In 2006, Nintendo introduced a system based entirely on motion gaming. The Nintendo Wii was able to achieve sales goals that would beat out its much stronger competitors, the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. What owners of the motion-based system would soon find out is that not every genre would translate well into the realm of motion based gaming. Platformers, for the most part, were an abysmal mess on the Nintendo Wii while even some of the system’s strongest titles, such as Super Smash Bros Brawl, were best played with a Gamecube controller. If not for the numerous gun peripherals, the Wii would have also failed in the way of First Person Shooters – though even then, the genre saw very few standout titles.
For whatever reason, despite the numerous complaints that the Wii wound up being good only for first party franchises, such as Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda – even Metroid struggled to survive, and childish party games, Sony and Microsoft seized the opportunity to join the realm of motion gaming. Here’s where you need to take a break from reading and ask a fellow gamer that bought into the Playstation Move or Xbox Kinect how they feel about their purchase. Unless they’re big into the same nonsense that Nintendo tried to pull off with the Wii, their answer is bound to be quite negative. If you sift through the releases for both motion peripherals, which released almost a year and a half ago, you’ll find one gem for every 20 shareware titles. When you spend upwards of $150 for something, you’d like to be able to use it more than just as a means of fast forwarding / rewinding a movie with just a wave of your hands.
So, the question stands: Why are developers wasting money on lackluster peripherals if there is no plan for any future heavy support? During the Sony press conference at E3 2012, Sony introduced Wonderbook, a peripheral to be used in conjunction with the Playstation Move and Eye. The theory here is to apparently back up one failing peripheral with one that, in an essence, throws an illustrated book on a television screen that contains built in interactive mini-games. If not for the announcement that J.K. Rowling’s extension of the Harry Potter universe, The Book of Spells, would accompany the release of Wonderbook, nobody would have paid any mind to the future failure.
To support its Kinect peripheral, Microsoft showcased Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Fifa 13, and Madden 13. Utilizing the concept of voice activated commands that practically no game has been able to successfully implement, Splinter Cell, Madden, and Fifa will work in conjunction with the Kinect to allow players to utilize voice commands to add a new layer to gaming. Though Microsoft was able to showcase the successful utilization of these voice commands, things change drastically when not implemented in such a controlled environment. Will these techniques work when brought into the home setting? That answer is up to the developer, but if history has shown us anything, the answer will most probably be “not without drastic hitches”. Where Kinect shined the brightest during E3 was when it was announced that Internet Explorer would be implemented on Microsoft’s new SmartGlass. Essentially, Kinect will help users navigate the World Wide Web. Congratulations, Microsoft; you’ve essentially created a $150 “mouse”.
How long will gamers be subjected to shaky peripherals that, in two years time, will turn into glorified paperweights with little to no support from the company that created it? It seems that each company squandered the opportunity at E3 2012 to give its peripheral some much needed support. Will Microsoft be able to finally pull off the more technical aspects of the Kinect, or will it best be used as an aid to surf the web. As for the Playstation Move, there doesn’t seem to be any hope.
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