Why Mass Effect 3 supports Kinect

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 10 June, 2011

EA's "core and more," strategy explained.

Why does upcoming science-fiction role-playing game Mass Effect 3 support Kinect? Because EA wants more than just core gamers to play it.

"Grow the audience and make it more accessible," was EA Games boss Frank Gibeau's to-the-point answer when Eurogamer asked the question.

"Mass Effect has a fairly complicated combat system. You've got story and choice. For some fans that don't buy 12 games a year and maybe buy two or three, some of those things can be intimidating. We wanted to open up the accessibility without hurting the depth or the quality. Kinect is a fantastic technology that allows us to do that."

BioWare popped up on stage during Microsoft's press conference to demonstrate how Mass Effect 3 will work when played with motion-sensing add-on Kinect.

Using the sensor's voice recognition technology, you're able to read out lines of dialogue to activate them, and during combat dish out instructions to your party members.

This, according to Gibeau, makes Mass Effect 3 "that much easier to play" while dealing with the "frenetic" gameplay.

"For core gamers, they just liked the fact they could even be more powerful with it. With new gamers they felt they could get into it much easier."

With spiralling development costs, Gibeau explained, publishers can no longer afford to sell one million copies – the sales benchmark previously thought to indicate success.

"When you're in this business now you have to be able to get to the widest possible audience. Games are so expensive to build now that you can't have a sustainable business if you're in the million unit seller range. You've got to be multi-million units.

"You have to think about not just the core gamers but the hit buyers and the more casual buyers; having a design and a story and an interface that works across all of those segments without losing the core. It makes life interesting.

"We think it about it as the core and more. Not more, leave the core. That's a recipe for failure. You have to be smart about it. You can't dumb the game down. But at the same time you have to make it so a lot more people can play it than just core gamers."

Martin went eyes-on for Eurogamer's E3 2011 Mass Effect 3 preview.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (68) Latest comment 12 months ago

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

  • roojames #1 12 months ago

    Mass Effect was actually the first thing that came to mind when I tried to think of legitimate Kinect applications. Just so I could zoom through screens and shit like Shepard does with his hands.

    Is it me, or is that really lame?

  • coolbritannia #2 12 months ago

    Looking forward to using Kinect with ME3. The voice commends work great and help to immerse you in the action by eliminating the pause screen for actions on the fly.

  • Cryotek #3 12 months ago

    ""Grow the audience and make it more accessible," on the last game in a trilogy...

  • coolbritannia #4 12 months ago

    Come on Cryotek, no way will they end the Mass Effect universe with this game. It'll get a new Trilogy, Halo style.

  • Cryotek #5 12 months ago

    I really hope so. They spent too much time creating a backstory to the universe just to ditch it after 3 games. Would be a waste of all that imagination. From a franchise perspective, it has endless spin-off potential.

  • coomber #6 12 months ago

    Dragon Age: Origins was a multi-million seller. EA insisted on changes for DA2 to attract the casual market. Current sales of DA2, around four months after launch, 1.5milllion.

    If you pi** off your existing audience, you need to be damn sure you bring in enough new players to make up for that loss.

    Not that that should be a problem for Mass Effect 3. It's not like it's the conclusion to a story-driven trilogy or anything.

    Oh.

  • captain_Carl #7 12 months ago

    Because Microsoft sent them a boatload of money

  • Gastrian #8 12 months ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • Xardan #9 12 months ago

    I think its a well implemented idea. Not sure why there is so much negativity.

  • Phantom_Dynamite #10 12 months ago

    It's a good idea but can't I just use a mic ala Rainbow 6.

  • sirBetamax #11 12 months ago

    @Cryotek

    I agree, and I think it's important to note that usually when referring to ME3 they refer to it as the end of Shepard's story or similar. Don't think the ME franchise is going anywhere for quite a while yet, especially with a film still in production.

    I'm expecting a more multi player focused title next though, not an MMO (whether TOR soars or sinks it'll put paid to an ME MMO for the time being I would have thought) but a shooter or similar. Hopefully they will come up with some new 'RPG-likes' after any such divergence at some point though.

  • Daddy-Doom-Bar #12 12 months ago

    I think ME is one game that will be better with Kinect. That and other squad based shooters. I couldn't wait for it as it was, but now I can issue squad orders without having to mess about with other buttons will make it so much better and open up so many more combat tactics. And being able to speak the lines will feel a little silly, but I can imagine getting right into the story and loving it!

  • Inmediasress #13 12 months ago

    This article summs up everything why it is so bad that game making became a full fledged industry.
    Also I don't see how voice commands will make it sell better if anything it's more intimidating for casual gamers who probably dismiss it as some hardcore nonsense.

  • anomagnus #14 12 months ago

    @coomber

    SEC fillings from EA put dragon age at plus 2 million sold. SEC filings are audited.
    [link url=http://investor.ea.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=574530
    ]http://investor.ea.com/releasedetail.cfm...[/link]
    It worked for DA2. And i enjoyed it.

    Anyway, it seems like no matter what bioware do, haters ain't going to be happy. I'll say it again, i can't wait for this game. I love the changes that have been made, and i'm taking time of work to finish the trilogy.

    Woot.

  • Centrifugal #15 12 months ago

    Yes, choosing a small line of text from a three pronged wheel must be ever so hard for the average gamer. Right up there with turning the Xbox on.

  • darkmorgado #16 12 months ago

    What's completely killed this game for me is the final removal of anything resembling an RPG. It really is now just a fucking third person shooter.

    Fuck that shit.

  • Syrette #17 12 months ago

    Voice commands are doable using just the headset, as a number of previous titles have proved.

    I love how that fact is being ignored in favour of making a big deal out of very little.

  • Syrette #18 12 months ago

    @darkmorgado

    You've played it have you?

    You could always enjoy it for what it is when it comes out, instead of criticising it in comparison to other titles instead of viewing it as a singular entity.

  • makeamazing #19 12 months ago

    Mass Effect does not need Voice Commands, and i really think it will get boring pretty quick anyway..

  • Smoped #20 12 months ago

    I like the idea of voice commands for Mass Effect a lot. But I just don't see that making the game any more easier to get into for the casual gamer.

  • Rack #21 12 months ago

    I'm sure there's a million gamers who'd buy a Bioware title that 'only' looked as good as Jade Empire in HD. Why not give them some love?

    Edit: No? So shallow, banal but impercetibly prettier experiences genuinely are what people want? Guess I can stop hoping for a return to form.
    Edited by Rack at 10/06/11 @ 22:39

  • Farzlepot #22 12 months ago

    Voice commands for any other game would be awesome. But for a game so centred around a voice-acted character? No!

    Shepherd sounds like Shephard. Not like me.

  • Sabreman64 #23 12 months ago

    I don't know why people are so keen to talk to their games consoles. I felt like enough of a self-conscious twit shouting at my DS while playing Brain Training without shouting at my 360 too.

  • paulf #24 12 months ago

    the idea of speaking the lines sounds quite fun, I'd probably only do it once then go back to the pad though, plus I play a female shepard and I'm a deep voiced bloke irl, will Miranda tell me I'm sounding a bit husky ?

  • Flipper79 #25 12 months ago

    Yes, because when I read books on quantum physics aloud, it makes them far more accessible. What the hell difference does it make? Have people really bought kinect purely for the ability to speak lines of dialogue instead of pressing a single button? Progress...isn't it brilliant.

  • coomber #26 12 months ago

    @anomagnus

    I got the 1.5million figure from a recent (and clearly incorrect) post on the Bioware forums, so I stand corrected on that. But the figure is still well down on Dragon Age: Origin sales so I think the point stands. I haven't played DA2 so I've no idea if it's as good as DA:o or not.

    The point I was making was this: Bioware have chopped and changed a well loved IP to attract more sales and it didn't go down well. And upsetting your existing fans in the hope of bringing in new ones when you are at the end of a story-driven three-parter seems crazy to me.

  • TheRealBadabing #27 12 months ago

    I only buy about 3-4 full price games a year, so I suppose I am the market EA are aiming for. Their problem is I only buy those 3-4 games because they are intelligent, well designed and therefore worth my money. Will buy the other dross occasionally but never on release and only when massively reduced.

    Do EA really think that the people who buy CoD, FIFA (or Madden) and Need for Speed every year will suddenly decide to get the final part of a trilogy just because they can shout at the TV?

  • busboy33 #28 12 months ago

    Yes, voice command is doable with just a headset, but as Bioware has stated in other interviews, the reason they are doing it with kinect and not on the PS3 is because using voice commands requires voice recognition software. Kinect comes pre-packed with voice-recon, so they have to put in zero/minimal tweaking to make it work.

    They certainly could do voice commands on other platforms, but that would require more time/money/effort. Kinect is delivering the hardware/software necessary to do it. Nothing sinister here.

    I'm not a huge fan of kinect yet . . . I don't love it, and I don't hate it. But my sweet God what is up with all the dripping hate? Isn't the whole "Micro$oft is Teh Debil" meme burnt out by now?

  • Steroyd #29 12 months ago

    I'm not a huge fan of kinect yet . . . I don't love it, and I don't hate it. But my sweet God what is up with all the dripping hate? Isn't the whole "Micro$oft is Teh Debil" meme burnt out by now?

    I don't think it's that.

    Microsoft are slowly doing a Nintendo in ditching the core gamers for Kinect, just replace Mario with Halo in terms of "serving the hardcore". But to be fair the big attraction of the console isn't heavily proportional to the first party games so there isn'tas much of an uproar I suppose.

  • Kaminari #30 12 months ago

    Gibeau is a douche. Nuff said.

  • jellyBelly #31 12 months ago

    Bollocks argument. Voice control is not going.to make a game that requirres a hefty investment in time find a larger audience.

  • sfp_noodle #32 12 months ago

    "Why ME3 supports Kinect"

    Because MS sent you a truck full of money to utilise it in some way.

  • mornegroth #33 12 months ago

    Roflable argument

  • jonbwfc #34 12 months ago

    "I'm Commander Shepherd and Kinetc is my favourite game motion system."

  • Spuzzell #35 12 months ago

    "Voice commands for any other game would be awesome. But for a game so centred around a voice-acted character? No!

    Shepherd sounds like Shephard. Not like me. "

    This times a cajillion, the idea of me speaking the line on screen (which in any case in no way relates to what is actually said) is very jarring.

    Then again, I'm oddly mental about Mass Effect. I've only played through both games once because I don't want to dilute my particular Shepards story.

  • coolbritannia #36 12 months ago

    2 people who say the exact same thing.

    Coolbritannia -9, Daddy Doom-bar +1.

    Sony fanboy cunts.

  • 32768Colours #37 12 months ago

    I don't really care whether the feature is good or not, because I don't own Kinect. As long as its just an optional extra then its fine by me.

    What doesn't fly though is that by this guy's rationale, if it hadn't been for the emergence of casual gamers, the budgets for games would have to have plateaued by now, as there wouldn't be enough gamers out there to make these games profitable.

    Funny that. It didn't seem to stop Mass Effect 2 from being profitable...

    What he's really saying is: "There's profit and then there's massive-great-scary-fucktons of profit. To achieve the latter we want to sell the game to every bugger out there whilst being careful not to anger the core punters who - in the end - are our bread and butter."

    And you know what? If it doesn't ruin the game for those of us who are quite happy with our humble analogue control pads, then that's absolutely fine.

  • 32768Colours #38 12 months ago

    @coolbritannia

    Well I just gave you a +1. because I happen to agree with your original post (not so sure about the Sony fanboys though; I think some people on here see the username coolbritannia and just hit the neg button automatically...).

    I don't own Kinect (although I do own a 360) but I'd certainly give the feature a try if I did.
    Edited by 32768Colours at 11/06/11 @ 01:44

  • coolbritannia #39 12 months ago

    Excuse my booze filled outburst.

  • metamorphic #40 12 months ago

    Yeah, I'm sure "casual gamers" will absolutely LOVE reading stuff out loud to a TV for many hours straight! Jolly good fun, EA!!

  • Inmediasress #41 12 months ago

    Well this article could be summed up in M$ put a truckload of money in their pockets to do so.
    Because M$ like usual made a ton of promises that it could not keep this promise of HC kinect titles is like the 100th promise of them to push for PC gaming.

  • lostlain #42 12 months ago

    It simply doesn't make sense to do this in the third game of a series, you risk alienating the core fans of the original. Sick.

  • reza666 #43 12 months ago

    This is very sad. Casual gamers never play gameslike this any way.
    The play small games usually together with kids and family. Seen it several times with friends.
    For me I would hate to shout and stand up to do stuff in the game.
    EA is ruining a perfect game here. I wont buy it myself and hope others don't buy it. Let's EA see
    How many casual gamer will be interested in this.

  • Trafford #44 12 months ago

    I'd rather play ME3 with my mouth agape. Not reading from a script.

  • Geordiemp #45 12 months ago

    @coolbritania.

    I have a ps3 but played ME1 and ME2 plus every download on 360 as it started there and its where I like that game.

    ANY suggestion of dumbing down a game or any simplifying for the kinect crowd gets negged - even if its just taking up some of the 2 disks space as a add on, just no.

    Heck, MS at E3 was kinect this, kinect that, I prefer my 360 for shooters, but god that was depressing, with so little love for the core 360 crowd. And star wars was the icing on that smelly cake

    Sell kinect to the 5 year olds, even my 8 year old thinks its naff and for kids / teen girls to dance to, and he is 8. I offered to biy him Kinect, he looked at me in disgust.
    Edited by Geordiemp at 11/06/11 @ 08:45

  • Shinetop #46 12 months ago

    Surely though if its just voice command you should also be able to use the Xbox headset and not purely restricted to Kinect?

    Kinect isn't just a microphone. It's a directional microphone array. Voice recognition is hard and you need a clean, reliable sound source to pull it off well. That's something a regular microphone, like in the headset, can't provide. Kinect knows exactly where the person speaking is, and knows where all the other sounds are coming from, and as such knows what to filter out and what to keep, and as such can get a very clean speaking voice sound from a couple feet away in a room filled with the sounds of explosions and music. It's not comparable in the slightest to a dumb old microphone, and as such, voice recognition in a game is infinitely more reliable with it.

    See this video for a very technical explanation of how the audio pipeline in Kinect works, including a demo of how it filters voices from a crapload of noise.

  • dsmx #47 12 months ago

    Why? Because Microsoft drove a dump truck full of money to their studios, what were they supposed to do they aren't made of stone.

  • drhickman1983 #48 12 months ago

    Using voice commands to give orders to the squad is a decent idea, one which many people will enjoy (though not me, I share Sabreman64's self consciousness when it comes to shouting at single player games).

    But the reading dialogue aloud thing sounds really stupid, and feels shoe horned in. It's surely easier to just select the dialogue with the controller?

  • TheEnforcer000 #49 12 months ago

    I welcome this addition. Of course, you can just turn it off if you don't like it. To Cryotek... they sure grew the audience after the first game, didn't they? Wanna check the sales figures? Stop fucking whining.

  • Dizzy #50 12 months ago

    It takes 2 days to put this in the game... Ofc they are going to support it.

  • Dizzy #51 12 months ago

    It takes 2 days to put this in the game... Ofc they are going to support it.

  • Arwin #52 12 months ago

    If you want to make this appeal to a wider audience, make the shooter parts optional, or ridiculously overpower users with Kinect - allow me to make a swiping gesture to wipe all enemies off the screen. Then the game can become the type of adventure that my wife can appreciate. Heck even I am grossly put off by the shooting parts, to the extent that I just don't care about the rest anymore. I don't know that I have enough shooting in me for more than 2 games a year maximum, and that's already pushing it.

    All games with a half decent story and exploration part should just give players the option to skip the fighting alltogether, or cut it short and have it auto-play. That shouldn't be so hard to do - just add some over-powered fight-bot or whatever makes sense in that game world that accompanies you and takes out all regular enemies in an instant. That way I can finally get some games that interest my wife as well.
    Edited by Arwin at 11/06/11 @ 17:46

  • strangerism #53 12 months ago

    lies and bullshits, i got used to it
    Edited by strangerism at 11/06/11 @ 19:23

  • BlinkeredAxis #54 12 months ago

    When I get to try a kinect enabled hardcore game, then I will satrt to form an opinion about this. In the meantime, I only know that kinect is a superb piece of tech, but still for casual games only. Wait and see.

    The potential is still huge though.

  • DarthMartious #55 12 months ago

    Kinect or not, Bioware will include some of the most conversationally boring aliens we've ever known. This being the third iteration, perhaps they've now developed the ability to bore the player to death?

  • TheNinkyNonk #56 12 months ago

    The more I hear about Kinect, the less I want one and the less surprised I am to see them for £50 in the second hand shops

  • Toothball #57 12 months ago

    I am interested in the Kinect features, but unfortunately I recently started the series on PC following a Steam sale. As a result I'll probably be seeing it through on there and so miss out on whatever they use Kinect for. Pity really as I quite like using technology.

  • anomagnus #58 12 months ago

    Its interesting to note, that anyone that attempts to say they like any bioware product, or tries to defend a company against over the top internet rage gets negged, while at the same time, i could say something like 'OMGZ, bioware is SHITZ, lulz' and get plus'ed into the heavens.

    Doesn't really say much about the users of this board anymore, when only hate and negativity get promoted. And you wonder why Bioware isn't exactly chasing the 'core rpg' gamer demo anymore?

    Here's a hint guys. You don't like bioware and ME anymore. OK, i understand, thats your choice. So just ignore it. I have very little time for mario and zelda games anymore. I don't post under every nintendo news article bitching, and spewing hate, in order to make myself feel good. I just ignore it. Try it. You don't like kinnect, ok, i get that too. But guess what, its an optional interface, you don't want it? Don't get it.

    The bitching on these articles really has reached a fever pitch. Its actually embaressing.

  • TheNinkyNonk #59 12 months ago

    " For some fans that don't buy 12 games a year and maybe buy two or three, some of those things can be intimidating"

    Hang on, EA: you think it makes good business sense to risk alienating those that buy 12 games a year by dumbing down their chosen genres to appeal to those that only buy two or three? Err....

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #60 12 months ago

    If this is 360 exclusive then, MS has clearly paid them to do it, there are plenty of Voice recognition library's for both PS3 and PC, calling this a Kinect feature is ridiculous, its like buying a microwave just cos you want a digital clock in your kitchen.

  • _LarZen_ #61 12 months ago

    If EA thinks the core wants Kinect support for their games EA need to get a reality grip.

  • charliepreed #62 12 months ago

    I don't get peoples criticisms of Dragon Age 2. It had better combat than the firsts click fest imho. The problem with it wasn't 'dumbing down' it was a dull story with dull characters set in a generic fantasy world, which were the same criticisms I had of the first.

  • skoypidia #63 12 months ago

    Shouting "singularity" alone is humiliating. I am not 7 any more... I think even a 12 years old would find it humiliating. Is I was asked to do it in public like that producer, I think I would prefer quiting my job. The only worse thing I can imagine is demoing in public a Kinect masturbation simulator.

  • thesisko #64 12 months ago

    "Mass Effect has a fairly complicated combat system. You've got story and choice. For some fans that don't buy 12 games a year and maybe buy two or three, some of those things can be intimidating."

    Even though my expectations for just how retarded statements these suits can make are abysmally low at this point, I wasn't prepared for this one. I mean....I don't even...ME...complicated?...story and choice...intimidating?....urgh.

    Oh, and by the way, I don't expect to buy more than 3 games this year because they're all pretty much all the same linear, scripted, uninvolving, hand-holding experiences and I can only take so much repetition. Thank god for European devs and GoG.

    Edited by thesisko at 13/06/11 @ 00:42

  • peacefuloutrage #65 12 months ago

    "You can't dumb the game down. But at the same time you have to make it so a lot more people can play it than just core gamers."

    Looks like they failed during Mass Effect 2. I enjoyed they game, but not as much as the first. They removed the feeling of freedom I remembered from the first game with the limited exploration, and replaced the myriad of weapon and armour options with palette swap DLC. They could have had automated some features under the hood for gamers who didn't want to bother, allowing people who prefer the story without the hassle to select an option in the game settings menu, but leaving it for the rest of us. Instead, the want to replace the immersive RPG with a branching path TPS. And what happened to the story in the sequel? Ugh. I liked character and NPC dialogue, especially for returning NPCs, but the overarching story seriously suffered.

  • Hermiod #66 12 months ago

    One question - why do you need Kinect just for voice commands? What does the Kinect microphone do that a headset microphone can't? I realise that the microphones are probably better - which is why Rock Band 3 ditched support for singing through the headset - but limiting this feature just to Kinect is disappointing.

  • PixelPirate #67 12 months ago

    Is there something i am missing?

    Why is it all these developers are adding "voice commands" and touting it as a Kinect feature, but it wont work in other games?

    Does it have special libraries for recognition or something, or is it them being lazy and not implementing mic controls for PC/PS3 etc?

  • telboy007 #68 12 months ago

    "Does it have special libraries for recognition or something, or is it them being lazy and not implementing mic controls for PC/PS3 etc?"

    I think it does yes, saves Bioware for having to code for specific phrases like the other mic enabled games and allows them to use it for other stuff like the conversation wheels. Otherwise it wouldn't make much sense that its voice comms on 360 only.

    It's just an addition to the control scheme really isn't it, I don't think they should have started jizzing themselves over it at E3.