Hasta La Gadget!

One of the major points of confusion related to Microsoft’s new controller-less Xbox 360 Kinect gaming system is the perceived lack of seated gameplay, largely driven by those early demos that required a standing player. At the time, Kinect’s sensor was keying off the base node located at the bottom of the spine to create its skeletal models. As of a few months ago, Microsoft updated its software libraries to key off the base of the neck, thus avoiding any ambiguity caused by the player’s motionless knees or feet obscuring a spine stuffed into the opaque comfort of the living room sofa. At least that’s what Blitz Games Studios co-founder and CTO Andrew Oliver told Eurogamer. Unfortunately, the motion-sensing changes for lazy-bone play come too late for Kinect’s early November launch titles (burdened with writing their own software for seated play) but “games going forward won’t have a problem,” says Oliver.

Microsoft Kinect will work just fine for seated gameplay originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Oct 2010 05:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Got your Instapaper bookmarklet prepped? This is a bit of a long one: Wired UK has put together an in-depth creation history for the soon-to-be-released Kinect. While a “one man against all odds” story might be a little quicker to read, the story of Kinect (or Project Natal, as it’s been known for most of its lifetime) is actually a pretty remarkable collaboration. An original demand and vision for the Xbox 360 from Don Mattrick (in pretty obvious response to the Wii), project leadership from Alex Kipman, gameplay creativity from Kudo Tsunoda, camera technology from PrimeSense, computer vision algorithms from Andrew Blake and Jamie Shotton — and that was just the incubation stage! The vision was cast in 2007, the project really started in 2008, and we’ll have the finished product (along with the all-important games of course) in our living rooms in November. While the most immediate battle for Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft is who can sell the most games and the most motion control hardware, it’s clear that Kinect is a major technical achievement with some pretty broad reaching implications for human / machine interaction going forward. Still, we wonder: can it run provide an effective user interface for Doom?

Oh, and if you need a little more Kinect in your life, check out our Engadget Show with Kudo Tsunoda where he dives into a bit of the tech and gameplay.

Wired chronicles the (brief) history of Kinect originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 13:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft Game Studios manager Kudo Tsunoda is usually known for his controversial choice of eyeware, but now it’s what he’s saying rather than wearing that is mixing things up. Kudo is so confident of his baby, the Kinect, that he thinks it will be the hot property this holiday season. He said this in an interview with Gamasutra:

The preorders have been really strong. As far as what we’re looking at for Holiday, this is going to be stuff that’ll blow away any of the sales you’ve seen with iPad… The Xbox 360 is already selling better than the Wii and Sony right now. Kinect’s really just going to boost that to a whole new level.

For what it’s worth we haven’t been blown away by any of the launch titles for the thing, so we’re not quite so confident of its impending breakout success. However, the Wii has certainly shown that people are willing to make frivolous gaming hardware purchases even when the software isn’t there to back it up. We’ll soon see if that mentality extends to pricey accessories, too.

Kinect sales will ‘Blow away’ those of the iPad — at least that’s what Microsoft’s Kudo Tsunoda thinks originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 19:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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From what we’re feeling, consumer sentiment on the Kinect seems rather divided, and frankly the opinions of those within the Engadget team is similarly split. Ultimately, though, it won’t be the hardware itself that decides the fate of this peripheral, it’ll be the games. At E3 this year Microsoft didn’t really wow us with any Kinect titles that turned the thing into a must-buy, but the five games announced today are at least showing some creativity and a lot of potential. Read on for all the details.

Continue reading Microsoft announces five new exclusive Kinect games from Japanese developers

Microsoft announces five new exclusive Kinect games from Japanese developers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 02:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony’s typically the equal-opportunity offender, poking fun at everything from Wii to iPhone, but the company’s latest marketing campaign is unmistakably aimed at Microsoft’s motion-sensing peripheral. Head on over to www.yaybuttons.com to interact with a two-dimensional PlayStation Move, which will pop out a series of quotes from Kevin Butler — Sony’s fictional VP of Realistic Movements — explaining Sony’s tactile advantages over Microsoft’s Kinect. While members of the Sony Defense Force will surely eat this up in spades, the rest of us will simply enjoy this latest tussle, and go back to waiting for both companies to put their money by their oral socket and make more games worth playing.

Sony launches anti-Kinect attack website, yaybuttons.com originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Sep 2010 04:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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