Tonight I dragged my Dad down into deepest darkest Los Angeles to the Galen Center where we watched a bunch of people in tights dance around trying to sell us Microsoft’s latest toy, the controllerless motion controller Kinect for the Xbox 360. I was expecting a bit less pitch and a bit more Cirque Du Soleil, but what we got was pretty well balanced for the most part. It was an entertaining night that importantly didn’t actually cost us anything. But what did we take away from the event?
Well to start with, there was my Dad’s attitude (and please don’t mistake that for the negative meaning of the word). He walked away from the event with tears in his eyes. he was very clearly moved by a lot of the imagery and the performance pieces, what few there were, of the evening, and for one brief moment – the appearance of an apparently in-game lightsaber duel with Darth Vader, no less – he actually considered buying a 360 with Kinect.
They’ve done it, I thought at that moment. Microsoft have won.
That changed, however, on the walk to the bus stop. I was talking to my Dad and asking him what he thought about the pitch, and his stance was clear – there wasn’t any point in him buying a 360 with Kinect, he told me. After all, he already has a Wii.
I withdraw Microsoft’s victory.
This is the sort of person both Microsoft and Sony has to impress and ultimately win over – the older, more casual gamer who probably owns a Wii and nothing else. Who uses the Wii for Wii Sports and maybe a few other games like Mario Party 8 or, in moments of lapsing sobriety, WarioWare: Smooth Moves. This sort of person may not really be impressed by Kinect or the PlayStation Move. They’ve seen it already, as far as they’re concerned. They’ve already played bowling with their TV. They’ve probably already done the archery thing. This “revolutionary new way” to play games is not, to my Dad and potentially millions of others like him, particularly revolutionary.
The only thing that appealed to my Dad on the journey home was the HD element, and even then he couldn’t see paying $300 just to play the games he already has on his Wii in higher definition. Besides, he’s already rather happy with the way his TV upscales the Wii.
As for me? Well, I wasn’t sold on Microsoft’s glorified EyeToy before and I’m still not entirely convinced. I’m more likely to buy the PlayStation Move if I buy either option, largely because whether I’m moving around or not I like to feel a controller in my head. But then I’m probably not even going to get Move for a while.
After all, I already have a Wii.