Do you remember, we’ve brought you information that Kinect will accept an official Microsoft controller with buttons in the form of a hook-up between the sensor and handsets running Windows Phone 7. As Microsoft proclaimed little of its solid plans for the two, we turned to mobile specialist Keith Andrew, News Editor at PocketGamer.biz, to look to the future for the two gadgets. Andrew’s prediction for the collaboration? That it will focus on multiplayer experiences for instance the Rally Ball demonstration shown in Microsoft’s initial pronouncement, as creating single-player content solely for holders of Kinect and WP7 would cause problems. Hypothetically, it could be some use in slower games – adventure titles or RPGs – if they employ Kinect in some fashion. It’s not hard to imagine the handset’s screen being employed to take part in some sort of QTE mini-game. Nevertheless, then you have the problem of what to do with folks who don’t have a Windows Phone, which means you either block them out entirely – which is never going to happen – or make said parts of the game playable on a controller. That means any employment of the phone would be simply coupon, or would take the form of non-essential bonus rounds. Not astonishingly tempting. Over and above predicting a multiplayer-driven future for the two, Andrew also sees the gadgets’ media capabilities playing a big role in how the partnership evolves in future. In much the same way iPad and iPhone can be linked to Apple TV, WP7 and Kinect could be used for remote media streaming and for sharing digital content.
Popularity: 2%