Gaming industry moving into the wrong direction???

[BeBMan]

First the Wee thingie, now MS' Kinect motion capture/control system. I think this marks a disturbing development: In the future we could need a lot more physical effort to play computer/console games. But do we really want that?

I expect to move arms, hands, fingers and eyes at best, but not much more when playing games! Ideally I also have one hand free to....eeh....eat pizza and/or drink booze. This whole new tech stuff sounds much more like work than fun to me. So who supports my crusade against this motion control BS?!?

Discuss

[Elok]

What I've heard about this Kinect thing makes it sound rather similar to the old Sega Activator. As I remember a gaming magazine saying in 1995, "Ooh, you have an Activator. Do you enjoy flapping your arms in the air while your friends laugh at you?"

[Cort Haus]

Yeah, a stupid gimmick - designing an absurd interface just for the sake of it.

Mind you - I've long been of the view that fast and furious click-fest games are frequently more like work than fun anyway.

[OzzyKP]

People call them gimmicks, but Wii beat the crap out of Xbox and Playstation, so now they are scrambling to get on the motion control band wagon. The distinctive thing about video games as opposed to books or movies, is the fact they are immersive. You don't sit passively and watch or listen to the content, you participate. So enhancing that participation by involving more of you than just your thumbs I think is here to stay.

[connorkimbro]

Here to stay for sure - and honestly these kinds of games are pretty fun, so it's not too surprising. However, there's a limit on the *kinds* of games for which motion control "works" so it's not as if it's gonna push other genre's out of the way.

[OzzyKP]

Agreed.

Heck, look at the iphone. We seem to be altogether moving away from buttons and dials and toward more natural and fluid interfaces with our gizmos. I think that is the way of the future as much as possible.

[Cort Haus]

Except that the good ol' keyboard and mouse are. I gather, the interface of choice for 1st person shooters.

[DinoDoc]

I would be interested in seeing the sales breakdown for Black Ops regarding consoles vs PCs.

[Elok]

Keyboard and mouse, game controller, either way it isn't a Wii or Kinect.

Except that the good ol' keyboard and mouse are. I gather, the interface of choice for 1st person shooters.

And Civ. And every RTS. And RPGs, including MMOs. Basically all of the top 10 on GameFAQs at any given time. If you've ever played with a Wii, you understand the limitations of the technology. Good for miming basic motions, not so good for complex commands. And if you're executing the same command a couple of dozen times per game, it can get old real fast.

[OzzyKP]

Except that the good ol' keyboard and mouse are. I gather, the interface of choice for 1st person shooters.

I could see 1st person shooters working well with motion control. Point and shoot. Throw grenades, etc. Could be really fun actually.

[Asher]

People call them gimmicks, but Wii beat the crap out of Xbox and Playstation

They did for a while, but then it got old. The Xbox has been spanking the Wii in sales (HW and SW) for the past 6 months, even without the Kinect.

Like all gimmicks, they get old. The sales curve (huge peak followed by huge falloff) demonstrates that it was pretty much a gimmick. It didn't have sustained or snowballing interest like the actual HD consoles did.

[Asher]

I would be interested in seeing the sales breakdown for Black Ops regarding consoles vs PCs.

This was released a couple days ago.

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/82685/call-of-duty-black-ops-sells-7-million-copies-on-day-one/
360: 59%
PS3: 36%
PC + Wii + Nintendo DS combined = 5%

[Asher]

FWIW, I own PS Move, Kinect, and Wii.

Kinect > PS Move > Wii.

Kinect isn't designed to replace controllers, it's more for games like Dance Central or the Your Shape fitness stuff. As long as it's used in its niche, it's excellent. But when developers start doing stupid things, I get worried.

I got Goldeneye 007 for the Wii, tried to play with the Wiimote. Infuriating experience. Ended up switching back to the dual-analog stick controller.

[OzzyKP]

They did for a while, but then it got old. The Xbox has been spanking the Wii in sales (HW and SW) for the past 6 months, even without the Kinect.

Like all gimmicks, they get old. The sales curve (huge peak followed by huge falloff) demonstrates that it was pretty much a gimmick. It didn't have sustained or snowballing interest like the actual HD consoles did.

A fad that has been going strong for four straight years? Four straight years isn't sustained interest? Four straight years of outselling the 360 by a 2:1 margin isn't sustained? That is just about the entire length of this generation of consoles, how long do you think till the next gen starts up?

Btw, sales figures for the three:

1. Wii – 75.90 million as of 30 September 2010 (2010 -09-30)[update][8]
2. Xbox 360 – 44.6 million as of 30 September 2010 (2010 -09-30)[update][30]
3. PlayStation 3 – 41.6 million as of 30 September 2010 (2010 -09-30)[update][31]

So even though 360 was out a full year longer than the Wii, it still has about half the sales. Yet, Wii is a gimmick, hahah.

Any sales drop off at this point might be due to saturation instead of declining interest.

[DinoDoc]

This was released a couple days ago.

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/82685/call-of-duty-black-ops-sells-7-million-copies-on-day-one/
360: 59%
PS3: 36%
PC + Wii + Nintendo DS combined = 5%

That's what I thought wrt the preeminence of mouse and keyboard with FPS gamers.