Things are looking good for Microsoft as their Kinect has become the highest selling accessory of this year and that is a big deal especially to console fanboys. We do have to give credit to Microsoft as they knew that people wanted something different. In case you didn’t know, Sony did have access to the same technology at one point, but passed because the felt it was inferior. I guess they didn’t know that people would buy this thing just for the fact that you do not need any controllers.
So today is the day that a new update on your XBOX 360 dashboard will be available, which means that things will look a little bit different when you turn on your XBOX 360 if you have it connected to the Internet. This update is probably happening because we are only about two days until Kinect comes out, so this update will bring support to Kinect that way you can use your body as your controller. Below you can see the counter in case you didn’t noticed it.
Well it is really exciting news that all 3 consoles are going to have motion sensing, but what’s important to the consumer is well which technology works best and what are the advantages of using these technologies. In this guide, we will tell you all that you need to know especially for the people that don’t know this technology well, and are looking to research before buying. It all started with the Nintendo Wii and the Microsoft jumped in the wagon when they announced Project Natal, which became Kinect and then there is Sony with their Playstation Move.
Let us start with the XBOX 360′s Kinect because it’s amazing technology and and we simply love it as there is a lot you can do with it. The technology itself looks amazing, but it has it’s negative things that really personally makes us not want to buy it. There are some issues with Kinect that could make it a bad gaming experience and that main issue is that you don’t have a controller in your hand physically. Not having any way to control your XBOX, but your body can be a bit repetitive because you are going to be moving your arms every time that you have to do something and that is a lot of work especially if you just got home from a hard days work.
Stand only Play
A concern with Kinect is that many developers have said that in order to play you have to stand at all times to control your game properly, which can tiring after a while especially if you are on your feet all the time in your regular life. In all the demos that Microsoft has shown everybody always seem to be standing up, so we hope that they fix this and let you play Kinect games sitting as well.
Movements
Kinect is supposed to capture your movements and with certain games it does a great job at it, but there are some games, which I’m not going to mention that just fail at actually capturing your movements. There’s also the fact that if you are too tall, fat, or heck even short it will probably not detect your movement well enough, so that means that Kinect isn’t for everybody and gamers come in all sizes.
Voice Recognition
A feature that Kinect has is the awesome voice recognition as it gives you the chance for you to basically talk to your 360 and tell it commands. The problem is that while testing Kinect, we noticed that it could barely understand us in certain commands like play etc. Although we don’t expect the technology to be perfect, it costs money and the consumer is going to be at a loss using Kinect if the technology doesn’t understand your commands.
Our Thoughts on Kinect
We hope that we didn’t discourage you from purchasing Kinect, but we thought you should know that the technology isn’t perfect and the reality is that all technology is not perfect and there will always be some kind of issue with it in general. The demos we saw are what they are and that is demos and they are not the full product.
The Playstation move is Sony’s competition to the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft’s Kinect and a great competitor that it is as it’s the best technology in the group. The difference between Kinect and the Playstation Move is well precision and how much superior the technology is than Microsoft’s Kinect. Now, I know that you guys are going to label me as a Playstation fanboy, but honestly the technology is better. In case you didn’t know Sony actually tested the technology used in Kinect and rejected it because they felt that it wasn’t accurate enough.
What separates the Playstation Move from Kinect?
You are probably wondering why is the technology better and what makes it different from Kinect and to a degree the Nintendo Wii, well there are a lot of difference with these technologies even though they are out to do the same thing and that is provide motion gaming. On Kinect it’s obvious that it has no controllers and the PS Move has two, which makes it a big difference. In gaming you need to press something to give you that feel of realism and even the folks of Nintendo knew this when they created the Wii.
With the Playstation Move there are going to be two experiences in the game and the awesome thing is that because of the amount of space that a Blueray has you will get the chance to play the game using the Playstation Move or simply your Dualshock 3 controller, so two different experiences in one game.
Pricing
Pricing is also quite reasonable on the Playstation Move and there are also bundles coming our way, which will make the deal even sweeter. Below you can see the different bundles coming and also further down the release dates.
And of course the games for the Playstation move will retail at $39.99, and there will be about 40 titles around the holiday season. The package will come with a demo disk, which is something that EA accidentally leaked and this demo disk will give you a chance to test things out.
Release Dates
Our thoughts
We are excited that gaming is changing, but for us is well how much of it can it change and are these technologies practical to use in the long run. With Microsoft’s Kinect the pricing is going to be $150 dollars and with Playstation 3 it will be $99 dollars and with better bundles, which means that get you a lot for your buck so the price is attractive. In the end gaming is an investment in one’s entertainment and I want to support this industry, but I also want to see results and that means games, good bundles, and great deals for the consumer and with the Playstation 3 the consumer gets a better deal.
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No this is not a typo Microsoft will actually be selling 4GB XBOX 360 slims that will cost you $200 dollars, which is a great price indeed, but one problem the hard drive will only have 4 Gigabites available for use. This is probably Microsoft shooting back at the rumors that a new $200 dollars Playstation is on it’s way. Microsoft did this before back when Playstation 3 slim was announced the 360 Elite’s price drooped and retailed for $300 bucks so it’s a probably a pissing contest again. Aaron Greenberg confirms that you will get to plug in your USB thumb drives into this new 360, so I guess it isn’t that bad for people that have pen drives. It’s also a great idea to lower the prices of these consoles especially with Kinect and the Playstation Move coming soon.
Microsoft announces a slim down XBOX 360 and renames their motion sensor that was known as “Project Natal” a thing that you add to your XBOX 360 that lets you do some foolish things while gaming, the new name is Kinect. It gets better because with this new XBOX you get a built in Wifi adapter inside this thinner 360. It looks great and a bit shiny, but this is a great thing because the wireless card for the 360 was like $70 bucks so now that it’s bundled the possibilities are endless.
Take a look at a photo below.
One of Microsoft’s top people, Steve Ballmer has hinted that Natal will probably come in as a 360 bundle. If you don’t what Natal is well it’s basically Microsoft’s competitor to the Nintendo Wii, and the PS3 eye camera motion technology. Where Natal separates itself is that no controller or gamepad will be used and if used it will be for very few things unlike the Wii and Playstation 3.
“for that big screen device here’s a piece of hardware that we build, there’s no diversity. You get exactly the Xboxes that we build for you. We may have more form factors in the future that are designed for various price points and options, but we think it’s going to [be] important.
“And when you see this Natal camera that comes with the Xbox this Christmas, I think what you’ll wind up saying is I’m glad they’re doing some hardware, too, because it permits a different kind of innovation, and we want to have both of those muscles working on behalf of you the user and the developer”
[Gearlog]
