It could be another two years before Kinect ushers in new types of genres and gameplay, according to Turn 10's Dan Greenawalt.

Speaking at E3 last week, the Forza Motorsport producer said that developers are only now getting to grips with the possibilities of Microsoft's motion sensing peripheral.

"We're two years away from having entirely new genres that are born out of this kind of thinking," said Greenawalt.

"Getting an idea to market, especially on a big title, takes years. So it's not a matter of seeing something in a game that you think is cool and six months later you throw it into your game - that's really not the case."

This is a new country, it's a brand new frontier to explore
Dan Greenawalt, Turn 10
Kinect was central to Microsoft's message last week at E3, as it revealed long-anticipated core gaming support for the device from franchises such as Ghost Recon, Fable and Mass Effect. But Greenawalt believes this is only the start of something new and hopes that further down the line Kinect will have pushed gaming into entirely different spaces.

"If I'm honest, I still think the development community is just getting started," he said. "Three years from now, four years from now we're going to look back at the types of games that were originally launched and the types of games you're going to see coming forward and we're going to say 'that was the start of something big.'

"I can't tell you what those big things are. Some of them are secret but most I just don't know about."

Forza was one of the first core games to be shown using Kinect at E3 in 2010, with the Turn 10 team taking the technology and working from scratch to create something unique for the series.

"When Kudo [Tsunoda] was first showing this inside of Microsoft, this sensor, for us we got really excited because I thought about my kids playing Hot Wheels, how people drool over cars at a car show, and all the different ways people interact to cars at a car show," added Greenawalt.

"This is a new country, it's a brand new frontier to explore. We had to start from square one because there wasn't a large development community, everything was in its infancy."

Forza Motorsport 4 is set for release this October.

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You can be part of the ongoing experiments in Microsoft's Kinect Fun Labs. Six more well-known Kinect hacks are up for consideration as new Fun Labs apps, and Microsoft wants you to vote on the one you'd like to see first.

The apps in question include Keyboard Anywhere, Virtual Conductor, Kinect Body Art, Hand Puppets, Digital Pin Art, and Music Visualizer. If you have a strong opinion about which hack you'd like to see on your Xbox first, hit the Facebook "like" button associated with your choice between now and July 6.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/14/vo...-fun-labs-toy/ ...

The Xbox 360 is once again the highest selling console in the US, according to data released by the NPD Group, with the console sold 270,000 units in May - up 39 percent over last year.

The Xbox 360 has occupied the top-spot for 11 of the last 12 months, and enjoyed 17 consecutive months of year-on-year sales growth. Microsoft released an official response predicting that the seventh year of the Xbox 360's life-cycle would be its most successful, "a feat never achieved by any console in history."

Four of the top-ten console games in May were available on Xbox 360 – L.A. Noire, Portal 2, Mortal Kombat, and Brink – with software sales reaching $140 million for the system and total retail spend amounting to $265 million, the highest of any current generation console.

However, while Microsoft's game business is enjoying a period of growth, the NPD data painted a less optimistic picture for the wider industry. Sales of hardware and accessories were both down year-on-year, with physical software sales at their lowest point since October 2006.

Nevertheless, Microsoft is anticipating a "monumental" finish to 2011, "with the biggest blockbuster games, Kinect games and experiences, as well as movies, music and TV together all in one place. This will propel Xbox 360 to be number one worldwide by the end of the year, out-selling PlayStation 3 and Wii."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...one-spot-in-us ...

Xbox 720 (the widely-accepted pretend name for the Xbox 360's successor) is being targeted for its debut appearance at E3 2012 and development on its games has already begun, according to a new rumour.

Crytek is among the first to kick off next-gen development, reportedly having begun work on Timesplitters 4 for the Xbox and PlayStation successors.

Microsoft is yet to nail down its hardware specs, but aims to reveal the new machine within the next 12 months, according to Videogamer's 'high-ranking industry source at Crytek'. MS aims to reveal and launch its new console before the PlayStation 4.

According to the report, Crytek is not only developing a new Timeplitters - the first-person shooter series that debuted on PS2 in 2000 - but was showing it behind closed doors at E3 2011 last week. The game apparently uses CryEngine 3 and is based on DirectX 11 technology, the main features of which are multithreaded rendering, compute shaders and tessellation. Mmm, lovely tessellation.

The game is said to feature sanbox-style gameplay elements and levels with multiple paths, offering the gamer a choice of routes to the same ultimate conclusion. Its visuals are claimed to already be noticeably better than current-gen games.

Developer Crytek UK - originally Free Radical before Crytek rescued it from meltdown - officially confirmed to CVG back in 2007 that work on Timesplitters 4 had begun. It even released concept art before its long-time no-show stirred up rumours of its cancellation.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

Timesplitters 4 project 'to be announced for new hardware'
Microsoft will unveil its next generation console at E3 next year, according to new reports.
And Crytek UK, the British arm of the European development giant, is claimed to be building a new Timesplitters game for the next console.
Both claims originate from a news article published on VideoGamer, citing alledged inside sources.
Microsoft and Crytek UK have declined to comment.

"Crytek believes that Microsoft will announce and launch its new machine ahead of rival Sony, though the developer is also investing resources into next-generation PlayStation development," the VideoGamer article read.
A "high-ranking industry source at Crytek" is quoted as saying TimeSplitters 4 is currently being demonstrated internally.
That game, built with CryEngine 3, was shown privately in video form at E3 2011, VideoGamer said.

'100 PER CENT NOT TRUE'


The new information sits in-line with several Develop sources who say new Xbox hardware is on desks at an increasing number of studios.
In May, Develop reported that a new Xbox console was on desks at one EA studio that cannot be named.
EA declined to comment on the matter, though it went on to allege the article was "100 per cent not true".
The next Xbox will liekly appear at E3 next year, the VideoGamer article claimed.
CryEngine is thought will be supported on the console.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...s-at-Crytek-UK ...

Microsoft may be planning a new system of Kinect-enabled advertising for the Xbox 360, following the discovery of a new trademark for "NUAds".

A trademark application discovered by website Techie Buzz refers to a new service called NUAds and although Kinect is not mentioned by name it appears to be instrumental to the new concept.

"Advertising services, namely, promoting and marketing the goods and services of others through online interactive video games by enabling consumers to interact with third-party advertising content through voice or body gestures via computer game console and sensor devices", reads the description.

The description appears to imply advertising via the Xbox 360 dashboard, rather than in-game. Static and video advertising is already streamed via the current dashboard and a new fully Kinect-controlled version of the interface was unveiled at the recently concluded E3 expo.

The website Techie Buzz speculates that the new service may be an attempt by Microsoft to introduce an equivalent to Apple's iAds - a touch-controlled advertising platform for iOS developers.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-dashboard-ads ...

US boxed video game sales in May 2011 totalled $743.1 million, a 14 per cent decline on the same period in 2010 and the lowest since October 2006.

That's according to data released by the NPD Group, which reported that software sales were down 19 per cent to $375.8 million and hardware down 5 per cent to $228.9 million. Accessories was also down 6 per cent to $114 million.

"Keeping in mind that these sales figures represent just the new physical portion of the market for video game hardware, software, and accessories and not the growing portion of the industry that is comprised of digital format content distribution, May 2011 was the lowest month of sales for the industry since October 2006," said the company. "A light slate of new releases is at the heart of this month's performance."

Sales of the PlayStation 3, PSP and Xbox 360 were all up over May 2010, with 360 seeing the highest increase.

NPD noted that "sales of the 3DS were light, but with next Sunday's release of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, we will begin to see a slate of strong content come to market for the 3DS, which should help to significantly boost sales of hardware during the remainder of 2011."

"Combined sales of the PS3 and Xbox 360 (HD hardware) are up 28 per cent for the month and 21 per cent year to date. Although the declines in console hardware sales in 2011 are attributable to the Wii, the platform remains the best-selling of this generation at nearly 36 million installed in the US."

NPD suggested that at the current rate of growth and decline, the Wii will still maintain the lead in the console space, although the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 will have closed the gap. "Of course, new details on hardware introduction could certainly change the picture," added the company.

During May there were 42 new software SKUs released compared to 58 last year and 72 for May 2009.

"Keep in mind that purchases of content are increasingly occurring in digital format, and May saw a notable digital release in the second map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops which was titled Escalation. Undoubtedly, this shifted some dollars that might have been spent on new physical content at retail," noted NPD.

The biggest release of the month was Team Bondi's L.A. Noire, followed by Brink, LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, Portal 2 and Mortal Kombat.

The top ten best sellers for May follow:

01 L.A. Noire (360, PS3)
02 Brink (360, PS3, PC)
03 LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean (Wii, 360, DS, 3DS, PS3, PSP, PC)
04 Portal 2 (360, PS3, PC)
05 Mortal Kombat (PS3, 360)
06 Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, Wii, DS, PC)
07 Zumba Fitness: Join the Party (Wii, 360, PS3)
08 NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, PC)
09 Just Dance 2 (Wii)
10 LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (Wii, DS, 360, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC)

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...e-october-2006 ...

Microsoft has refuted the idea that core gamers were ever disapproving about Kinect - suggesting instead that they merely wanted the motion device to feature in their favourite games.

The platform holder used its E3 conference last Monday to show off a host of games that it believes will be 'Better With Kinect' - including BioWare's Mass Effect 3 and Ubisoft's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.

Speaking to an audience after the firm's E3 showcase, Microsoft's Kinect maestro Kudo Tsunoda said: "I mean, I never really thought that core gamers were in any way hostile to Kinect. People saying: 'Wow, we'd really love to have Kinect in the games that we love to play and the genres and types of games we like to enjoy,'... to me that's saying like: 'We really love Kinect, and we'd like Kinect to be in the experiences that we play regularly.' I never really looked on it as something that we needed to address.


He added: "The number of Kinect experiences we're going to have are going to triple by the end of the year, so there's going to be more different types of experiences in more different types of genres.

"Let's face it, I've been playing games since I was like five-years-old. If there's anybody who is a core gamer, it is me and I'm just happy that Kinect and developers are excited enough about Kinect - and that core gamers are excited enough about Kinect - to have the technology showing up in all different types of games.

"I think that's one of the real strengths of Xbox: It doesn't matter what kind of person you are, a core gamer or a non-core gamer, if you like controllers or you want to play controller-free, we really make it so people can play games the way they want on our console, and developers can build experiences on the way that they want on our console.

"Again, I never really looked on it as core gamers being hostile. A bunch of people saying: 'Hey we'd really like to have this stuff in our games,' - to me that's much more something that makes me feel good about the technology."'

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

Microsoft Games Studios VP Phil Spencer has described the PlayStation Network hack that dominated gaming headlines in late April and May as a "crappy" situation that was bad for the industry as a whole, the Xbox maker included.

"It's crappy," he told IGN of the lengthy PSN outage. "What [the hackers] did is against the law, hurts consumers, and doesn't help any of us in the industry.

"I think Sony would say they're out there to create entertainment products and games for everybody. People want to trust that their information online is safe.

"I've had questions about whether or not this helps Xbox Live," he added, "and no, it doesn't help anybody. Having people question the safety of their online information is not good for our industry."

Sony said at E3 last week that activity on the PlayStation Network is back up to 90 percent of what it had been before the security breach.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...