14 DAY TRIAL // It would appear that, even though Microsoft seems bent on keeping the Kinect as an exclusive Xbox 360 product, some want it to work on PCs enough that an actual game developer announced plans to design a PC game compatible with the controller.
The Microsoft Kinect motion sensor may be based on the conventional USB interface, but it still only works on the Xbox 360 and not the PC.
Still, where there's a will, theres a way, and the Internet already received its share of open-source drivers capable of allowing a PC to handle the technology.
This has happened even though Microsoft made it rather clear that it intends to work against any means of modifying the electronic, having even implemented hardware and software safeguards.
"Microsoft does not condone the modification of its products. With Kinect, Microsoft built in numerous hardware and software safeguards designed to reduce the chances of product tampering,” an official statement by Microsoft is said to read.
“Microsoft will continue to make advances in these types of safeguards and work closely with law enforcement and product safety groups to keep Kinect tamper-resistant," it added.
Basically, Microsoft wants the Kinect to stay as an exclusive Xbox controller, since it wants sales of that game console to rise.
Unfortunately, it would seem that the gaming community has different plans, some even rooting for Kinect-enabled PC games.
In fact, South Korean game developer GamePrix intends to let the Divine Soul MMORPG recognize input from this control system.
"The game's support of gamepads makes it resemble console games even more, and is scheduled to support Kinect, a new control system of Xbox360. [...] Kinect will soon be available as a new controller so it might be supported like joy pad mode in the future," said Jason Lim, an official for GamePrix, told IncGamers.
Ironically, users that wish to make use of this feature will have to get a hold of one of the aforementioned open-source drivers.
Whether or not GamePrix will have such a driver bundled with each copy of the game is unclear, since distributing such software would technically be illegal.