Xbox Kinect Is The New Killer Interface John Wright's Blog

I’ve had a Kinect for a few weeks now and I’m very pleased with my purchase. The experience of controller-less navigation through the UI menus and playing of games is a very welcome addition to interacting with a computer.

The Xbox 360 overall has turned out to be a great platform. With Xbox Live I can download a bunch of game demos for free and buy full games downloaded and stored on the Xbox memory so I can play these games/demos without a disk. Also, the Xbox 360 is rumored to become a home online media hub to compete with Google TV, Apple TV, Boxee etc. If this does happen, then the total of Kinect + Xbox Games + Xbox Online Media sounds like a sure winner to me, offering more than the competition.

Kinect is also in direct competition to the Nintendo Wii, and it has a lot of advantages over it. As an owner of both, I’ve been able to compare them from my own experience. While the Wii does offer some great family friendly fun with it’s simple standard games, I can see Xbox Kinect is going to take over where the Wii leaves off.

There are so many nice things about the controller-less experience of the Kinect. Using your full body in games is a fun and active workout as opposed to standard video gaming. You really need to try it out for yourself, it can really get you immersed in the game and it’s a lot of fun with two players. When you play with a group, it’s so nice to be able to just jump right in and start playing. I’ve had groups of ten or more over when we’ve played the Wii. It was a lot of fun, but the passing of the controller, putting on and removing the wrist strap and switching characters sometimes slowed things down. It wasn’t a big problem at all, but when compared to just walking in and out of game play, you notice how convenient the Kinect is.

I don’t always buy the newest gadgets when they come out (in fact my cell phone is still an iPhone 3G) but the Kinect is a product I recognized as truly a step forward in retail technology. It’s truly a step forward in human computer interaction that is available to everyone. I’ve been very pleased with my purchase. So far I’ve purchased the Kinect and games/accessories below (I also have an epson projector which makes it about 10 ft. on my wall, it’s very nice). I’ve already had a lot of fun testing these out. I’m looking forward to having a larger group of friends over to try it out with everyone. Lots of fun and cool new technology!

I see this as the beginning of much more than just new technology in gaming.