By Mike Snider, USA TODAY
Video games used to be solitary experiences spent sitting on the sofa. No more. This holiday season's hottest video game gifts involve getting physical while playing with others.
It was four years ago that the Nintendo Wii took the now-$20 billion industry by storm and transformed people of all ages into gamers, with parlor pursuits such as bowling and tennis played by making arm motions with Wii's wireless remote.
Nintendo's competition is no longer sitting — or standing — still. Microsoft and Sony are finding success with their own gesture-based devices for controlling the companies' respective video game consoles, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Both of the new systems appear to be hits this holiday season. Online retailers and stores across the nation are reporting shortages. Nintendo's Wii continues to be a hot seller, so the season has come to represent a renewed battle among video game companies for space in your living room.
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Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony each are positioning themselves to grab a greater share of your entertainment dollars.
"Much like the iPhone really kind of reinvented cellphones, I think these motion-gaming platforms are reinventing how you interact with your television set," says Geoff Keighley, host and executive producer of GameTrailers TVon cable channel Spike.
Technologically superior to the Wii, if a bit more pricey, the new motion controllers each have its own lineup of all-in-the-family activities aimed at turning living rooms into high-definition activity centers. Microsoft's Kinect ($150 for Kinect Sensor and Kinect Adventures game) has amusement-park-like water rides and workout programs with fitness trainers who never blink. Sony's Move ($100 for Move controller, PlayStation Eye camera and Sports Champions game) offers gladiator fighting, beach volleyball and party games.
Each system has virtual pets and realistic sports simulations, too. And, yes, each has a bowling game.
Sony has sold more than 4.1 million Move units to retailers since Move's release Sept. 17, while Microsoft has sold 2.5 million Kinect units since Nov. 4. That's still way behind the $200 Wii, which kicked off the new video game movement in 2006 and has sold more than 75 million worldwide.
Heading into the last major holiday shopping weekend, some consumers are finding the Kinect and Move controllers hard to find as stand-alone kits. In some cases, buyers are purchasing entirely new game systems or a collection of games just to get the motion controllers. "We are seeing pockets of sellouts across different retailers," says David Dennis, Microsoft's director of group product management.
•Amazon.com routinely sells out of Kinect and the basic Move package. When it does, you can buy the products from other retail partners on Amazon's site at prices above the suggested retail price. Customers can also buy Move as part of a $400 package that includes a PlayStation 3. "When we get them (Kinect stand-alone sensors), we sell them fast," says Amazon.com's Mike Frazzini. "Same with the Move. The inventory for that has been a little less consistent."
•BestBuy.com is sold out of Kinect online but is working to keep stores and its website supplied. The retailer is also giving out a $50 gift card with PS3 purchases. Kinect and Move are "must-have gifts," says the retailer's Chris Homeister. " While Kinect is selling out pretty fast online, we continue to work with Microsoft to obtain shipments with more product arriving in stores daily and online supplies also being replenished frequently."
•GameStop is spending $1 million to rush delivery of 100,000-plus Kinects to replenish its stores. GameStop.com has been sold out of Kinect, as well as individual Move controllers. "I wish I could say (the Kinect shipment) will be enough to keep us in stock through the end of the month, but I know it won't be," says GameStop's Bob McKenzie.
•Walmart.com has limited Kinect supplies and does not have individual Move controllers either, but most Walmart stores have both systems in stock. Stores that have sold out of Kinect are getting shipments Dec. 26, says Walmart spokesman Ravi Jariwala.
"We are seeing a strong response from our customers for the Sony PS3 Move and Microsoft's Kinect, and we anticipate sales momentum to continue for the gaming peripherals through the holiday season," Jariwala says.
Wii's word of mouth
Few industry observers expected much from the Wii before its arrival in stores in November 2006, but early buyers loved the Wii Sports game that was included. Word about the game spread, and eventually retirement villages began hosting Wii bowling tournaments.
"By simplifying the controller down to natural motions, Nintendo realized they could minimize that barrier to entry, opening up gaming to a brand-new audience," says Jesse Divnich, an analyst at Electronic Entertainment Design and Research.
Holiday sales for the Wii remain formidable with a limited edition red Wii console and new games such as Just Dance 2 and Donkey Kong Country Returns as hot sellers.
Wii has sold 32 million units in the USA, compared with 24 million for the Xbox 360 and 14 million for PlayStation 3, according to Wedbush Securities, an equity research firm. Nintendo's success did not go unnoticed at Microsoft and Sony. Each investigated how to leapfrog Nintendo while building on the success of their own consoles. People desire "a more realistic motion-gaming experience," says Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America.
Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games already looked better than those on the Wii because of each system's support for high-definition video. But Sony and Microsoft have gone further.
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Sony's Move control system uses a new PlayStation Eye camera that tracks the wireless controller in 3-D space. Players wave the controller as a virtual sword or to spike volleyballs.
Not only can you use the Move controller to play EA Sports golf game Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, you'll be able to use it to navigate menus and control a new first-person perspective in next year's version.
"This feeling of really being on the course, that is something we're working hard on," says the game's executive producer, Nick Wlodyka.
Eventually, game designers hope to "make this an experience where you have coaching in your living room," Wlodyka says. Move's camera and software could be used as a swing trainer — developing skills "that you can take from the virtual world into the real world," he says.
Microsoft's Kinect uses slightly different technology. Its sensors track hands, arms and legs, as well as voices and individual faces in a variety of activities that do not require a traditional game controller. "It makes you the controller, and it allows you to go beyond the imagination of even the creators of the games," says Marc Whitten, general manager of Microsoft's Xbox Live online service.
In the works for February is a Kinect-only program called Body and Brain Connection from the maker of the Brain Age games released in 2006 and 2007 for the Nintendo DS. Its 20 mind-body challenges mix math, logic, reflexes and physicality. One game, called Mathercising, requires players to punch or kick at numbered targets as those numbers become factors of another number on a counter.
"It really takes advantage of the you-are-the-controller mentality. Not having to use controllers really gets you physical with the game," says Katherine Schilling of Namco, which is publishing the game. "Research has shown that not just puzzles throughout the day can help your brain, but if you add a physical element to that, it can jump-start it and have even better, and more fun, results."
A saturated market?
Microsoft and Sony, as well as other video game publishers, hope that these new technologies deliver a gift that keeps on giving long after the holidays are over.
However, there is skepticism that the game-playing audience can expand much beyond the one-third to one-half of all homes that already have video game console systems.
While the new control systems aim to attract new consumers to video games, most available games "remain pretty hardcore" and not user-friendly for non-gamers, says Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter. "Motion gaming will gradually shift the demographics, and gradually change the future, but nothing dramatic."
"But very quickly, game publishers are going to have to expand beyond the fitness and dance games and deliver motion games that cater to the core video game buyer," predicts Peter Moore, president of EA Sports, which recently released different versions of the exercise program EA Sports Active 2 for the Kinect, Move and Wii.
"Microsoft has got to be looking at how to take Halo and Gears of War and have a Kinect experience" with those sci-fi combat games, he says. The same is true for Sony's Killzone and even a racing game like Gran Turismo, Moore says.
Sony has announced that sci-fi shooter game Killzone 3, out in February, will incorporate Move features, as will combat game SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy Seals, due later in 2011.
At Microsoft, there is discussion of a possible future for Kinect in games such as Halo, but Dennis says, "It has to be a natural fit. It would be hard to sort of force Kinect onto a traditional shooter game."
Game designers ultimately could change the entire shape of technology in entertainment, says Keighley. Microsoft and Sony already offer on-demand movies and TV episodes.
Someday soon, you might surf through TV channels with a Move controller, or maybe by waving your hand in front of a Kinect.
Motion interactivity "will become about more than just gaming," Keighley says. "It will become about how you interact with home entertainment."
About the games
Microsoft Kinect
Price: $150 for Kinect Sensor and Kinect Adventures game; $300 for Kinect with 4-gigabyte Xbox 360.
Features: Currently, there are more than 15 Kinect-compatible games including workout program Your Shape: Fitness Evolved and racing game Kinect Joy Ride. But Kinect's controller-free navigation works with Xbox Live's other offerings, such as movies, music, its ESPN and Last.fm services, and video chatting.
Pros/cons: This first wave of games only scratches the surface of Kinect's truly cutting-edge technology. Halo-loving Xbox 360 owners can woo the rest of the family with Dance Central from the developers of Rock Band,Electronic Arts' Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and pet simulator Kinectimals. However, newcomers still must use the original game controller to set the system up.
Sony PlayStation Move
Price: $100 for Move motion controller, PlayStation Eye camera and Sports Champions game; PlayStation 3 owners who already have the camera need just buy the Move stand-alone controller ($50). A separate wireless navigation controller with buttons and analog stick can be used in some Move games and in traditional PS3 games. $400 for Move with 320-gigabyte PS3.
Features: The new ice cream cone-looking Move controllers bring wireless gesture gaming to the PS3 with more than two dozen new Move-specific and backward-compatible games, including Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11. The Sports Champions game has been compared to Nintendo's Wii Sports for good reason. Its six activities include disc golf, gladiator duels, beach volleyball, archery, table tennis and bocce.
Pros/cons: Like the Xbox 360, the games are in high-definition, a visible improvement over the Nintendo Wii and past game systems. And when you get worn out, you can pop in a Blu-ray Disc movie. Some use of the standard controller is required here, too.
Nintendo Wii
Price: $200 includes Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, Wiimote with built-in MotionPlus and Nunchuk controller.
Features: Has the largest library of motion-based games, including new Super Mario Galaxy 2, Epic Mickey, Just Dance 2 and fitness games such as Wii Fit Plus.
Pros/cons: For many, the Wii Sports games that come with the system — and include bowling, tennis and table tennis among the options — offer all the game play options many casual gamers will ever want. The Wii, like its competitors, does offer online streaming of Netflix movies but does not play DVDs or Blu-ray Discs (only the PS3 plays Blu-ray).
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