Wada: Kinect Won't Change Games Industry
The next disruptive tech will be in the online space.
Online and social networking may be at the top of Square Enix's agenda now, according to boss Yoichi Wada - but he is less excited about 3D and Kinect, calling the former "so-so" and saying that the latter won't change the games industry at all.
"With game console input, Nintendo's DS and Wii had a dramatic effect," Wada said in a recent interview. "What was announced with Kinect is just a small extension to what is already available." He added that to be the 'next-level disruptive technology,' a real paradigm shift has to take place - something he feels will occur in the online space.
Kinect was showcased by Microsoft at E3 last year, and was proposed as a means to involve users in controller-free gaming. Sophisticated demos in Milo and a modified Burnout Paradise made way for Wii Sports-inspired software when the tech was re-introduced to the press at E3 2010. As a result, Wada suggested that Kinect doesn't do anything new.
"Unless Kinect becomes the interface like the one we have seen in Minority Report - or it becomes so advanced that it reads brain waves... technology has jumped so much already we can't think of anything more that can be added to that," he mused.
The executive also had time to speak of Nintendo's 3DS and 3D technology, saying that "[the technology] today is not bad, but only so-so," and while Sony's adoption of 3D could have a "huge impact" in the long-term, it "won't have any effect" in the short term.
Ultimately Kinect, Nintendo's 3DS and 3D technology in general are "not the kind of technology that will definitively change the industry itself." Agree, disagree? Let us know in the usual place.
"With game console input, Nintendo's DS and Wii had a dramatic effect," Wada said in a recent interview. "What was announced with Kinect is just a small extension to what is already available." He added that to be the 'next-level disruptive technology,' a real paradigm shift has to take place - something he feels will occur in the online space.
Kinect was showcased by Microsoft at E3 last year, and was proposed as a means to involve users in controller-free gaming. Sophisticated demos in Milo and a modified Burnout Paradise made way for Wii Sports-inspired software when the tech was re-introduced to the press at E3 2010. As a result, Wada suggested that Kinect doesn't do anything new.
"Unless Kinect becomes the interface like the one we have seen in Minority Report - or it becomes so advanced that it reads brain waves... technology has jumped so much already we can't think of anything more that can be added to that," he mused.
The executive also had time to speak of Nintendo's 3DS and 3D technology, saying that "[the technology] today is not bad, but only so-so," and while Sony's adoption of 3D could have a "huge impact" in the long-term, it "won't have any effect" in the short term.
Ultimately Kinect, Nintendo's 3DS and 3D technology in general are "not the kind of technology that will definitively change the industry itself." Agree, disagree? Let us know in the usual place.
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Comments
zs450 25 Jun 2010 12:16
1/1
I can agree with the logic in his statements, but, lots of people took the Wii for a joke initially and now who's laughing. The people who are out here on the web talking about tech or reading articles like this represent only a small portion of the market.
All it takes is for Oprah to say that Dance Central on Kinect will help you loose weight or to put the 3DS on her "Things Oprah Says That You WILL Buy" list and they'll be flying off of shelves.
All it takes is for Oprah to say that Dance Central on Kinect will help you loose weight or to put the 3DS on her "Things Oprah Says That You WILL Buy" list and they'll be flying off of shelves.