An Ubisoft executive has claimed that Microsoft’s motion control system will change the way we play videogames from now on.
Rob Cooper, managing director at Ubisoft UK, is excited about the possibilities of Project Natal. Cooper sees the introduction of motion control like Natal and Sony’s “Arc” as potentially game-changing. Like any games executive worth his salt, Cooper does remark that it will take a big leap for gamers to completely abandon the traditional controller but, if they do, it will be a huge “paradigm shift” in the industry. For now, Ubisoft is hedging its bets and he confirms that Ubisoft is working on over ten titles which will feature the motion control scheme.
“Perhaps the most crucial factor to a paradigm shift in new motion control schemes are whether all audiences accept it to ensure profitability,” Cooper said. He went on:
The game controller has been and is still the accepted input amongst core gaming audiences, so we need to ensure they accept these new forms of input, too. Microsoft has iterated on Nintendo’s offering with Project Natal in introducing a paradigm shift, and Ubisoft is supporting Natal with over 10 products in development.
Cooper isn’t the only industry pundit to sound off on how motion control will soon take over the games industry. Steve Bailey, an analyst with Screen Digest, likens the new technology to a certain device known to frustrate many a middle-aged man when they were first introduced.
“Anyone who gripes about this being ‘a bit like the Matrix’ will seem as fusty and unwilling as any parent who ever failed to get to grips with a TV remote,” Bailey said. “Ten years ago, of course, the idea of us being able to publish and broadcast virtually every element of lives, via a real-time spree of multimedia content and ambient intimacy on increasingly flexible social networks, must’ve seemed like a bit of a queasy pipe dream to some.”
The invention that Bailey is talking about is, of course, the series of carrier pigeons I have trained to bring messages to my friends.
Source: Tech Radar via CVG
