How Xbox 360 Kinect and Playstation Move are changing the future of gaming

(http://www.helium.com/items/1876648-future-of-gaming-xbox-360-kinect-and-playstation-3-move)by Lauren Almeida

Gaming has always been an evolving recreational activity. Now going on seven generations of gaming consoles, the history of gaming and how it has evolved is quite impressive. How we came from the Magnavox Odyssey to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 is a huge curve of technological advancements, and this is just over the last forty years. However, now that the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 Kinect are being introduced later this year, the entire future of gaming is going to undergo some serious changes.


Over the years, we have gotten used to playing video games by pressing the controller’s buttons using our thumbs. Recently, gaming companies have incorporated the joystick mechanism to enhance game play. The level of interaction between the game and the gamer has been little, using the up and down arrows with the action button. Who would have thought that the interaction level would be increased even further?


It started off with the Nintendo Wii controller, or the “Wiimote”. The uniqueness of the motion controller hit the world like a hurricane and the Nintendo Wii sales took over the gaming market, out selling both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 combined. Gaming took a turn for the better as those who wouldn’t normally play video games were out purchasing the Nintendo Wii for its motion controller and very user-friendly interface.


In a desperation to catch up with sales, (and a recognition of which way the gaming future is headed), Sony and Microsoft both designed a controller for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Sony devised a controller something similar and more advanced in comparison to the Nintendo Wii controller, called the Playstation Move. The controller is much more precision-oriented than the Wiimote. Sony, in an attempt to take the gaming future a step even further, came out with the Xbox 360 Kinect, where there is no controller required.

There are two ways the future of gaming could head after looking at these two new releases from Sony and Microsoft. For one, it could head in a totally motion controller oriented state of play, where the gamer is the one in control just by moving his or her controller in a certain direction, just as the Move has presented. However, the Move is not the first idea of its kind, rather a more advanced idea of what Nintendo has already implemented into the Wii.


The future of gaming could head in a completely hands-free direction, just as the Xbox 360 Kinect has proposed.
 
magine playing a game where you aren’t confined to the buttons of the controller, where your movements equal pressing a button on the controller. The game seemingly transforms into a futuristic virtual reality. In movies where you see futuristic ways to manoeuvre through an interface without having to touch a button, where the system recognizes your face and voice and does what you tell it to whether it be via movement or voice.
Some may have thought that the gaming industry was only for certain kinds of people with certain mindsets. With a new introduction of technology put into the mix, those who once had no desire for video games may now want to play. Certainly when the Nintendo Wii was introduced with its motion controllers and balance board, those who weren’t necessarily all for gaming were intrigued by the possibilities of the Wii, which reflected in the Wii sale numbers. With these two new console accessories being released, an even wider array of the population may be intrigued and a different genre of games may be launched.


The Xbox 360 Kinect and the Playstation Move have opened up a whole new gateway to the future of gaming. Just as the history of gaming leading up to now has evolved from one stage to the next, the ideas behind the Kinect and the Move are fresh and innovative, and will without a doubt change how games will be made and played in the very near future.