14 DAY TRIAL // Battlefield 4 is one of the biggest titles expected to launch this year, a first-person shooter that was revealed via an impressive Frostbite 3 engine powered 17-minute video, and one piece of news this week was that developer DICE had no plans to support motion tracking for it.
Remember the marketing push that Microsoft put together for Kinect and Sony lavished on the PlayStation Move?
The companies have promised that gaming as we know it will be revolutionized, with players getting access to experiences that are controlled via natural motion, making multiplayer a blast and allowing for better interactions between characters and the environment.
On launch, opinions were mixed but the devices sold well enough, especially the Kinect, to convince some developers to work with them.
Unfortunately, the games that support motion tracking have failed to deliver experiences that actually make gamers want to move in order to perform actions, which pretty much undermines the existence of both systems.
Battlefield 4 is important because, probably alongside a new Call of Duty title, this is one of the games that will show players what the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox 720 can do.
Sony has talked about better motion tracking for its new devices and rumors also offered information on a new Kinect.
But if Battlefield 4 drops motion support it’s highly unlikely that the rest of the gaming world will take the technology and push it forward.
And if motion tracking is a big part of the package that the Xbox 720 and the PlayStation 4 will deliver, then we might see one game contribute to the rise or downfall of an entire console generation.
Much of the above is just speculation at this stage and we will know more once Microsoft reveals its device in late May and after Sony reveals the design of the PS4.