Rare talks about developing for Kinect

Kinect is big business. Microsoft's controller-free motion device for the Xbox 360 has become the biggest selling entertainment device on the planet, selling over 10 million units since its November 2010 release. Kinect Sports, one of the more successful Kinect games, came packed in with the device at launch. Rare, the developers behind the game, have been incredibly impressed with both their new game and the device itself.



We spoke to the studio's Jim Horth and Shintaro Kanaoya about creating Kinect Sports, and just why they chose to work on Kinect in the first place. "We're a first party developer so we've got a mission to ride the wave of whatever Microsoft comes up with as the next big thing," Hirth revealed. "So we're taking that and we're riding it as hard as we can into an opportunity that we thought was great. The big opportunity was that Kinect speaks to people who aren't used to gaming already and to people that find controllers a little bit difficult to use perhaps.It doesn't only speak to them but there's a whole bunch of people that don't know gaming right now, and that's who we spoke to. And we've done well."

Kanaoya also spoke up about Kinect's ability to appeal to less hardcore gamers. He said: "I think that Kudo Tsundoa, who's the creative director of Kinect, was always strong on the potential of the technology and how it can get people that aren't gamers into it. He was really strong all the way through about keeping that vision pure. I think what he was imagining has come true and for us, we see an influx of people that aren't gamers coming in and doing stupid things like having fun in front of the TV and getting the family involved. And for us, that's a really exciting thing."

"It's important to point out as well that it's not just a toy for people that don't like controllers," Hirth concluded. "One of the things is that it's really about enriching experiences for people who are already familiar with a controller, so it's not a one trick pony. There's a lot of potential here and my hope is that it bears out that this isn't just a tiny little movement, this is a siege."

Rare are currently keeping their next title under wraps. All bets are on a Kinect Sports 2 reveal in the near future, though.