SCEE boss Andrew House is far from convinced of the Microsoft Kinect’s versatility, the camera only gaming device that will be filling many stockings come this Christmas. In an interview with UK based industry site MCV, House said that when utilizing a camera only gaming device, “you do tend to hit a bit of a wall” with regards to viable gameplay content, and that PlayStation’s Move can have an impact across a wider range of games and genres.
House was speaking because of recent criticism surrounding Sony’s marketing drive for Move, and the fact that Microsoft has clearly invested significantly more in the marketing for Kinect. The Sony Europe boss believes Move will be the motion accessory of choice in the long term, saying that Move can contribute to a wider range of games, whilst the competition, being Kinect, will suffer because it has been based around family gaming:
“We learnt from that experience that there are limitations around a camera-only solution. It does work well and lend itself to certain genres, but you do tend to hit a bit of a wall when trying to support it with the broadest range of content available. That’s not the sort of problem we have with Move.”
“Consumers have understood Move is something that could impact a wide range of games. This is opposed to what I think may dog the competition to a degree, which is basing it solidly around just a family experience – and one that is harder to adapt into traditional game genres.”
House believes that marketing is second in importance to content and experience, suggesting that Sony have the upper hand in both areas.
“We know a marketing push is important around a launch window, but what will really drive adoption of new technology is going to be great content:
“We’ve got a whole range of experiences that serve the broadest audience and that is a far better long-term bet. You can only sustain a certain amount of momentum just based on trying to ram product at people based on a strong marketing push. It really will be content that defines it.”
Whilst Andrew House celebrates the fact that Move is able to work with many genres, gaming godfather Peter Molyneux himself believes that Kinect will enable developers to create new genres altogether.
There is some truth to be had in what House is saying, it seems to be far easier to implement Move into existing titles, such as Heavy Rain, as well as adding Move capabilities to big upcoming releases such as Killzone 3. This is an area that Sony has exploited to far greater effect thus far, but Microsoft will be hot on the heels of Sony come 2011, with titles such as Forza Motorsport 4 being shipped with features that will utilize Kinect.
There’s no doubting that 2011 will be the year to make or break both Kinect and Move — both Microsoft and Sony will have to bring out the big guns to keep the majority of gamers interested in motion gaming, and its ability to enhance the all round experience of console gaming as a whole.
Initial sales are great for both companies, but gamers will only be satisfied with employees and developers talking up the technology for so long, and House is correct in saying that the content will be the defining factor, so we say let the content do the talking.
What do you think of House’s comments? Fair reflection or a cheap jibe at Microsoft? Can you even compare Move to Kinect? Let us know in the comments.
Source: MCV
Microsoft: Banned Players Lose Access to Purchased Xbox One Games [UPDATED] 
Microsoft Officially Backpedals on Xbox One DRM Policies 
Xbox One Policies ‘Alienated Entire Military’; Entertainment Research Forecasts Trouble 
Xbox One E3 Demos Found Running on Windows 7 PCs 
Loading ...
Of course he would say that. I really think Kinect has the widest of potential. Anything the Move will end up doing will most likely have been done or at least attempted on the Wii.
LOL, what? Kinect is more advanced tech.
Let’s see what sells better and which console provides better games or functionality with it.
Move=lazy wii ripoff! Kinect=something new & refreshing! The Kinect really make holding a controller while playing casual games obsolete. Sony is s******* bricks right now so they want to downplay the kinects potential! Microsoft deserves a round of applause for always staying one step ahead of Sony since the 360 launch! It’s typical Sony smokescreen/hate.
Everything will boil down to numbers with motion control. The success of move and kinect will depend on the number of units sold which then encourages companies to develop games utilizing said tech. The Playstation Move looks to be a more accurate version of the wii, kinect has an edge on the “wow” factor.
did you guys know that sony was going to release the ps3 before the 360, that is until they saw what 360 had (hardware and design wise) and where like ‘s*** our console is garbage compared to it’ so they pulled back and pretty much re-did the who thing from scratch. the original ps3 control was literally shaped like a banana heheh don’t believe me then look up beta pics of the ps3
anyways my point is these clowns (sony) don’t know what they’re doing most the time, they just copy + paste what someone else did and add some more stuff to it, the only big thing they did was the playstation (original) and that was mediocre at best.
I always enjoying hearing from an executive who isn’t afraid to spout off about the competition, and House pretty much never disappoints. I don’t disagree with him, either – Move is better suited to a wider variety of games. But that doesn’t make it better than Kinect, which clearly has the high ground in public consciousness. Still, never count out Sony’s tenaciousness in promoting its wares. Blu Ray didn’t win for nothing.
HAHA. that is awesome! He has to think that the Move is better in the long run, since the short run has left them in the dust. And I don’t know what he’s smoking in even comparing the eyetoy to the Kinect, the dozens of videos online are proof of that. Those hacked videos alone show how much more potential there is in the Kinect.
I don’t know how these guys can deliver these lines without cracking up. House thinks that there’s danger in going after the family market exclusively, when their technology was basically an improved copy of Wii, which destroyed both Sony and Microsoft by going after families.
After all the hacks people have been doing with Kinect? Pfft yea ok Sony.