14 DAY TRIAL // The creative director of Forza Motorsport 4 developer Turn 10 Studios, Dan Greenawalt, believes the Kinect sensor for the Xbox 360 will surprise a lot of gamers in the future through all the implementations made by various other studios that are working with it and the Xbox 360 platform as a whole.
The Kinect sensor for the Xbox 360 has been out for almost a year and it's been doing pretty well, managing to break sales records, while soon becoming a core part of the Xbox 360, thanks to a new dashboard update with a new, more Kinect-friendly interface.
But Turn 10 Studios' creative director, Dan Greenawalt, via CVG, believes that developers will find all sorts of uses for the Kinect in their regular games and, in time, it's going to become an incremental part of the gaming experience.
Greenawalt first talked about first person shooters and how many people were saying that they can't be done on consoles, although GoldenEye 007 or Halo proved them wrong, even if it took some time until it became apparent.
"Kinect is the same thing - it takes time," he continued. "You should be charging us as the innovation engine of the industry; the big franchises, the big teams, the creative powerhouses. Players should be charging us to surprise them. I think most people think, 'Well I haven't thought of anything and so therefore there's nothing that can be done.' That's just silly, our job is to come up with new ideas and surprise people."
"We're just at the tip of the iceberg with Kinect. As a creative industry, this is fairly new to us still. I know it seems like 'Wow it's been out a full year.' But it's only been out a full year. There's a lot more time to go."
Turn 10 Studios' Forza Motorsport 4 will use the Kinect during actual races, by tracking the head of the player and moving the camera accordingly, or by improving the Autovista experience, where cars are showcased in all their glory.
Greenawalt believes other studios will bring fresh implementations for the Kinect, so there's no telling what can be achieved with the sensor.
"I think it would be incredibly naïve of me to say that I know where Kinect is going. Because it's so new, there's no way I can know where Kinect is going. But honestly I'm nothing but excited about where Kinect can go."
Forza Motorsport 4 is out on October 11, and a demo is going to be released on October 3.