Microsoft Interested in Core Games, First-Person Shooters for Kinect

Microsoft put a big spotlight on its new Kinect motion sensor last week during E3, first unveiling it in grand fashion with the help of Cirque du Soleil. With the exception of a brief video of a Star Wars lightsaber game, the Kinect platform seemed to highlight nothing but casual style games for the family, or dance and fitness stuff.

Kinect isn't designed to alienate the hardcore gamers who've put Xbox in the position it's in today, however. Microsoft still hopes to create games for the core gaming crowd on Kinect, Albert Penello, senior director of global marketing for Xbox 360 told IndustryGamers.

"I mean the hardest part is really trying to make people understand the same group of people who built the stuff that they love now are working on this stuff, and it’s not about alienating, and it's not about abandoning; it's about expanding," Penello explained.

"...We started our briefing off by ripping a guy's arm off and beating him to death with it. I don’t think we have any interest in sort of getting away from controllers and getting away from the core games that got us here. This box was a response, you know, from us to the people that have followed us along and really asked for features for the console. Kinect is about getting other people in the house."

Regarding core gaming on Kinect, he elaborated, "Core gamers will say to me, 'What is Kinect going to do for me?' Well, you probably have a girlfriend, or you have a sister, or a brother, or a niece, or a nephew, or a wife, or a mom, or an aunt who you’ve probably wanted to have experience, you know, the kind of stuff that you enjoy. And oh, by the way, we're doing some really cool stuff with dash navigation and the people who experience it really get a kick out of the sort of virtual reality/Minority Report style. And oh by the way, we just launched the thing. At no point have we ever said, 'I don’t have any interest in having core games come out on Kinect.' We wanted to come out and make a statement that said, 'We want to try and do something different than the Wii, different than wands and hands, something that’s magical, that takes away the abstraction, and I want a bunch of new types of games created.'

"The first thing that comes to mind is the casual types of games, but I'd like to see what a first person shooter would be on Kinect someday. I don’t want to see Halo band-aided into Kinect, because Halo is a controller game, and I think that would be not what we’re trying to achieve. I want to see what a new type of experience would be. And you’re just seeing the first generation of stuff. So, this is really about doing an 'and' thing for us. Getting new types of genres, new types of customers, and then continuing to serve the core with great games."

We'll be posting the full interview with Penello shortly.