Business Approach Comparison Sony PS4 and Microsoft Xbox

I'll grant that the jury is still out on motion gaming and X1 should boost it. But if in the couple of years since it's been out it hasn't moved the needle on the gaming habits, then what?

How long did it take for the Wii to take off?

 

That was gyro based and something you hold, included in each box as well. Kinect was late and based on magic that did not work in each home. My son thought and still thinks it is magic, kinectimals was crack to him. Why does something have to be core game related to be a success?

It fills a niche well and can work really well if your conditions were right. V2 seems to improve on all areas, has the low or high light covered, better with small spaces, seems like the mic array is improved plus it comes in every box.

It would be a shame to not see it utilized outside of exclusive games.

For me the controller is my first input (see what I did there), but I like how vc adds to the experience. Think about how cool it would be to be playing a cover based game and giving your squad members (Ai or otherwise) a hold signal or a move up to left/right cover. It is a time when you can afford to take a hand off the controller to do so. So limited use cases done right can truly add something, or you ignore this optional feature and use the controller 100%.

Honestly I did not see Sony not including the eye with the ps4 based on how the reveal felt.

 

before kinect 1 lauched, i remember a lot of people here were going on about that it was going to add so much to new games input.
i just said it will do for party/fitness/dancing etc games

so 3 years on
were there any 'decent' games that actually used kinect as the primary input?

this time though its gonna be completely different, btw I also have a bridge for sale anyone interested

 

I remember this device called a tablet. It was released many years ago by Microsoft. The interface wasn't great, the touch screen didn't work all that well and it never sold well. Fast forward a few years. Apple releases the iPad. Same tablet device that everyone said would not work just improved to the point that it is an enormous success.

Now this is just an idea... but what if, what if kinect 2 is actually accurate enough with an elegant interface to fundamentally change the way you interact... intuitively. It has so much potential its hard to listen to people who just want to stick with the status quo. Someone will break this market wide open eventually whether it is Microsoft or someone else.

 

Aah, so by definition, Dance Central, a game that sold millions of copies, is not "decent"? Simply because it is a dance game.

But if you are referring to games that are not based solely on rhythm or exercise, I give you Gunstringer, a delightful game. Child of Eden was also excellent and Kinect Sports was lots of fun, surprisingly accurate, and a glimpse of what is to come in sports games.

All of these games have been accomplished with the v1 Kinect, essentially the equivalent to the Atari joystick. V2 is looking a lot more accurate with finer control, more accuracy, and more features. Saying that they won't be able to do more with it is like insisting dual stick shooters can't work because the Atari joystick can't accomplish it.

 

The problem with Kinect 1 imho was that it wasn't bundled with the console from day one, so what it got was notoriously horebleep-games and some silly stuff, save a few, because it had no universal support and was like an afterthought.

Kinect 2 is what Kinect 1 should be and a lot more. I have Kinect 1 and I'm pretty happy with it despite the fact that I just purchased 3 games for it.

 

Voice is the obvious upgrade for traditional games. It worked well with ME3 and Skyrim.

The new one can read some facial expressions, has a greater FoV, a much improved skeleton, less lag... Slight leans or head movement can be used. It can provide inventory and equipment shortcuts with voice and the obvious gestures. It can presumably do a better job with sitting players than Kinect v1 could.

 

Yes. I'll be the first to reiterate what I said earlier though: It's CRITICAL for MS to show the true power and flexibility of Kinect 2 with real games if they want their vision to succeed in the marketplace.

Some stuff that might be cool:

1. Putting you or things you own or love into the game with the Kinect camera and a little Cloud power.

2. Voice controlling troops in an RTS or other military game.

3. Voice interacting with NPCs in an RPG.

4. New innovative music games like Fantasia.

5. Voice activated inventory - "Healing Potion" etc...

There are a LOT of possibilities if the tech actually works.

 

Do you have kinect?

Many of these things are already done in kinect 1 for xb360.

Mass Effect 3, and actually I think I remember another mil game that had voice control prior to kinect just using the headset.

The things IMO which would have pushed Kinect over into 'awe inspiring' territory would be individual finger tracking and pupil tracking (where on the screen you are looking). Sadly, it seems the new kinect2 is still not up to the challenge to meet the above criteria.

 

You just have to look at the demos of Kinect2 tracking a group, smoothly, all with hands and joint rotation. Compare that to the relatively janky kinect1 skeleton, for even a single player.

It's precise enough to be a huge improvement over the original. I'd presume similar improvement for the mic array,

That data is always there now and waiting for games to make good use of it.

 

Well it sounds as if Kinect 2 has a lot of potential then.

 

The problem with motion and voice is cost of input vs button interfaces.. i.e What benefit do I get flaying my body parts around vs slightly moving my thumb to press a button to do the same action.

Then there is the problem of interacting with virtual objects that don't exist in the real world. Its very awkward hence why Dance/rhythm and simple exercise games work well for the technology because they don't require interaction with objects on a display.

Its one of those, nice to have but I can live without kind of deals.

 

This is an excellent point, the remote really is a good way to control the TV, personally I have zero interest in speaking or moving arms to change channels. Perhaps elderly people with certain types of arthritis in their hands and fingers might benefit or people with some disabilities might find this a good option but generally speaking I don't see people giving up their remote anytime soon. Same goes with their standard joystick or mouse and keyboard - these technologies simply work well.

I see a lot of people hyping up Kinect 2.0 because of the new opportunities it affords developers. IMO Innovation is important but we aren't likely to see a revolutionary concept that improves turning on water at the faucet or switching on lights when entering a room. Yes home automation is cool but once you spec out the cost and complexity associated with the implementation most determine that hitting the light switch is the optimum point where engineering and cost intercept.

Kinect 2.0 might turn out to be revolutionize gaming and if so great, we'll see Sony and Nintendo in that case dive in. But based off what we know and see today its perfectly reasonable and fair for people to say show me why I need to care and why I should be willing to pay a premium for these features.

 

Voice is a great way to search and already beats a remote or pad there, unless you enjoy skipping through menus and typing things out on virtual keyboards. I imagine it's at least occasionally much quicker to control TV with voice, more so if you don't keep the remote in hand the hole time. I like "Xbox pause" when it's available, while I go put the kettle on or whatever.

A combination of both is what will work, but you only have so many buttons, and there's a lot of fiddling about in menu and inventories that could be streamlined with voice commands.

 

Well that depends how deep into the menu tree you have to go. Voice could allow for a lot more options than traditional menu trees.

 

Why do I need Kinect to do voice? Doesn't the PS4 have a headset for chat?

 

You'd need it, or PSeye when you haven't got a headset on your head.

MS have natural language support through their UI, and a fancy mic array connected to every box. It'll be easier, and vital, for them to implement this stuff effectively.

 

I understand that but unless there is some sort of OS update specific for Eyetoy whatever libraries are present for voice will already be present on PS4 hence my original question. It seems to me that voice support in general shouldn't be dependent on having Eye or Kinect per se, it comes down to having a mic.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1oljgejGqs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8TkhHgkBsg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLBnlUjVNh4

I remember the conversations I had a few years ago about eBooks. They would never catch on, because who wants to pay hundreds of dollars up front to read a book. Paper books are a simpler interface. You would have to buy a hundred books before the ebook would be cost effective.
Now? eBooks are outselling paperbacks because someone made it easy to use them and see the benefits.

 

shhhhh. You gave away the secrets.

Next thing you know youll post a whole home automation kit you control from your phone. lolol