MS expects critical and commercial mismatch

Xbox 360 platform holder Microsoft has admitted that the review scores for some of its Kinect launch titles are unlikely to match the adulation given to the likes of Halo Reach – but that it won’t affect their performance at retail.

For us, these are different types of titles and experiences than maybe some of the games traditionally that are targeted to the core market,” chief of staff for Microsoft’s interactive entertainment business Aaron Greenberg told Eurogamer.

So the correlation between a review score for Halo: Reach and sales is very high, but Kinect Sports is more about just having fun.

I don’t know how reviewers will grade those games because they’re so unique and so different to what the reviewers have played with controllers. We’d love to see great reviews but I don’t think you’ll see the same type of correlation between reviews and actual sales of the game, would be my guess.”

When asked if he is nervous about the potential critical response, Greenberg responded: I’m not nervous. I know what the media thinks; we know they love Dance Central, we’ve heard they think it’s the killer app. They’re excited about Child of Eden. We’ve even had a lot of good feedback for Kinectimals from the core.”

Later this week as part of MCV’s Kinect special, we will be looking at the media’s role in the coverage and reviewing of titles geared towards a non-traditional audiences. Keep checking back to MCVuk.com all this week.