newspapers deliver negative publicity towards what was dubbed as the ‘lazy video game population’. We were constantly being bombarded with stories about kids being fat due to excessive gaming and that their social standing suffered as well as their education. Call me an arse but I’m sure that is more the fault of their parents than a piece of entertainment. Either way the publicity didn’t hurt the volume of Wii consoles sold. As families become more health concerned the greater the market becomes for fitness based products, especially those that can be enjoyed in short doses.

In steps Kinect - Microsoft’s answer to the critics.

As much as I love the concept of an electronic fitness centre at home the fact that I can go running for free and in the sunshine means that the Kinect isn’t as appetising as it might otherwise have been. I can see why families find it useful though as it can be used at any time and can plug a game in an otherwise busy day. It works with you and the time you can personally invest into it.

Now is the time for Microsoft to expand their Kinect horizons. Hardcore gamers would love to be able to use their Kinect for more than a short burst of time and want it to be incorporated into their favourite games and this is looking like more of a possibility everyday.

With Kinect reaching a large volume of the casual market and the Xbox 360 hitting the hardcore gamers it’s fast becoming the time to merge the two together. Microsoft needs to make the Kinect more of a must-have peripheral and the only way to do this is to ensure that everyone who has an Xbox 360 has a Kinect.

We are starting to see the use of Kinect functionality filter down to the more hardcore game series of course Mass Effect 3 being the most notable release so far. Yesterday though also heralded that another of our console favourites will be introducing Kinect functions into their current gameplay. The role-playing game The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim will be getting voice input support within the next month.

Support for Microsoft’s motion sensing devise will come via a free title update that will include over 200 voice commands for everything from Dragon Shouts to Follower Commands. It doesn’t end there though as these commands can also create and load saves, access menus and manage inventories.

It’s in these small but inventive ideas that Microsoft are starting to see the potential of their motion hardware. With games like Blackwater and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier headed our way this year it’ll soon be time to get fully functioning heavy duty Kinect Games.

Imagine running around a fantasy world swinging your sword with the movement of your arms or overtaking Lewis Hamilton on your favourite F1 track – all without the use of a controller.

If the concept ideas (easily found online) are anything to go by then this whole system is shaping up to put a completely different perspective on the video game landscape. Many people have said that Kinect is the future of entertainment and judging by it’s resounding approval you would be stupid to bet against it.