EA: Kinect/Move FPS "hard to imagine"

By Robert Purchese Published 5 January, 2011

Riccitiello envisages "hiding behind couch".

Silver-haired EA overlord John Riccitiello finds it "really hard to imagine" a future where he's "hiding behind my couch, making a gun out of my finger" and shooting baddies in Call of Duty or Medal of Honor.

"I've had a number of people ask me, 'Will gesture-based gaming replace controllers?'" Riccitiello told IndustryGamers.

"I don't think so.

"There will be genres where the gesture-based gaming, however delivered (Kinect, Move or any other device that comes down the road), will actually be the superior way to play: dance games, music games, exercise games. It's really hard to imagine [playing] an exercise game with your thumbs.

And, he added: "It's really hard to imagine that I'm going to play a future edition of Medal of Honor, or Call of Duty, or Battlefield, hiding behind my couch, making a gun out of my finger. I've tried driving with gesture-based controls; I don't really like it."

But he reckons sports games could successfully incorporate gesture controls for scrolling through menus, picking teams or "calling plays" - "that's very possible".

"The more interesting thing for Kinect and Move," he went on to say, "is going to be what happens late next year in terms of how we see them, and then what new genres sprout up to support those control systems.

"I mean, if it weren't for plastic guitars, the music sector never would have happened. In the same sort of way, what's going to trigger the hot game? What's going to use Kinect in just that way?"

Riccitiello also questions how "long lived" the popularity of Kinect and Move will be, and draws on his family's past experience with Wii as evidence. There was a console that typically housed a single game, whereas PS3 and Xbox 360 had "three or four games going at any given time". The latter were longer-play experiences, too, eating up multiple hours, compared to the short-play thrills of Wii.

Kinect and Move were both released towards the end of 2010. Analysts predict sales numbers are "neck and neck" despite the first-glance disparity between Sony's 4.1 million shipped Move tally and Microsoft's 2.5 million actual sales of Kinect.

All analysts agree with Riccitiello, however, that 2011 will be a pivotal year for Kinect and Move. Will they sink as novelties or swim as Wii-style successes? And how will Nintendo counter that?

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (43) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Guitarnerd87 #1 1 year ago

    The missus got me a move for xmas and it is awesome with resident evil 5. Actually really adds to the game, wierdly not sure if it would work as well with an FPS but for a third person shooter its great.

  • Ercarret #2 1 year ago

    Is it just me thinking that strategy games could use motion controls in really interesting ways? I'm kind of seeing R.U.S.E. being controlled by Move or Kinect, instead of a Dual Shock or the regular 360 controller.

    @Eurogamer: Isn't it a little weird phrasing the Megaton promotion "Parents! If you think your kid might be interested in PlayStation Move..." when the article is about both Move and Kinect? It comes of as a little ... biased.

    *edit*

    Eh, what? Now it says "...interested in Kinect..." instead. I'm confused.
    Edited by Ercarret at 05/01/11 @ 10:33

  • DavoTheDiv #3 1 year ago

    Additional gesture based controls with a fps would = awesomeness. team commands like' rally on me',' move to location', and 'halt' would be cool.

  • RodHull #4 1 year ago

    I love the idea of hiding behind the sofa and zapping badguys. Kinect could also recognise the fort you make out of the cushions for tower defence games. The possibilities are only limited by furniture design.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #5 1 year ago

    I love the idea of hiding behind the sofa and zapping badguys. Kinect could also recognise the fort you make out of the cushions for tower defence games. The possibilities are only limited by furniture design.

    Could be fun in a way like scribblenauts. Use objects you find in your home to solve puzzles. Although it could be quite limited since you are not going to have too many objects in your home to guarantee enough variety. Still, the idea sounds interesting.

  • jonsaan #6 1 year ago

    A perfectly reasonable outlook on the situation if you ask me.

  • sneetch #7 1 year ago

    I wonder if he truly understands the technology he's talking about here. I think he may be confusing the PS Eye with Move. As others have pointed out Move is basically an accurate pointer and is pretty much ideally suited to FPS games, Kinect is where you need to be shouting pew pew pew and pointing with your finger. Although that could be fun too. :)

    (I got a Move for Christmas and I'm really looking forward to trying out KZ3 on it... if they do it well it'll be sweet).

  • Beano #8 1 year ago

    "EA: Kinect/Move FPS "hard to imagine""

    Really? MAG and Killzone 3 works with Move. How can that be hard to imagine?

  • sneetch #9 1 year ago

    @TSB
    Is it?....

    Seemed accurate enough when I was using it.

  • Vanmunt #10 1 year ago

    Played a bit of Kinect and Move lately and have been pretty impressed wth both..

  • darkmorgado #11 1 year ago

    One thing to keep in mind with Sony's 4.1m figure is that they count each nunchuk, camera, etc as a separate unit- so someone buying a starter bundle + nunchuk will count as 2 sales, not one. Skews the figures quite a bit.

  • Nighthawk_08 #12 1 year ago

    Like most of you have alreay said. MAG and killzone 3. Either this guy is an idiot or he was referring to kinect not being possible for fps. Maybe the whole conversation was about kinect, because look at the wii. How many fps shooters are on their system (call of duties, metroid prime etc) . He does also say it would be better suited to dance, music and fitness games, which kinect blows the competition away.

  • sneetch #13 1 year ago

    @darkmorgado

    You sure about that darkmorgado?

    [link url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-12-01-move-and-kinect-sales-neck-and-neck
    ]http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-1...[/link]

    The 4.1 million number is accurate as of November 2010 and reflects global sales, Sony said. It does not include sales of the stand-alone PlayStation Eye camera or the stand-alone PlayStation Move navigation controller. The Eye is required to use Move.

  • Nighthawk_08 #14 1 year ago

    @darkmorgado
    No they don't. This was a rumour for a while then Sony released a statement saying that they count the move and move only as sales. It doesn't mean 4.1 million people bought one though. Iv got two. Cause some games you need two.
    Edited by Nighthawk_08 at 05/01/11 @ 11:15

  • Nighthawk_08 #15 1 year ago

    @TSB
    Truth is, after RE5 gold ( which is another level with move) and sports champions and maybe MAG there aren't really any games worth buying. But KZ3, dead space 2, socom all look good for my money. Just hope they stick it in uncharted 3. That's my guess why there not in the top 40 (move games)

  • jonsaan #16 1 year ago

    But the Move games sold on PSN don;t count in the charts do they? Sony have been selling little bite sized Move games as DL only. A great move IMO.

  • des #17 1 year ago

    This just shows how much EA cares about move,can't blame them

    Somewhere inside EA building
    "We bought some pink dildo from Sony,what is it for?"
    "Let me see,hmm...meh,have plenty of those at home"
    "Throw it into garbage and if John finds out,it goes from your salary"
    "Ok...runs"

  • JBlokeUK #18 1 year ago

    Move FPS hard to imagine?

    Was playing MAG using Move only yesterday, and I certainly didn't imagine it.

  • Nighthawk_08 #19 1 year ago

    Oh look, if it isn't eurogamers little retard, des. Des dead space 2. Move compatible. Made by EA. Go finger yourself or go to a different website. Nobody here likes, listens,respects anything you ever say. Ever.

  • Nighthawk_08 #20 1 year ago

    @djronz
    Both from what iv read. But demo for DS2 isn't move compatible

  • drumbaby #21 1 year ago

    Has he not heard of Killzone 3? Sheesh.

  • des #22 1 year ago

    @Nighthawk_08
    Oh did I hurt your feelings,you seem to care enough

  • Vanmunt #23 1 year ago

    you have got to play both to get a balanced view, Move is just a controller.. where as you have to buy the kinect games to get anything out of kinect.. sounds daft, but as stated above you can play normal games with move. also darts for £6 on psn is amazing.

  • Bander #24 1 year ago

    "Is it just me thinking that strategy games could use motion controls in really interesting ways? I'm kind of seeing R.U.S.E. being controlled by Move or Kinect, instead of a Dual Shock or the regular 360 controller."

    R.U.S.E with Move:
    [link url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22UXkJL2gQE
    ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22UXkJL2gQE
    [/link]

    R.U.S.E with Kinect (modded PC version):
    [link url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tif-KBZ5Ko
    ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tif-KBZ5Ko
    [/link]

    Incidentally, Kinect appears to be absolutely fine for pointer movement and accuracy. You can tell this from using it on the 360's dashboard and just about every other pointer-based demo or menu.

    "Kinect could also recognise the fort you make out of the cushions for tower defence games."

    I WANT TO PLAY THIS!

  • Arwin #25 1 year ago

    Does he even know what Move is? Or is he confusing it with the PS Eye? Surely, as many have said already, he could have been expected to know that MAG already works with Move, that Killzone 3 will be released next month with Move support, Socom 4 a couple of months after, and there's an online Modern Combat type thingy that also supports it?

    And yeah, for Kinect I expect you'll be able to at least do a few things with it, pushing a door open, or throwing a grenade, or signalling to your platoon etc

  • Geordiemp #26 1 year ago

    I normally dont agree with EA blurb, but saying camera games will be stuck on Dance, party, sports and fitness is a pretty good summary of allot of wii games and most camera games.

    He grouped together move and kinect as camera games trying not to fuel the console wars....

  • BOFH_UK #27 1 year ago

    I'm always surprised that people treat Kinect as either a complete controller replacement or not present in a game when it always seems to have more potential as a supplement to a regular controller. As a tool to increase immersion in the gaming world I can see it potentially being a must-have relatively quickly. Just to chuck out a couple of examples, allowing you to glance left and right in a driving game to check your mirrors or to give you scope to look around in an FPS without necessarily changing your aim point. Little things like that can make a major difference to the experience, require very little overhead to achieve and help games stand out from the competition. Obviously that'll depend on the software that gets made but it's possible at least.

    Move, on the other hand, I'm not so sure about. It's a decent enough implementation of the tech but motion sensing controllers in general feel like they're nearing the end of their lifecycle a little bit. There's a lot of compromise involved (certainly in, say, an FPS game I'd MUCH rather be playing with a traditional controller than a wiimote or move as I'm far more accurate that way) and too often a game is forced to do things that aren't entirely natural to accomodate the limitations of that controller. Not a huge problem with a traditional joystiq and buttons, major issue when the whole point of the controller is to make things feel natural.

    Certainly at this point I'm more excited about the possibilities for the technology behind Kinect that anything else I've seen over the last few years. This tech pared to a next-gen system with a lot more bandwidth for the sensor and a major boost in power to process that data could produce something VERY special indeed.

  • BOFH_UK #28 1 year ago

    @Vanmunt: Eh, that makes no sense, you've still got to buy games to use move, it's not as if Move support is built in at the console level, each individual title needs support added. Yes, you may already own a game or two that uses it but many (possibly most) won't so that really isn't a mark in Move's favour.

  • TwitchyMcTwitch #29 1 year ago

    I didn't know you could use your fingers with move? I thought you mainly used it as a pointer in an fps?

  • Dave52 #30 1 year ago

    PS Move already has FPS games... It has buttons.

    Got Move for Christmas - it's astounding and tbh, it blows the Wii out of the park. Unfortunately the Wii already won this gen.

  • FogHeart #31 1 year ago

    @BOFH_UK:...Whereas I'm coming from the opposite side - I bought the Wii to avoid twin-sticking in FPS and bought a PS3 when Move was announced. Killzone 3 will be FPS Nirvana for me - the couch, the good-looking HD graphics, and the control scheme I want.

    It's been suggested that those who started with consoles and always 'gamed' on them will always prefer to twin-stick, while those who started with PCs with keyboard and mouse will much prefer Move. That's certainly the path by which I arrived here.

    But no one has to lose out really. One of Sony's stated goals was to allow developers to implement a Move control scheme as quickly and as painlessly as possible - the RUSE developers have given testament to that in interviews. While Sony certainly cannot force developers to give their games both means of control, they can make it a more attractive proposition by ensuring that the devs will only have to put in a little work to make their game reach a slightly wider audience - people that would rather pick up the Move-enabled core game among equals. (I'm one of them).

    Or put it this way: neither MoH nor CODBlOps had Move controls. I didn't buy them. Instead I have MAG. The former two are not great games, but if they had Move, I'd think about it.
    Edited by FogHeart at 05/01/11 @ 14:25

  • GamesConnoisseur #32 1 year ago

    I ve got two Move as well, so lots of us I m sure and ergo we cannot accurately predict from SHIPPED figures and how it's relate to SOLD Kinects.

    People who cares deeply about this are just fanboys wanting a win for their system of choice, is it end of the world if result goes another way?!

    I mean the shelf life will still go and go for some months with more games promoting either or both!

    Sure Move can do pointer based games and FPS with Move a good deal feasible compared to Kinect, I still need to recalibrates occasionally though when never an issue with Wii. So I wished Sony opted for sensor bar solution to eliminate the need for recalibrations.

  • Dave52 #33 1 year ago

    @GamesConnoisseur

    So, you've never had to lay your Motion Plus WiiMote face down on a flat surface...?

    If you've ever played Start The Party, you'll see why Sony went for the PSEye.

  • FogHeart #34 1 year ago

    On that note: over the hols I took my Move to my brother's house and it drifted like a bitch whereas at my home it was always rock steady. So I used the Move calibration on the PS3 settings menu - as has been suggested in the Move thread here - and yup, worked like a charm for the rest of the day, so I'm not sure about this continued need to recalibrate. Having two 'targets' as the Wii has so the controller can be triangulated certainly makes it more reliable, but it seems the problems inherent in Move's design are quickly overcome.
    Edited by FogHeart at 05/01/11 @ 14:53

  • Pasco #35 1 year ago

    Dear Mr. Eurogamer,

    please don't compare Kinect sales numbers with Move sales numbers. It's almost as bad as comparing console sales to controller sales. The disparity in sales numbers doesn't tell us anything about market penetration. Kinect is bought once and can be used by many people. With software updates someday it might even be able to recognize a dozen people. I don't know. With Move one piece of equipment might not even be enough for one player for some games. I am not saying that one thing is better than the other. I will buy neither of them and don't really care. All I want to say is they are equipment in different categories with vastly different pricing and comparing sales numbers doesn't make sense at all. Don't do it!

  • man.the.king #36 1 year ago

    Well, if he really is referring to a Move FPS as being hard to imagine, he probably won't have to wonder for long - KZ3 comes out in February.

  • BOFH_UK #37 1 year ago

    @fogheart: "It's been suggested that those who started with consoles and always 'gamed' on them will always prefer to twin-stick, while those who started with PCs with keyboard and mouse will much prefer Move. That's certainly the path by which I arrived here. "

    Not me, I started with a C64 many, many years ago, fell in love with the PC via Doom 2 and still prefer keyboard / mouse over controllers for FPS games. Sorry. I just hate both Wiimote and Move for FPS gaming, it doesn't feel anything like as comfortable as using a more traditional controller to me and, especially when playing for a (very rare these days) several hours long session I find it getting uncomfortable to be pointing things at the screen, especially as the TV is quite a bit higher in my living room than the seating position.

  • FogHeart #38 1 year ago

    Hm. I guess a high TV would do that. I hold the nunchuck and wiimote/navi as much like a standard controller as possible - forearms resting on my knees, hands together with fingertips touching, and bend both hands together at the wrists for aiming. It's much better for long sessions.

  • Ryze #39 1 year ago

    Move doesn't require pointing at the TV. The Eye is set to wide-angle, and calibration allows any point to be set as the centre. Just place the Eye where you want it (pointing at the player), and make the centre where you want it to be.

    No need to point up at the TV.

  • Daikon #40 1 year ago

    Regarding Kinect FPS games:
    Can't I just hold the controller in my left hand and use an analogue stick for moving while making my right hand into an imaginary gun to point at the screen?
    In my mind I see this work ^_^

  • WangKZ3 #41 1 year ago

    Well, looks like Riccitiello didn't play MAG with Move.........for sure with Killzone3 or Socom4 he'll be hiding behind the couch.........;-)

  • orangpelupa #42 1 year ago

    this guy need to look to the more far future.

    - Holoraphic projector
    - Kineck-like sensor

    that will make playing game so awesome. Maybe like playing FPS game like in movie called "Gamer". Or maybe will feel like playing "The World" in .hack series. (although .hackers use glasses it seems... )

    EDIT:
    or just use kinect with this sony headset [link url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-01-06-sony-shows-off-3d-headset
    ]http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-0...[/link]

    make sure it have gyro and accelerometer to make game able to orient itself with your headings.
    Edited by orangpelupa at 06/01/11 @ 06:59

  • demize2010 #43 1 year ago

    If you combine the two though.. check out this video combining a wiimote and kinect - pretty cool.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo7QUdrZAkA
    Edited by demize2010 at 09/01/11 @ 03:33