Lawrence.com

It's that time of the year again and no matter what system you or your loved ones have, there's a whole new market for motion controls. This year we saw Microsoft and Sony jump on the motion control bandwagon with Kinect and Move respectively, both trying to take marketshare from Nintendo's Wii. For many gamers the concept of motion controls (or in Kinect's case, controller-free gameplay) does not illicit a positive response, but then these devices or consoles aren't intended for us. Now that many gamers already have both an Xbox 360 and a Playstation 3 in their homes –– if not a Wii to boot –– Kinect and Move try to rope in those casual players with promises of family friendly devices. This article will explain and examine the differences between each motion control device and help you decide which will be best for you or that special someone on your holiday shopping list.

Overview

Wii by frojas

Nintendo's Wii has been around for almost four years now, so chances are it's already sitting in your living room or has been passed on to a more appropriate audience. The Wii functions much like a mouse, using a set reference point on the screen and you can move the cursor on screen to interact with the game. Rarely does the system actually detect much of your movements, save to have you shake the controller (waggle) to perform various functions in nearly all of Wii's games. The addition of an add-on accessory, Wii Motion Plus, which only now is integrated into new controllers, widens some of the motion functionality, but it still remains more of an illusion of motion controls rather than the real deal. At the same token, most casual gamers won't really know the difference and it's all about the Wii Sports or Wii Fit anyway, right?

Playstation Move by frojas

Playstation's Move tries really hard to pretend it's not just a copycat of the Wii, but there is just no way to avoid it –– it's basically a Wii on the Playstation 3. It uses a camera that watches you in the room and detects your movements based off of signals from the controller itself and the movements detected by the camera to integrate motion controls. With an initial launch of poor games and the pack-in being a Wii Sports clone, this is best suited for those who want motion controls but have a Playstation 3 instead of a Wii. On the plus side, existing and new titles can patch in motion controls simply and easily resulting in the Move being the only motion controls currently integrated into hardcore games. Resident Evil 5 and Heavy Rain owners can enjoy these titles with motion controls instead of having to purchase new games.

Kinect by frojas

Microsoft Kinect is an add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 that turns the player into the controller. It interacts with you solely through watching your movements in a room via the camera and microphones built into it. As a result, Kinect can follow voice commands, track you in a room, recognize individual people and allows you to use objects around the house as controller devices (as long as the software supports it). Kinect also requires a lot of space, a recommended eight feet to be specific, doesn't recognize people under a meter tall or taller than two meters and can have issues with certain lighting conditions. In addition, Kinect requires you to purchase specific games for it (so far) and won't work with any of your existing 360 games even though it requires a 360 to function.

Comparisons

It all boils down to two things when deciding which device is best for you: price and audience.

A Wii will run you $200 for the system, but you will need at least one additional controller, which is an additional $60 each ($40 for the remote and $20 for the nunchuck add-on required in many games). It comes with Wii Sports, though, so for about $260 you're ready to go. Playstation Move requires a Playstation 3, so here's hoping you already have one of those ($300 for the console if you don't). The starter bundle comes with the Playstation Eye camera, one Move controller, and Sports Champions game (think: Wii Sports) for $100. You will probably want to pick up the joystick controller (called the Navigation Controller) for another $30 and you will need to spend $50 on each additional Move controller and $30 on each additional Navigation controller. For at least two people, that's roughly $210 if you already own a Playstation 3 (there are $400 PS3/Move bundles, but there's really not any savings there). Kinect is $150, but it also requires an Xbox 360 so if you don't have one the 360/Kinect bundle will cost $300 for a small hard drive or $400 for a big hard drive. Software on all three platforms is usually $50 per retail game. All in all you can expect to spend between $150 and as much as $400 or more to get motion controls. At the same time, if you already own a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 this price can drop considerably.

Money Tree by frojas

The audience is another important factor - who will be using it? For families you are pretty set with any of them as they all have an array of titles intended to be played with a group of people doing various sports activities and mini games. Those looking to play more traditional or hardcore games will probably want to go with the Playstation Move at this point because it's already able to play some hardcore games now and next year's big releases like Killzone 3 will also have Move support built in from the beginning. Move seems to be more drawn to giving someone the option to play a game with motion controls instead of developing games to use motion controls. The Wii has a wide library and plenty of family friendly as well as traditional titles, so if you love Mario and Donkey Kong it's the only place to find those classics. Kinect is a much more advanced system that allows you to navigate your Xbox 360 with your hands (think Minority Report), actually perform the activities in the game, and is marketed as a whole new console. Smaller children or those that can't move around with ease are probably better off with the Wii or Move, with a much wider variety on Wii.

Conclusion

Motion controls may be here to stay or remain a passing fad, but there is no doubt that game companies are hoping you're eager to get on board. Depending on who's going to be playing with the device and what you hope to get out of it, there are so many options that it's best to know what's right for you. After hearing the important differences between each, which one are you most likely to get?