14 DAY TRIAL // Kinect has been a big success for Microsoft since it launched during the fall of last year, with the company reporting that it has managed to sell more than 10 million pieces of hardware and the same number of video games for it before the beginning of the June.
But the motion tracking hardware has not yet had a “killer app”, a game that makes the hardcore gaming crowds go out and buy it.
Now Microsoft is betting that the upcoming Kinect Star Wars lightsaber fighting game will be the game that makes Kinect a truly mainstream product.
At the Microsoft Play Day event taking place at Gamescom 2011 Gleen Gregory, who is the global product manager for Kinect Star Wars, has told VG247 that, “The challenge with a game like this is to make it so that anyone can play and have a good time right away but then also add enough depth and complexity so that someone who wants a full game experience can get it.”
He added, “I think that we’ve explored a lot of different ways of achieving that. In Jedi Mode you can jump in and have a real good experience but if you’re a core gamer there’s a lot of finesse to that combat and challenge you can experience there.”
Microsoft also announced at Gamecom that one game mode in Kinect Star Wars will allow gamers to become the biggest monster in the universe, the Rancor.
Players will be able to use Kinect to direct the movements of the beast, taking TIE fighters down from the air and destroying AT-ST vehicles with their stomping feet.
Kinect Star Wars will get more information closer to the fall launch date.
To promote the game Microsoft is also launching a special edition bundle with Kinect and the Xbox 360 both painted in a R2-D2 color scheme.