Why Kinect is Beating Move

The 7^th generation of home video game consoles have been ripe with surprises. The most obvious being the resurrection of Nintendo as a hardware producer. Coming off their least successful console in history, Nintendo has delivered their best selling machine ever with the Wii. Nintendo has achieved their domination by going against all conventional wisdom in the industry by dropping out of the specifications arms race and focusing on redesigning the way games are controlled.

The disruptive motion controls that were introduced with the Wii was universally disregarded and ridiculed by the established gaming industry. The mass market however saw it differently and the rest is history.

This winter has seen the two other console makers introducing their own takes on motion controls. Microsoft has released their Kinect add-on to the Xbox 360 while Sony is trying to expand their appeal with the Move for the PlayStation 3. This shift effectively confirms motion controls as the control scheme of the future and further validates Nintendo's bold gamble.

Move and Kinect released roughly at the same time heading into the holiday season. All eyes in the industry has been on the two new devices and how they would impact the sales of the so called HD twins, and what impact they would have on Wii sales.

As it turns out, the Wii does not seem to be affected by the new competition. In fact the slumping sales this fall has been reversed into another fantastic holiday season for the Wii. While the Wii has staved off the new motion control competition, the introduction of Kinect and Move has had a huge impact on the video game industry as a whole.

The Move has been moderately successful for Sony. The device is selling according to expectations and is supported by solid software. The real story is in the run-away success of the Kinect. Microsoft's full motion sensing camera device has taken off like a rocket. The immense success of the device has helped the Xbox 360 revitalize it's sales to the point where it is seeing record sales in it's sixth year on the market. More importantly, the additional push provided by Kinect has allowed Microsoft to pull ahead in the fierce race between the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.

Most predictions before the launch of either device saw the Move as the winner in the new motion control race. The similarities between the Wii Remote and the Move controller led many people to think that the PlayStation 3 would be positioned as a superior Wii. What really has happened is that the market again has rewarded the company willing to innovate and take risks.

Sales are showing that the Move has failed to differentiate itself from the already available tech in the market. To most consumers the Move seems like it is 5 years late to the party. The functionality and even the design of the Move is too similar to the Wii to be appealing to the majority of the video game market. The Kinect on the other hand has introduced a brand new take on video game controls. The controller less interface is radically different from the competing technologies and Microsoft have been successful in marketing it as a true step forward in motion controls.

The performance of the Move and Kinect has reaffirmed the principal lesson from the 7^th generation; innovation is more important than technical advances. Nintendo was the first company to go down this path, Sony and Microsoft are slowly picking up on the trend. For gamers this is a great development that promises to deliver some truly remarkable systems next generation. A generation that most likely is just a couple of years away.