Kinect ‘has huge core potential’ says Rare

Though the first wave of Kinect titles have demonstrated Microsoft’s new focus on the casual market, UK studio Rare insists there’s huge ‘core-gamer’ potential for the device.

Nick Burton, Kinect development director at Rare, said the current catalogue of Kinect titles are demonstrably "just the first wave" – and the potential for the device is huge.

And when asked if a game like, for example, GoldenEye could work well with Kinect, Burton replied "there are so many possibilities for games like that."

He added: "The [augmented reality] web cam things you’ve seen so far are just the tip of the iceberg. [With Kinect] we could do augmented reality on steroids."

Burton continued to praise Kinect technology, saying that pinpointing a person in a room, targeting their voice, and recreating that on screen is a "trivial" task with Microsoft’s latest controllerless device.

"It’s an afternoon’s worth of code," he said, "and that’s the magic of [Kinect’s] skeletal tracking."

Microsoft’s overall intention with Kinect remains a matter for debate. The company, rooted in a core gamer market, has made big decisions to tailor to the casual. Yet hints of a core-based future, such as the one made today by Burton, continue to emerge.

Rare, now enjoying its 25 year anniversary, has sold over 100 million games since it was established.