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Gaming consoles and computers have rigidly stuck to their methods of control for decades now. Personal computers have their mice and keyboards, consoles have generally always had the two-pronged game pad, directional pad on the left, buttons on the right. These are tried and tested and feature little in the way of ingenuity, likely from the motto, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." As such, when something new comes out, it truly does make a stir in the gaming community and perhaps beyond. Motion control first became viable in 2006, when the Wii was released to critical acclaim and massive popularity. Coming next is the Kinect X-Box game controller and Playstation Move.

Gaming consoles and computers have rigidly stuck to their methods of control for decades now. Personal computers have their mice and keyboards, consoles have generally always had the two-pronged game pad, directional pad on the left, buttons on the right. These are tried and tested and feature little in the way of ingenuity, likely from the motto, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." As such, when something new comes out, it truly does make a stir in the gaming community and perhaps beyond. Motion control first became viable in 2006, when the Wii was released to critical acclaim and massive popularity. Coming next is the Kinect X-Box game controller and Playstation Move.

Nintendo's Wii is a perfect example of evolutionary gaming peripherals. It flexes some of the rigid rules by providing the Wiimote: a motion-sensitive controller than can direction direction, bearing and acceleration in order to perform actions in game. The Wii has done the incredible job of bringing many people who previously hadn't tried gaming into a growing band of casual gamers. It's intuitive controls and ease of use - as well as casual games - has provided an excellent fan base.

Sony's attempt at motion control is somewhat similar to Nintendo's. It features two controllers, one of them being the primary. Between them, they allow for pretty much identical game play to the Wii. The differences is that the Playstation 3 allows for higher definition gaming and will likely appeal to core gamers, unlike the Wii, which has connotations of being a solely casual gaming system.

Microsoft have also shown their own attempt at motion control, and for some, it blows the competition out of the water. Kinect scraps all need for physical hand held peripherals and simply requires a camera on top of the TV.

Kinect

Requiring nothing more than a camera which is placed on top or in front of the player's television, Kinect uses complex calculations to determine the movements of the player. It can differentiate between adults and children, as well as a host of different body parts, such as bones and joints, varying from the limbs to the every digit on their hands. This allows for very complex motion control. The player simply has to perform an action they wish to do ingame; such as pretending to stroke an animal would result in their avatar stroking the virtual animal. The pricing has varied between $100 and $150.

There are a couple of downsides to this, however, as Kinect requires more power than the original XBox 360 can provide. As such, if the player owns a normal XBox 360, they will require an additional power cable for Kinect, as well as the USB connection it needs. To compensate for this and possibly cash in on the potential of Kinect, Microsoft has lined up a new reboot of the XBox 360, called the XBox 360 Slim. It is smaller in profile, has enhanced hardware and provides a high-powered USB port for Kinect, meaning the additional power cable is no longer needed. Furthermore, it has overheat protection, to avoid the problems that the earlier models suffered. This may be all the customer needs to make an upgrade or to convince those who are still on the fence.

As you can imagine, Kinect is offering up a serious evolutionary step forward and is likely to change motion control if it takes off.