Rumored Microsoft 3D Wii killer: we think we played with it


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Rumored Microsoft 3D Wii killer: we think we played with it

Microsoft is dealing with its own E3 rumors, including a new product that will bring motion-sensing controls to the 360 without a handheld peripheral. We saw the exact same technology at CES 2008. Better yet, Microsoft has been in talks to buy the company in question. Ars explores what could be the next big thing in gaming.

By Ben Kuchera | Last updated May 5, 2009 9:35 AM CT

The rumors, leaked images, and speculation are only going to get worse as we move closer to E3, and now it's Microsoft's turn to bear the scrutiny of the gaming press. A report making the rounds, along with a "leaked" photo from Engadget, seems to show a type of sensor bar that will allow gamers to control their games using only their body. You don't have to hold any hardware, there is interaction with both video and sound, and the system is able to focus on the player and ignore the rest of the movement in the room. How likely is this rumor? Very. In fact, we think we already saw and demoed the technology... last year.

Microsoft is making it clear that the company will have big things in store for E3. "Microsoft is gearing up for a big presence at E3 which will completely transform how people think about home entertainment," Don Mattrick, senior vice president for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, said in a statement at the beginning of the month. European executive David Gosen also hinted that E3 this year would be "gaming changing." It seems that people are comfortable with big promises, on the record.

So what fits the description of the technology according to the leak? At CES last year we met with a company called 3DV that showed off a small Web-camera-like device that was able to detect movement and interaction in 3D space. We even played a boxing game that worked very, very well. Even more impressive was the ability to control media functions with gestures. You could swipe your way through your movies, interact with pictures, change channels, all with a small camera and your arms. Imagine a Microsoft Surface?without the Surface.

In my years of covering games I've sat through literally hundreds of briefings and tech demos at trade shows, and what impressed me about 3DV was how real the technology was. Most companies are all show and no go at trade shows, but 3DV had a camera I could pick up and look at. They had a game I could play, as well as demos of the user interface functions. It was all there, and it was all working. "We're going to be launching comfortably in the sub-$100 area," Tomer Barel, VP of Marketing and Product Management for 3DV, told us.

The 3DV camera does everything the new Microsoft rumor suggests. So is there a connection? Of course there is. In February, Reuters started talking about reports that Microsoft was buying the company, and chief among the uses for the company's ZCam were gaming and teleconferencing applications. Sound familiar?

benbox.jpgEvery feature discussed in the Engadget report?every single one?we saw in action in January 2008, by a company that Microsoft was reported to be in talks to buy, using sub-$100 technology that was mature more than 15 months ago.

If Microsoft is going to be showing its own version of the ZCam hardware, it could be bringing motion control that, in our time spent with it, felt even better than Nintendo's. The difference is that this technology works without having to hold any peripherals, with the power of the 360 bringing high-resolution graphics and surround sound, and at a good price. You could use the hardware to pause your streaming Netflix movies, or browse the music on your 360's hard drive. The features of the ZCam brought to the 360 simply makes sense.

Or the original leak and rumor were just that, and we may be spinning our wheels. After contacting Microsoft we received the expected lack of comment. Still, the possibilities here are more than enough to get excited by.

Ars Technica

Along with this, I remember Bill Gates clearly mentioning this during his interview at All Things D (with Steve Jobs).

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Assuming it's true:

I just wonder how well it's gonna work. The memories of playing Totem Ball still haunt me...

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Sorry, at this point, there's no wii-killer. There's the Next Big Thing, but with the number of consoles in people's homes, the wii can NEVER be considered "defeated" we can just move on from it's success.

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Sorry, at this point, there's no wii-killer. There's the Next Big Thing, but with the number of consoles in people's homes, the wii can NEVER be considered "defeated" we can just move on from it's success.

So if Microsoft started selling 100 million consoles a day from now on it wouldn't be defeated? I think the Wii can very much be defeated. It just has a massive head start.

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So if Microsoft started selling 100 million consoles a day from now on it wouldn't be defeated? I think the Wii can very much be defeated. It just has a massive head start.

except the wii didn't have a headstart, microsoft did and they are FAR FAR behind.

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Sounds a lot like Sony's Eye Toy, which was great imo. Can't see why not to do this for Xbox; the tech is already there and webcams are cheap. Could be a winner if they can use this to fully interact with all aspects of use, not just dedicated games.

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If this is true, then it will turn out to be AWESOME!! Minority Report, here we come (well, almost anyways)!!

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Is anyone else tired of the Wii craze and this.. trend that modern gaming is going to?

I much rather it really. Its good to be up and active, especially for children that don't get near enough exercise. This is not to say that hardcore gaming will ever die though, there is always going to be a market for that.

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Is anyone else tired of the Wii craze and this.. trend that modern gaming is going to?

The technology the Wii is using can be improved on quite a bit, you might be tired of the crappy games the Wii is producing but there's absolutely no reason to downplay improvements in motion sensing/interaction.

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Interaction in gaming is just to lure in the "I don't want to be sitting on the couch" crowd, that hype will die down soon enough when everybody has tried it and found it to be quite lacklustre, then we can focus on proper gaming again.

Brought to you by Sethos' Failed Predictions Inc.

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Interaction in gaming is just to lure in the "I don't want to be sitting on the couch" crowd, that hype will die down soon enough when everybody has tried it and found it to be quite lacklustre, then we can focus on proper gaming again.

Brought to you by Sethos' Failed Predictions Inc.

Who exactly is "we" but?

If this generation has proved anything it's you can't lump every gamer together and tell them to like what you like.

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It also proved that a company can make a gimmicky console and sell it to everyone and their dog, despite hardly any of the using it past the first 1-3 months. And they can make a ******** of money doing it by using last gen tech :p

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So if Microsoft started selling 100 million consoles a day from now on it wouldn't be defeated? I think the Wii can very much be defeated. It just has a massive head start.

well I would call you crazy if you think that could happen

considering in under 60 days every single person in the world would have one

there is no way the wii is going to be defeated it didnt have a head start either...

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It also proved that a company can make a gimmicky console and sell it to everyone and their dog, despite hardly any of the using it past the first 1-3 months. And they can make a ******** of money doing it by using last gen tech :p

Hardly any of the hardcore gamers on these forums or your close friends, which is of absolutely no surprise as the majority of us are dedicated gamers suited better to a 360 or PS3. Secondly most of us own a PS3 or 360, or even both alongside our Wii's.

Lots of people who don't have time to game for hours upon end each day will be happy to get the family together for a few hours a week for a few games of WiiSports or whatever.

Such ventures are a lot more daunting on a 360 or PS3 due to how they're advertised, their complexity as systems, their more complex games and currently their input methods. How many one button games are there on the PS3/360? Not that many, you can play Wii Bowling with one button.

PS3 and 360 both have games suited towards more casual gaming, but if they can take the Wii's motion input, improve on it and release software that looks 10x better they'll get some sales. Well MS definitely will to start with, Sony need a cheaper price entry point also.

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Is anyone else tired of the Wii craze and this.. trend that modern gaming is going to?

Nope. I'm tired of people who think these market's can't co-exist though.

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except the wii didn't have a headstart, microsoft did and they are FAR FAR behind.
well I would call you crazy if you think that could happen

considering in under 60 days every single person in the world would have one

there is no way the wii is going to be defeated it didnt have a head start either...

You two are twisting my words. I didn't say the Wii launched before the competition. I said it HAS a headstart on the competition in that if the competition wants to beat it it'll have to catch up first.

I was giving a hypothetical scenario. You said it's impossible. I beg to differ. It's not that far ahead. It's ahead, yes, but not by an insurmountable margin. If the PS3 and 360 perfect the technology, there is almost no reason to go out and buy a Wii. Plain and simple. It's a pain for third party developers, and Nintendo games are the only major sellers. If a game changing product is released, then clearly we can see the tide turn.

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except the wii didn't have a headstart, microsoft did and they are FAR FAR behind.

They're not "FAR FAR" behind. The Wii is at about 45 million, and the 360 is past 35 million.

The reason the Wii was miles ahead about a year ago was because of the price. The Wii was the cheapest console of the three at ?180, but today, the 360 is the cheapest at ?130, and Nintendo have been stingy and not even lowered the price at all after two and a half years.

Also, the Wii is starting to lose its footing at the top of the mountain as the PS3 is beating the Wii in Japan. It's beat it for the second week in a row now, which is saying something, as the PS3 is nearly double the price of the Wii.

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If a game changing product is released, then clearly we can see the tide turn.

And if we want to be realistic. The only console that can actually take on Wii will be Xbox 360 as they are the cheapest console now. All they need is something that will be enticing to average users in similar way as Wii did with controller and we can see tides changes within a year. The problem with Wii is that any type of online interaction is pretty weak. So people want to have gimmicky controller but Xbox 360 would give them movies, shows, great online support for playing with friends and family over on XBL and cheaper price. No brainer really.

PS3 would be harder. As Blu-ray is not as enticing because it's still one household type of technology meaning movies and Sony still hasn't figured out what they need to do to make PSN even remotely as good as XBL. I still flintch when I think of disaster multiplayer capabilities of Killzone 2 and it's deficiencies thanks to inferior PSN.

Right now, Xbox 360 has a good chance to beat Wii as the difference is really not that drastic and all they need is to give casual users something great at this E3.

Nail one was dropping the price to the cheapest level. Nail two was bringing Netflix and NXE with cheesy avatars. Check mate will be gimmicky controller and it's going to start outselling Wii. I have a good feeling about that. They won't stop until they take number one spot, I'm pretty sure of that.

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You two are twisting my words. I didn't say the Wii launched before the competition. I said it HAS a headstart on the competition in that if the competition wants to beat it it'll have to catch up first.

I was giving a hypothetical scenario. You said it's impossible. I beg to differ. It's not that far ahead. It's ahead, yes, but not by an insurmountable margin. If the PS3 and 360 perfect the technology, there is almost no reason to go out and buy a Wii. Plain and simple. It's a pain for third party developers, and Nintendo games are the only major sellers. If a game changing product is released, then clearly we can see the tide turn.

Unless MS start doing 600k+ a month they ain't catching the Wii any time soon.

The casual gamers buying a Wii have been caught by Nintendo's marketing and hype surrounding the device - The 360 isn't going to be getting things like a WiiFit board. Changing the general publics perceptions is not easy. The 360 is already cheaper than the Wii and it's already been shown that the price point the Wii is seemingly low enough for everyone.

The only chance either Sony or MS have of catching Nintendo is if steam genuinely runs out on the Wii in a tortoise vs hare kind of scenario - In other words the Wii sells for like 5 years, the PS3 or 360 go on to sell upwards of 10 years. Neither the PS3 or 360 meet the montly sales of the Wii in it's timeframe, but due to going 1.5x/2x longer a lower sales figure per month still outsells in the long run.

These types of buyers don't care about the enthusiast arguments of is PSN or Live better, who has the best framerate, what game consoles graphics are better, etc. All of us should know that when the device winning is an SD console with a catalogue of games full of crap and barely any online component.

Edited by Audioboxer
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Unless MS start doing 600k+ a month they ain't catching the Wii any time soon.

The casual gamers buying a Wii have been caught by Nintendo's marketing and hype surrounding the device - The 360 isn't going to be getting things like a WiiFit board. Changing the general publics perceptions is not easy. The 360 is already cheaper than the Wii and it's already been shown that the price point the Wii is seemingly low enough for everyone.

The only chance either Sony or MS have of catching Nintendo is if steam genuinely runs out on the Wii in a tortoise vs hare kind of scenario - In other words the Wii sells for like 5 years, the PS3 or 360 go on to sell upwards of 10 years. Neither the PS3 or 360 meet the montly sales of the Wii in it's timeframe, but due to going 1.5x/2x longer a lower sales figure per month still outsells in the long run.

These types of buyers don't care about the enthusiast arguments of is PSN or Live better, who has the best framerate, what game consoles graphics are better, etc. All of us should know that when the device winning is an SD console with a catalogue of games full of crap and barely any online component.

Audio, that's my point -- if Microsoft releases something that's far better than the Wii, and the common consumer recognizes it, then why isn't there a chance? There'd be no major advantage in the Wii other than Nintendo games, and that didn't exactly set the N64 or GameCube sales afire.

If Microsoft can give consumers a reason to think its motion detecting technology is better and more fun, it can easily increase its sales as it's already fairly cheap and has great graphics.

I'm not saying it will happen. I'm just saying that to say it isn't even feasible isn't true.

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