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Kinect's Launch Lineup Misses An Opportunity
I was trying like hell to play Kinect at E3, but with my already busy schedule at the convention I just couldn't see it. That's a real shame. While I'm not going to try and pretend I know what Kinect feels like to play, one thing I'm disappointed about regarding the system is the lineup of games that Microsoft showcased for the peripheral.
When the then-Project Natal was introduced at last year's E3, Microsoft talked about how already released games could be retro-fitted with the technology. Burnout Paradise was one of the games demoed at the time showing off this feature, and everyone who played it raved about it.
Since then, Microsoft has said that because of the technology required for Kinect, that it was no longer possible to retro-fit games with the tech. What happened? One minute Burnout Paradise is up and running with Natal and the next it's not possible? Maybe there was a technical reason for that which I wouldn't understand since I'm not a developer, but whatever the situation it's too bad.
I have no doubt that there will be good games that come out for Kinect. But the lack of backwards compatibility at launch is a missed opportunity to come out of the gate with a strong software lineup. Frankly, I'm not seeing that with the games that were touted at E3. Think of how much built-in momentum the peripheral could get if backwards compatibility was still possible.
If this were the case, even if you didn't see something you liked in the launch lineup you could at least point to a couple of titles you already own that would at least give you a taste of the experience – even if you had to bide your time before something really juicy came along. That's what Sony is doing by retro-fitting Move into games like Heavy Rain, Tiger Woods 11, Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition, and Toy Story 3.
I know some gamers who aren't convinced by Kinect and its games so far, but it didn't have to be this way.
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