14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has revealed that the company isn't forcing game developers to implement support for the Kinect sensor in their titles and isn't just trying to push core gamers to buy the new peripheral if they don't want to.
Microsoft's Xbox 360 got a new lease on life last year when the company deployed the Kinect motion and voice sensor for the console, which went on to become the fastest selling electronic device ever, while the Xbox 360 is currently dominating its rivals during the last year in terms of sales.
Now, as more and more Kinect-only games are being released and with new experiences like an improved Xbox 360 dashboard or certain high-profile games coming with support for the device, many believe that Microsoft is just forcing them to buy the device.
That's not true, at least according to the Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft's Xbox division, Dennis Durkin, who talked with Industry Gamers about the company's policy.
"I don't think we're trying to put any input paradigm, enforce that on anyone, unless it's better," Durkin said.
"We're not trying to force anything. "If people want to do it and they think it enhances the experience, I think consumers will embrace it and they'll do it, but that's the bar that they'll expect. And there will be a bunch of experimentation, some of it will work and some of it won't. The things that work, people will emulate and they'll chase and the things that don't, people will try other experiments."
Durkin emphasizes that people will seamlessly adopt the Kinect into their gaming experiences only if the implementation of support works and doesn't subtract from the regular game, highlighting some of the demonstrations we saw last month at E3 2011.
"It's got to be experience driven," he added, "whether it be leveraging voice to do menu navigation, or to command troops - you saw Mass Effect - leveraging that within this ecosystem to decide which path do I want to go down and using that or directing troops. So I think you're seeing experimentation with voice."
"You saw it with gunsmith inside the Tom Clancy world, which used both voice and gestures. And you saw head tracking inside of Forza. So there's all this experimentation that's happening across that spectrum, and all those people are trying to make whatever experience it is - whether it's a soldier's experience in Ghost Recon, whether it's a driver's experience in Forza... whatever kind of experience it is, it's just to try to make that experience better and easier for that user."
While Microsoft isn't forcing users to adopt the Kinect, it's adding plenty of features that make use of it, many which will arrive with the New Xbox Experience this fall, including voice search, hand gestures and more, so gamers should definitely consider picking up the device.