Iridium Studios and Harmonix, developers of the crowdfunded strategy game There Came An Echo and the motion-controlled rhythm game Fantasia: Music Evolved respectively, spoke to TotalXbox about their reactions to Microsoft’s Kinect-less Xbox One (with a price cut to boot).
Needless to say, Iridium’s take on the matter is one of disappointment towards the peripheral. Though they’re glad that the Kinect is now no longer included with the console, the studio feels that the device shouldn’t have been “ underutilized ” to begin with.
” In an ideal world, we would have been receiving a steady stream of quality software that utilized the Kinect’s unique features, and instead, we got almost nothing, ” Iridium’s founder Jason Wishnov said. ” It’s ‘good’ that a relatively unused piece of hardware is no longer required and adding to the base price of the system, but it really should never have been so underutilized in the first place.
I’m not sure how hard Microsoft was pushing companies to develop with the Kinect, but considering the amount of resources that went into the thing, I’m just a little surprised we didn’t get more out of it, ” he added.
Harmonix’s reaction was conveyed in a more positive statement. “ As avid gamers, ” the statement began, “ we’re excited for fans to have more choices out there. As game makers, this platform change doesn’t affect our strategy – it reinforces that we must continue to focus on building innovative, compelling and well-designed motion experiences to motivate consumers to buy our games.
We believe that tightly-crafted motion games can be great, genre defining interactive experiences, as we’ve proven with the Dance Central franchise on Kinect for Xbox 360, ” the statement continued. “ We’re eager to prove it again with Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved this fall on both Xbox One and Xbox 360. ”
There Came An Echo’s Kickstarter campaign successfully surpassed its goal of $90,000 back in March, 2013 with a total amount of $115,569, and it will also star Wil Wheaton. Fantasia: Music Evolved is slated to release on Xbox 360 and Xbox One during this Fall.
A bunch of updates regarding both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles have come about during the past few days, some of which include the first Games with Gold on Xbox One , the confirmation that early Xbox One buyers will not be refunded in light of the console’s price cut, Xbox 360 and Xbox One entertainment apps no longer requiring Xbox Live Gold (like Netflix and Hulu ), and whether or not the exclusion of the Kinect will improve the Xbox One’s performance .
[ TotalXbox ]