Forza Dev: "We're just at the tip of the iceberg with Kinect"

While Kinect continues to appeal to the same audience it attracted a year ago, with upcoming titles such as Kinect Sports: Season 2 and Dance Central 2, the response from hardcore gamers has been a mixed bag. With games such as Child of Eden, The Gunstringer and Rise of Nightmares available now and upcoming support in traditional franchises such as Mass Effect and Forza, Kinect is becoming increasingly relevant.

Talking to CVG, Forza 4's creative director Dan Greenawalt believes that hardcore Kinect acceptance will take time.

"I remember a time ten years ago when everyone was saying 'A first person shooter can never be done on console because of the controller. It'll never work.' Everyone was certain of that and then we had Halo. Now we all expect the best first-person shooters are played, it seems, on console.

"Kinect is the same thing - it takes time," he continued. "You should be charging us as the innovation engine of the industry; the big franchises, the big teams, the creative powerhouses. Players should be charging us to surprise them."

Of course with limited time on the market, developers have still had little time to really get to grips with what Kinect is capable of. Greenawalt believe that devs shouldn't shy away from it, and embrace the new opportunities the technology offers.

"I think most people think, 'Well I haven't thought of anything and so therefore there's nothing that can be done.' That's just silly, our job is to come up with new ideas and surprise people.

"We're just at the tip of the iceberg with Kinect. As a creative industry, this is fairly new to us still. I know it seems like 'Wow it's been out a full year.' But it's only been out a full year. There's a lot more time to go.

"If you look at Ubisoft with Ghost Recon, you look at BioWare with Mass Effect, other triple A large franchises that are known for innovation - for pushing - are picking it up and saying 'Yeah we can do something really cool with this. Not because we have to but because this is an awesome creative challenge and we want to surprise our customers with cool new experiences.'

"I think it would be incredibly naïve of me to say that I know where Kinect is going. Because it's so new, there's no way I can know where Kinect is going. But honestly I'm nothing but excited about where Kinect can go."

Forza 4 is perhaps the best example of a traditional game incorporating Kinect controls yet. Without impacting on the core experience, players have the optional ability to use head tracking, drive controller free, control menu's with voice and interact with and explore a variety of vehicles using the new autovista mode.

Forza 4 launches October 11th in the US and the 14th in Europe. A demo will be available October 3rd.

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