okay we got things back under control
here the artist is restrained everyone
knows this dark green thing is a tie the
inbox isn't overflowing quite as much or
on track speaking of the inbox one of
our most popular requests has been the
subject of motion controls motion
controls we would all love for gaming
technology to achieve this someday but
in the meantime a lot of us aren't
completely sold on these will they
succeed let's talk about it but first
you can't really discuss motion controls
without starting with the Wii Nintendo's
unusual little console introduced the
idea of robust motion controls into home
gaming opening the markets and new
design concepts and a whole array of
potential new experiences more
importantly it significantly broadened
the market for video games introducing
whole new segments of the population to
gaming now I'll be the first to admit
that the Wii isn't where I spend much of
my time the type of games most of us
player usually better suited to your
standard controller or a mouse on a
keyboard and I mean well you know the
Wii but still from a designer's
perspective we're still fascinated by
the thing do we spend much time playing
it not really but are we glad for the
industry that the Wii exists you better
believe it motion controls may not be
our thing but no one can deny that the
Wii has had a big impact on video games
and on the whole I'd say a lot of that
impact is going to end up being positive
in the long run which brings us to the
immediate future for motion controls
connect and move commence speculation
let's start by looking and when the
Kinect and move projects must have begun
remember these are major initiatives by
enormous corporations at the very latest
these projects must have been
brainstormed back in 2008 back when the
Wii was still printing money faster than
Nintendo could build consoles in the
future of the 360 and the ps3 looked
pretty bleak by comparison obviously
things have normalized a bit now but at
the time we sales looked like they were
going to eclipse both of the other
consoles combined
unfortunately somewhere up the Echelon
x' and microsoft and sony someone
declared that motion controls were the
future and that in order to capitalize
on this new limitless market the way had
cracked open they had to begin building
motion controls for their own consoles
okay speculation over mostly so now we
have move and Kinect unfortunately it
seems that our industry hasn't learned a
key lesson
a lesson that every console cycle has
proven good hardware is nice to have but
it's software not hardware that makes a
system successful right now the move and
the connect just seem to be trying to
hop on the weed bandwagon there may be
some interesting variations in the
technology sure but most of the games
look like a lineup of wheat clones with
a HD coat of paint now only time will
tell but this approach seems doomed to
fail for a myriad of reasons number one
the people who want to play Wii games
already bought a Wii so that they could
play Wii games number two
Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners who
don't own ways already probably aren't
that interested in Wii games number
three let's say someone really wants a
Wii but for some reason doesn't own one
already they probably aren't going to
spend hundreds of extra dollars and sort
through all the confusing peripherals
just so they can have an HD we
experienced most of them are just going
to buy the weed they wanted in the first
place number four Nintendo's internal
development teams are pretty damn good
at making Wii games way better than the
companies working exclusively for Sony
and Microsoft are likely to be nothing
against those guys or anything but
Nintendo's got a five-year Head Start
and well you know they're pretty good at
making first party games number five the
high-definition doesn't really add much
to the Wii experience and then there's
the general confusion Microsoft and
Sony's products are going to generate
having motion controls as a peripheral
and add-on rather than an integral part
of the system creates multiple levels of
confusion first off they've created
brand confusion it's hard to market your
console to the Wii audience and the
current 360 and ps3 audiences at the
same time we're kind of different second
they've created consumer confusion Sony
and Microsoft are reaching out to casual
players here many of whom may never have
owned game systems before do you think
these port people are prepared to wrap
their heads around the differences
between Hardware SKUs and different
peripherals and all that jumbled mess
and then after all that they have to
figure out how to settle this Hardware
up it's a lot to sort out when you
aren't already familiar with this stuff
third they've created developer
confusion with the Wii a developer has
specific input devices he can always
count on the player owning Remote
Nunchuk maybe a balance board or
something but definitely they wave out a
nunchuck that's not going to be true of
the 360 and the ps3 anymore do you plan
your game around the player owning
Kinect or not that's not a trivial
decision for a studio starting up a
project right now in fact I'm willing to
bet at least one studio will end up
shutting down because they took the
wrong side on this bed so why are so
name
Microsoft doing this I'll tell you it's
important to remember Microsoft and Sony
aren't just being stupid here this is a
very calculated decision on their part
see while Nintendo has been selling the
Wii at a nominal profit almost since
launch the 360 and the ps3 are much more
expensive to produce and have actually
cost Microsoft and Sony money for every
unit sold that adds up and both
companies are hoping to usher in a new
paradigm with Kinect and move rather
than discarding your console to buy a
newer generation machine just buy an
upgrade for your current system instead
if Sony and Microsoft can get their
users to upgrade their consoles through
peripherals and plugins they can vastly
extend the life cycle of their current
Hardware meaning they don't have to
incur those costly initial manufacturing
stages quite so often the 360 Kinect is
essentially the next gen Xbox 360
they're not going to release and
upgraded this size and then invalidate
it by announcing a new console right
after although I suppose they could if
their next major console was Kinect
compatible but whatever you see what I'm
getting at so do I think the move and
the Kinect will succeed if these guys
want to beat Nintendo at their own game
they're gonna have to do something new
something exciting that the Wii isn't
already offering us at a cheaper price
this shouldn't be too hard for them to
do either because both kinect and move
can do things that we mote can't but so
far most everything we've seen coming
down the pipe is looking pretty familiar
Nintendo markets the week toward the
casual family and youth audiences
because they know we don't need Mario
and Zelda ads to tell us where to get
our fix and the ps3 and the 360 I've
been marketing toward the core audience
up until now but if moving Kinect are to
succeed Sony and Microsoft are going to
have to figure out how to brand their
machines as the console for everyone and
that's not going to be easy but most of
all the future of these peripherals
depends on developer support
how many studios not directly owned by
Sony and Microsoft are going to be
willing to take a gamble on these new
devices and how soon can they start
turning out truly innovative games for
them the casual wee audience is big but
it's not infinite overall I'd say these
two devices have a pretty tough road
ahead of them but before the motion
control haters among us start jumping
for joy
think about this hundreds of millions of
dollars have been poured into these
projects if these things fail the game
industry is in for a few lean years of
recovery
if connect and move bomb expect to see a
lot of people losing jobs studios are
going to have to play it a little safer
for a while so if you're going to see
fewer ambitious games being greenlit and
a lot of studios may have to close down
if they end up
on the wrong horse connect and move may
not matter much to you but don't go
thinking they're not going to have some
impact on gaming for you one way or
another so let's cross our fingers and
hope the industry Wizards can come up
with some motion control games we can
all enjoy for everybody's sake know that
one kind of turned into a downer Alison
can you help to tear this thing up mmm
yeah that helps
a little alright see you guys next week
you