Microsoft Kinect...from a woman's perspective
CNET's Natali Del Conte gives a woman's perspective about Microsoft Kinect, formerly Microsoft's Project Natal.
Microsoft should start working on a good line of sports bras to bundle with Kinect, the motion-controlled gaming system formerly known as Project Natal.
I'm sorry if that sounds crude but someone's got to say it.
Microsoft showed off the system at an E3 press event in Los Angeles on Sunday night. Impressive but high impact, ladies. The event was produced by Cirque Du Soleil, although none of the circus performers did any contortionist performances on the gaming system. They mostly just rallied the crowd in preparation for fantasy. The system itself was played by a family of four.
I am going to leave it to GameSpot to tell you what hard-core gamers think. For the purposes of this post, I will take it upon myself to tell you what I thought of it as a casual gamer and as a woman. First off, the sports bra. This is a high-impact, jumping-around-the-living-room kind of game. You're going to want to be in appropriate attire, especially if you are endowed in any way.
Second, the family aspect. I like it. The learning curve for games on Kinect will be low. Most mothers are not likely to figure out Red Dead Redemption with ease, but they will surely be able to wield an air light saber for a Star Wars game. I can't imagine anyone not having a good time with this.
Now as for Kinect as an entertainment center, this gives me pause. The fake family in Sunday night's performance sat peacefully on the couch while the daughter motioned through movies in the Zune Marketplace to select something to watch for the whole family. This is not how my family chooses movies on movie night. We fight over the remote. Sometimes quite enthusiastically. Fighting over a virtual remote could get ugly. Someone could get hurt.
It was nice to see Kinect with a formal name and more concrete evidence of what it will be when it launches in the fall. However, I will say that Microsoft plucked down a pretty penny for an event at which all we really got was a formal name. How do you justify creating an entire Cirque du Soleil show for one launch event?
I can't even begin to calculate the ROI on event like that. But perhaps if they market those Kinect sports bras smartly, they could make some of that money back. Just a thought.