The release of Kinect for Xbox 360 was said to open the new era for gaming industry. Players of Kinect would no longer require to use game controllers to play games, but simply by just using gestures and spoken commands. It is also a new technology that will grow with time and eventually adopted by its competitors.
Kinect was launched in North America last November and was considered the most innovative console in gaming industry ever. This is also one of the reasons why Microsoft was ranked the first place in “Top 10 Innovative Companies in 2010” released by US weekly publication Newsweek. Microsoft has made Kinect a differentiated product from other traditional motion-sensing game controller platform that it provides a brand-new gaming and entertainment experience with 100% controller-free to its players. Thus, even the gaming industry is in its growth stage, Kinect can still attract a certain amount of consumers to buy the product, albeit the market share it would gain might not be high. Indeed, heavy promotion for Kinect is essential. Microsoft is already doing this by offering Kinect with a relatively low starting price for a game console of only around US$150. Nevertheless, since the product is still in it’s infancy and a lot of product improvement still need to be done, heavy cost incurred in the future might be expected.
Recently, I just tried Kinect at my friend’s house. I think it was kind of cool when first playing it since it was a brand-new experience for me; however, it did have some troubles picking up my motions and being lagged. But overall, I believe this new technology still has a bright future in front and the concept of the technology might one day be applied to all sorts of applications that will deem the buttons that surround us today obsolete.
Here’s a demo of people playing Kinect (Those are exactly the same games I’ve played! 😀 )
