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Thursday, March 10, 2011

Amateria is gonna have to help on this one.

I was equally surprised when I saw this yesterday, but this guy's article sums it up well.

With the Wii it makes sense because it's everywhere, but I only know 1 person with a Kinect.


Posted by at 2:52 PM

4 comments:

  1. JuniperRedMarch 10, 2011 at 5:25 PM

    what is a kinect?

    ReplyDelete
  2. beg2differMarch 11, 2011 at 9:23 AM

    Yay, chiming in for my first time here. Long time listener, first time caller.

    I bought the Kinect at Christmas with much hesitancy and it was the best gift I purchased.

    Though I, myself, am not a big Kinect player - my gaming investment (my children) are. My four year old games for as much as I'll let him, and he loves the Kinect as much as playing LBP on the PS3 or his Spider-man games on the 360. Its actually been a great source of excercise and has (almost) eliminated any Wii play in my house. The complaint can't be heard that video games makes my kids lazy, they're off the couch more than ever.
    We own 4 Kinect games and they all get used as much as the other games in my house. Then again, all 4 of my kids game daily, so I let them explore any game type they wish as long as its appropriate for their age.
    You can argue that Kinect isn't for hardcore gamers and I'll disagree. What is the author's idea of hardcore? Amount of time spent playing? Dedication to the completion of a game? Sacrifice of time? My 4 year old may not know what "hardcore" means, but he already plays online and can kick my hardcore gaming butt in some of these games.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AmateriaMarch 11, 2011 at 12:10 PM

    I had a nice response, I guess it didn't save. Dumb.

    I'm like the rest of the readers and writers from Radar in that I'm a little shocked at this statistic. I don't see these types of sales happening, but there is a lot of hype around the product. At best, I think the Kinect is a new way of playing (different from the Wii and Move, whether you like it or not) and needs to have some patience before the hard-hitting stuff arrives. Every new innovation takes some time to develop for. At worst, the Kinect is a jackpot, goldmine, fad purely making it's revenue off of casual gamers who don't know any better. I think the reality is somewhere in between, but we all see that placement differently.

    I've actually seen quite a few Kinect units sold back to retailers, and I don't think the reason is the quality of the Kinect, but the impatience of the player. I'm more than willing to grant some grace (or draw the line as the case may be) but the Kinect is a very different method of interacting with our media. It's gonna take some time before that gets flushed out. Games as a medium haven't even fallen into place with the other visual arts and entertainment, it shouldn't be surprising that new innovation slows the process a bit.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AmateriaMarch 11, 2011 at 12:17 PM

    @Beg2Differ - (Thanks for jumping in on the conversation, sir!) Without assuming too much about your background, there's a big difference here between the hardcore gamer you are describing and the ones that are writing at Gamesradar. Hardcore and Core are relatively new terms in the industry, generally referring to the generational gap caused by the differences in hardware innovation we've seen over the past few years. I have no doubt that your son is hopelessly in love with games, but I don't think he's the "hardcore" gamer like the guys at Radar. They seem to use the term "hardcore" as a badge of honor, somehow distinguishing themselves and setting themselves above the rest of the gaming population - I don't think they're use of the word is a means of classification.

    I also think your update on the success of the Kinect in the home is a promising sign. Most would probably chalk it up to fantastic "gamer parenting" but I find it encouraging that the Kinect and it's games are listed amongst your other ones, not set apart. I've talked to too many people who don't consider the Wii a gaming system, but a thing, or a toy, or a box. Being set apart from "videogames" might work for marketing or sales, but at the end of the day, it needs to be classified amongst the others, and I think your childrens' use and balance of the Kinect with their other games shows that the Kinect can hold it's own.

    ReplyDelete

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