MS plays down Kinects hardcore appeal

Microsoft has offered up a very simple explanation for the lack of hardcore games currently set to support the upcoming Kinect motion camera – the device isn’t aimed at the core market.

Instead, the company has said that its motion titles and traditional joypad-based games are aimed at very different demographics

With Halo: Reach, Gears of War 3 and Call of Duty: Black Ops, this is the biggest year for core games on Xbox 360,” the platform holder told Kotaku. In addition to these controller-based games, Kinect is a new way to play, using your full body and voice

At Xbox, we’re developing controller-based games for the core and Kinect titles that appeal to everyone.”

The remarks come in stark contrast to claims made to MCV by Project Natal director Alex Kipman last year:

We’ll have games that are specifically designed to work only with Natal – not just arcadey games, but real, hardcore, triple-A titles.”

Whether this strategy proves correct ultimately depends on the appetite that the core games market shows for the new motion control offerings from Sony. If the likes of SOCOM and The Fight sell well MS could quickly find itself playing catch-up.