Entertainment Electronics Blog

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary looks nicer for sure but is still largely the same game we first played ten years ago. Kinect support is a non-visual feature that has the potential to really differentiate the remastered game from the original Xbox FPS. A big part of what Kinect provides is voice control support which may not immediately sound compelling, but one component of it will be of particular interest to fans of Halo lore.

Franchise development director Frank O’Connor told 1UP last month that an example of the Kinect voice support is allowing players to switch between the original and updated graphics by saying, “Classic” or “Remastered.” He said more actions would be revealed in October, and true to his word they now have been, including some that replace simple button presses and others that provide an all-new experience.

There is a lot in the way of new features headed to Xbox 360 in the coming months. In particular, the new dashboard may be here in a matter of weeks.

Internal PayPal emails shared with Kotaku indicate a launch of the new Twist Control dashboard is slated for November 15. Not only is that the 10-year anniversary of the original Xbox, November has been the month we’ve seen such major overhauls of the dashboard in the past. The email specifically asks employees to test the service in preparation for the November 15 launch; PayPal support was added to Xbox Live in an update released earlier this year.

The new dashboard redesign makes it fully controllable with Kinect, although the hands-free peripheral isn’t required. Voice search with Bing (again, using Kinect) will be a key component, as will Beacons, cloud storage for game saves and Xbox Live profiles, and more.

Sony wasn’t willing to share hardware numbers with the release of the lightweight NPD figures yesterday. According to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, it turns out the PS3 sold 403,000 units in February, trailing behind the Wii’s 454,000 and the Xbox 360’s 535,000. What’s a more striking contrast than that is Pachter’s estimate that 360/Kinect bundles outsold PS3/PlayStation Move bundles by a ratio of 5-to-1 last month.

“Under one-fifth of PS3 sales included bundles with Sony’s Move controller, suggesting another modest month (we have chosen not to subscribe to peripheral data),” Pachter stated. “Over 2/3 of Xbox 360 sales included bundles with Microsoft’s Kinect peripheral, as Xbox 360 Kinect console bundles again outsold PS3 Move console bundles by over 5:1. We note that the top selling Kinect software titles easily outsold their Move counterparts.”

Kinect was recently named by Guinness World Records as the “fastest-selling consumer electronics device.” Microsoft claims it has sold 10 million Kinect devices since November, although that figure refers to units sold to retail, not necessarily the number of Kinects located in people’s homes.

The popularity of Kinect will help to keep demand for the 360 strong, Pachter claims, while sales figures for the PS3 and Wii will decline as we move into the future. “Without further price cuts, we expect hardware sales to be down in 2011, and we think that the console manufacturers will position cuts around the E3 Expo in early June,” he said.

We’ve gone through many of the best modified uses of Kinect in the past. Cool as many of them may be, holding a stick so it shows up on-screen as a lightsaber isn’t the most practical use of this technology. A professor at the University of Minnesota has found a new potential use for Kinect that Microsoft may not have ever imagined, and it’s one “that could change medicine.”

After laughing at the prospect of purchasing a Kinect for research, in so doing, Professor Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos has saved researchers more than $100,000, The Minnesota Daily reports. Several Kinect devices are being used as a video monitoring system to keep an eye on children playing with toys as part of a collaboration to diagnose mental disorders such as OCD and ADD. Data from the cameras is tweaked and then given to doctors.

“As a doctor, you don’t have tangible data,” Papanikolopoulos explained. “We try to provide the tools in order to back up claims of a mental disorder.”

He suggests the possibility that this data could eventually be used to help make diagnoses. They would be able to do this, keep in mind, with Kinect. “Is a $100,000 system being outsmarted by a $150 toy?” he asked. “Indeed this is the case.” He also referred to its usage as a “tremendous step forwards.”

The process is still being worked out. Once it’s complete, the Institute of Child Development will take over and try putting it into practice.

“Something we can do three years down the line, we can do it today because of technology that was destined for the gaming industry,” he said. “I don’t think Microsoft has realized that [Kinect] is something that could change medicine.”

So, sorry, weird-Japanese-first-person-virtual-gaming-hack, but you’re no longer the most impressive modified Kinect use in town.

Peter Molyneux’s been busy the last few years making Fable and working on Milo and Kate for Kinect. But the one series we wanted to hear most about is Lionhead Studios’ Black & White.

The last Black & White title, Black & White 2, was released in 2005 for the PC and Mac.

“The Black & White series is really interesting,” Molyneux told UGO during a Microsoft event at E3 last week. “Maybe it is something I should re-visit, but that’s just me thinking, here now.”

When asked if he saw Black & White working with Kinect, Molyneux thought the god game’s mechanics would work well with the upcoming hands-free motion control system.

“The original Black & White — with the hand, reaching in and touching and stroking, you can really factor that with Kinect, and it could be really super cool,” he said. “It’s purely me just thinking about it, and thinking about what Black & White means. I love the idea of that connection the hand gave you into the world, the feeling of power, the feeling of nuturing.”

However, Molyneux was quick to state that he’s not currently working on Black & White right now. “The trouble with being a designer now is that there are way too many ideas than there is time to develop those ideas,” he said. “I would love to do something like a Black & White again. I would love to do a Fable 4. I would love to carry on doing Milo, but there is only a certain amount of resources and a certain amount of time.”