Sony R&D boss says Kinect is 'cumbersome'

Kinect - is it magical? Or is it, as Sony suggests, 'cumbersome'?
Kinect - is it magical? Or is it, as Sony suggests, 'cumbersome'?

Sony Computer Entertainment R&D boss Dr. Richard Marks has said that he thinks Microsoft's Kinect gaming experience is 'pretty cumbersome'.

Marks - who has spoken of his views on Kinect's limitations before - told a New York Times interviewer that he feels the magical feeling promised by Microsoft with Kinect "wears off pretty quickly."

Can it be magic?

"I totally agree that there is this magical feeling with using your hands to select something," Marks told the newspaper.

"But that feeling wears off pretty quickly, and it becomes a pretty cumbersome way to do things," added the PS3 Move designer.

For its part, Microsoft is pushing Kinect as the future of gaming control, whereas Sony is sticking closer to the tried-and-tested controller in the hand experience.

"No one had tried to solve these problems in the consumer space and put all of this together," said Don Mattrick, the president of Microsoft's interactive entertainment business.

Microsoft key development partners were also quick to talk up the possibilities opened up by the new tech, with Tracy Rosenthal-Newsom, a vice president at Harmonix (who have Dance Central scheduled for the system) noting:

"We've been trying to find technology that would allow the player to use their whole body. We wanted to remove the technology and really allow people to dance."

Via New York Times

Adam Hartley