#kinect
This look at Microsoft's internal take on the true cost of motion gaming, obtained by Kotaku, has its charm, but isn't completely anchored in reality. More »
#kinect
Microsoft's Kinect add-on for the Xbox 360 will be $150 and come with a copy of Kinect Adventures when the motion controller hits stores in November, the company said today. Kinect games will sell for $50 each. More »
In addition to Kinect retail pricing, Microsoft announced a brand-new Xbox console: a 4GB Xbox 360 "slim" meant to replace the Xbox 360 Arcade SKU. "It will go on sale August 3rd in North America," Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg told Joystiq, "and later in the month of August around the world." This $200 console will sport the same new look as the Xbox 360 slim, "except it will have a matte finish," Greenberg said. Though there are currently no Xbox 360 hard drives on the market that support the new "slim" form factor, Greenberg told us that this 4GB unit "absolutely does have that expansion bay that we have the opportunity to use in the future." Between 16GB USB thumb drives and 4GB of internal storage, the entry-level Xbox is more attractive than ever.
Microsoft also detailed a Kinect bundle, featuring the aforementioned 4GB Xbox 360 along with the Kinect sensor and Kinect Adventures for $300. "We think this is really a tremendous value," Greenberg said. "We believe the launch of this product is going to be driving a whole new series of new consumers into the Xbox 360 family."
Hoping for another game besides Kinect Adventures in your bundle? Greenberg noted that Kinect Adventures is it for bundles. "We feel like that's really the perfect title to include [...] It's got the great jump-in, jump-out multiplayer gameplay as well." The $300 Xbox 360 Kinect bundle will be available alongside standalone $150 Kinect sensors at retailers on November 4th.
Rare has officially opened its new studio in Birmingham, England. Watch the video below to learn about the new studio, as well as Rare's evolving game development philosophy. Be sure to keep an eye out for the testing area, in which Rare appears to be banging away on Kinect Sports table tennis.
#news
Instead of just coughing up an MSRP for Kinect, Microsoft's doing the announcement-of-an-announcement thing. But you can join up a Facebook page or text an SMS code to make sure you get immediate notification the sucker's $149. Or whatever. More »
#xbox360
Microsoft is taking its Kinect controller for the Xbox 360 on a summer vacation, hitting up dozens of locations in the United States and offering a chance to play with the device before it launches this November. More »
#xbox360
For a week in June, Team Kotaku played Microsoft's hands-free control system Kinect, standing up. Kinect has problems with seated players, we reported. Yesterday, I tried doing a push-up in front of it. More »
#xbox360
The Xbox 360 dashboard, the user interface for Microsoft's gaming console, looks like it will be getting a slight polish in November when the company launches their Xbox Live Gold Family plan. More »
#xbox360
Did you know that Microsoft's controller-free Kinect games come in purple cases instead of the green Xbox 360 ones? Would you like to see the cases up close? Better yet, would you like to see an either wall of them? More »
Amidst all the hubbub around the question of whether Kinect can or can't handle a player sitting on a couch, one related question seems to have been lost: Can Kinect handle players lying on the floor? This important issue was finally addressed at a session of the Develop Conference in Brighton today, and the answer is a definitive "kind of."
Speaking at the session, Blitz Games CTO Andrew Oliver said his team ran into this very issue when developing their The Biggest Loser: Ultimate Workout game for Kinect. Many of the exercises on The Biggest Loser TV show, such as push-ups and certain yoga poses, require lying on the ground.
Replicating these in the game offered a new challenge for Microsoft's 3D motion sensing hardware, and apparently it's a test the hardware fails. Oliver reported lying on the ground fundamentally breaks the 3D skeleton of your body detected by the Kinect camera and technology. "We had to consider, would this skeletal tracking ever realistically be able to work out that a player is laying on the floor," Oliver said. "We asked - believe me we asked - and we were told it wasn't going to happen."
#comiccon2010
Microsoft brings out the big guns at the 40th annual Comic-Con International, with a line-up of panels and playables featuring Kinect, Gears of War 3, Fable III, Halo: Reach, and more! More »
#xbox360
This month, Microsoft is rolling out Kinect demo booths at malls across the country. Malls like Minnesota's Mall of America. And a bunch of Macy's. More »
#productplacement
While we won't be seeing Microsoft's Kinect until November, the family in science-fiction made-for-TV movie The Jensen Project already has it all set up, though they might want to do something about that errant Xbox 360 logo in the corner. More »
#bundles
While we still await official word on the pricing on Microsoft's Kinect, Walmart has started selling preorder bundles for the camera controller, packing in a game of your choice and a $30 gift card for $199. More »
#xbox360
Sorry, China! When Kinect is released later this year, you won't be allowed to buy the motion control peripheral. At least, not officially. More »
Microsoft's assault on the "expanded audience" begins in earnest, with Kinect demo stations being set up in one of the least GameStop-like retailers imaginable, Macy's. People who go into stores in 13 cities across the US, looking for Martha Stewart furniture or the like, will have an opportunity to experience the controller-free gaming ... experience starting July 15. The retailer will also give away one Kinect per day at macys.com between August 12 and September 10.
The locations are much more spread out than the other Kinect demo locations (Microsoft Stores), so you have a better shot at being able to find one near you -- or you could just go outside and start waving your arms, in the hope that one of the Kinects will notice. We don't know how good those cameras are. You can see the list of stores after the break.
#ubisoft
Does this look like a Kinect game to you? An Xbox 360 game that has you doing some body-puppetry of an avatar on your TV? Well, it is the Kinect game I played yesterday. More »
Echoing statements made by Sony's Phil Harrison a few months before the introduction of the Dual Shock 3 (specifically, that rumble was a "last-generation feature"), Microsoft's Kudo Tsunoda suggested that the lack of rumble from the Kinect camera wasn't a big deal, by suggesting that rumble isn't a big deal, in an interview with Edge.
"The overwhelming thing we've discovered is that rumble is such a rudimentary form of haptic feedback," he said. "It's not like a little rumble in your palm is your whole way of interacting with the world - it's not like, oh, I stubbed my toe and I get a little rumble in my palm." The audiovisual presentation of Kinect games, he said, does more to immerse people than rumble, as evidenced by the instinctive reactions he observed from players. "In many of the games we have, people will crash a vehicle and they'll go totally like this [mimes dodging out of the way]! And even people playing games with a controller, there's always people doing this [mimes driving motion]."
Tsunoda went on to sort of address the nagging question of lag. "The way we measure 'lag' is by putting people in front of the experience and measuring their thoughts. Either it feels good or it feels sloppy. It's not how many milliseconds, it's: 'Does it feel good? Does it react fast? Does it feel as if you're in control?'" So what is important isn't the amount of lag, but the perception of lag.
#motion
The Nintendo Wii launched nearly four years ago and it undoubtedly changed how we view and approach gaming. Even now, its influence is demonstrably strong on Microsoft and Sony. This fall, both companies are launching their own motion control hardware, wrangling in the remaining consumers eager to shake their dongle or their booty at the TV. More »
#kinect
When the PS3 launched in 2006, the SIXAXIS controller did not have rumble support. It had motion control, but like I just said, no rumble. And I found myself playing more Xbox 360 games. More »
