Kipman: Hybrid control games on the way to Xbox 360
Director of incubation says forthcoming titles will use both Kinect and traditional controller
Alex Kipman, the brain behind the development of Kinect, has told GamesIndustry.biz that there are games on the way to the Xbox 360 which will feature hybrid control methods, utilising aspects of Kinect and traditional controller technology.
Speaking in a two-part interview, the director of incubation spoke at length about the future for both Kinect and controller-based input, despite stating adamantly that he felt the controller to be the "greatest single barrier between the consumer and gaming."
"We'll continue to have controller-only games. We love controller-free games, we love Kinect experiences and we'll continue to grow our set of those as well. What we haven't really talked about, but exist, are hybrid games," offered Kipman.
"Games that are using the controller, which we know and love, and pieces, if not all, of the Kinect experiences to again make those experiences more immersive, more fun and more emotionally connected."
Earlier in the interview, Kipman said that he stood by the statement about controllers being a barrier to entry for new consumers.
"I couldn't stand behind that statement more strongly. As I look at technology I find people in my genre of work are busy putting more gadgets and more gizmos in your hand. In this world you're having to take more time to learn technology and you become essentially enslaved to it," claims Kipman.
"Our world is a world that's trying to turn that on its head. A world that starts to say, 'hey, I can make you the centre of this experience'. I can create technology which fundamentally understands you. I can switch from you having to understand technology to technology understanding all of us."
In the interview Kipman also admitted that some of the technology used to showcase Kinect when it was first unveiled has been scaled back or dropped - Lionhead's ambitious Project Milo "was never really a product" according to the technologist.
And the option of scanning in objects to be used in-game - as demonstrated in the initial E3 Project Natal reveal video - was one of his ideas that consumer feedback deemed pointless, leading him to conclude that sometimes "you have to admit that you're stupid."
The full interview with Kipman can be read here, and the first part published yesterday is available here.