Before this year's Kinect and PS3 Move launch, Resident Evil godfather and creator of the upcoming Vanquish, Shinji Mikami, told UK mag PSM3 that he thinks motion control reaching "mainstream" is still ten years out.
Time out.
I'm sorry Mr. Mikami, I love Resident Evil, but you're way off base with that comment. If anything, motion control--here in the present--is responsible for making video gaming mainstream. Video games are mostly looked at by previous generations as inferior forms of entertainment when compared to movies or books, at best. At worst, video games are considered a colossal waste of time.
However, since the introduction of the Nintendo Wii back in 2006, it's become increasingly more difficult to find a household that doesn't have a little white (or black) Nintendo motion control box resting under the living room television. Hell, my freakin' parents own a Wii, and they never liked the notion of video games to begin with.
Now Microsoft and Sony scramble to play catch up to your supposed decade away future. Those two companies have realized their folly, and for years have been jealous of the heaps of money Nintendo has been pulling in from consumers ranging from children to grandparents. Because of the Wii, video games aren't only about reaching the end of a level, or shooting the bad guys in the face, but now promote physical exercise. Therefore, instead of targeting 15-35 year old men, Nintendo has discovered the secret to satisfying a target market range of 10-90 year old people.
Furthermore, Microsoft now plans to bet the farm on their Kinect motion control technology. Kinect is said to extend the lifetime of the Xbox 360 by five years, making it a ten year lifespan for the console. Everything is riding on the power of motion control as far as Microsoft is concerned. And if it fails? Well, then Microsoft will have some important questions to ask themselves. It will either be time to go back to the drawing board on new motion control technology, one that's more appealing to casual audiences, or throw together a completely new console with beefier graphical capabilities to woo audiences with dazzling visuals.
Sony's approach might not be as extreme, as their console is already "future proof" with the inclusion of a Blu-ray drive, but that doesn't mean motion control isn't the company's ultimate end game. Most of Sony's major upcoming releases will make use of Move motion control. Sony even forced Heavy Rain creators Quantic Dream to abandon development on new episodic content for the title to instead focus on a Move supported version of the game. Sony is making just as hard a push with their motion control tech as anyone else. If for no other reason than the smoke and mirrors appearance of acting like they're on the cutting edge of this technological breakthrough, right alongside Nintendo and Microsoft. The last thing Sony needs is to look like third runner up, or worse, copy-cats further down the line.
To wrap this all up, your future is our present, Mr. Mikami. Time to catch up.
