Actually, the consumer will decide Kinect's fate. If they don't buy the product, all the dev support and marketing dollars won't mean anything.
Buying a console that doesn`t suit your gaming needs doesn`t make you a `true gamer.` It makes you an idiot who wastes your money.
Gamers should spend their money wisely - just like all hobbyists. If you prefer certain exclusive titles or are looking for certain features that only one console has, why throw your money away on the others? For bragging rights on teh Internetz?
Pixel prestige won't pay the bill, sorry.
I think that`s the real danger Kinect faces - people buying it, discovering that it doesn`t work as they expect. Or worse, people buying it for the kids for Christmas, and the kids becoming frustrated, or bored, with it very quickly. Both could lead to a lot of returns and bad word-of-mouth.
Not if Kinect doesn't work as promoted, it won't. If the gaming experience turns out to be frustrating, or difficult, it will fail. Word-of-mouth is very important in sales.
The worst thing Kinect can do is sell 'on idea alone' as you put it.
If Microsoft hopes to appeal to casual gamers, it has to show some quality, functional casual titles. Gamers that are used to paying low prices for casual software aren't going to run out and drop hundreds of dollars on the idea that something might, possibly, be cool in the future. That's not the casual gamer's mindset. They want simple, easy-to-play, inexpensive games that are fun.
I had no idea this was coming out for Wii. Definitely picking this up.
I don't get the fuss over HDD installs. Space isn't a problem for me, thanks to a spare laptop drive I had.
@Outrageous
The best market for this, as I see it, will be families who already own 360's and not casual gamers. Casual gamers (like the 50 million+ people who play FarmVille, for example) aren't going to pay out hundreds of dollars for a console and peripheral without recognizable characters to push the marketing. Nintendo's genius was bringing the new motion control tech along with a stable of some of gaming's most iconic, cross-generational characters. Mic...
I'm so looking forward to this title. For me, few things beat an RPG.
Most everything I read about Kinect seems to focus on future possibilities, instead of the present. Unfortunately for Microsoft, casual gamers focus on the today, not the tomorrow. They're interested in playing the games available at the moment, not on what could be developed in the future. That's of far greater interest to the more involved gamer.
Hopefully, Microsoft will focus some resources on developing quality gaming experiences that will available at launch or ...
That's surprising. I'd have thought that Reach would dominate XBox Live. I guess it just goes to show how popular MW2 is.
I'm not banking on Kinect having mass appeal. I think word-of-mouth will have a bigger role in its success, especially beyond the first adopter phase. If Kinect doesn't work as people expect, or if the software titles aren't enjoyable, those same casual players will have no problem passing that information on. For casuals, it's all about the fun factor and ease-of-play.
That's where Nintendo excelled. It coupled a new approach to gaming with a stable of f...
The Layton series is fantastic. High production values, mind-bending puzzles, great writing - the series has it all. Layton's a real standout in the DS library.
PS3 and Wii offer different exclusives and gaming experiences, just as it would make no sense for Playstation Eye owners to sell it to buy Kinect. Why deprive yourself of exclusives just for a different peripheral?
So, a title with high production values that encourages gamer creativity and promises an incredible amount of replay value by allowing its players to create, play, and share their own levels with other fans isn't worth being lauded as GOTY?
Hilarious.
Good for you. That doesn't change the fact that there's nothing wrong with any console maker expanding its library, and its appeal, beyond any particular segment of its audience.
I don't get the hate for the software. If you don't like it, don't buy it. If the games suck, they'll flop, but at least give the company props for trying to make the console known as more than an FPS or sports title machine.
Facebook provides a great casual gaming experience for me, and it also gives me the chance to play games from devs and companies I'd never heard of before.
I never imagined Social Network gaming would become so popular. The numbers are pretty stunning.
I enjoy Level-5 games. I'm looking forward to see what the partnership comes up with.
I wonder how these dance titles will differentiate themselves from each other. Will it be a case of 'played one Kinect dance title, played them all?'
That being said, Kinect certainly adds much-needed diversity to the 360 software library.
I think Microsoft knows that, as long as they continue to offer the titles their core audience wants, then the 'hardcore' fanbase will remain loyal.
I'm not sure why the hardcore would abandon MS over Kinect anyway - as long as the 360 still offers them the games they want, what does it matter if the camera peripheral attracts a different set of gamers to the platform?
Unless MS stopped releasing the top-tier games the hardcore expect, that is.