Will we take on the Covenant with Kinect?
With traditional "no plans yet" suffix
With core gamers the world over crying out for Halo on Kinect, Microsoft's Halo studio 343 Industries has commented on the possibility of the two system-sellers coming together.
343's creative director Frank O'Connor spoke to ComputerandVideoGames about the success of real-time strategy Halo Wars and the possibility of a sequel.
The funny thing about Halo Wars is it actually beat our sales forecasts, so it was a bigger success than we expected. It was a big critical success and it’s still the number one selling RTS on consoles this generation. In that regard it was a huge success but is the will to do a sequel there? Who knows. We could do something that works on Kinect, for example. There’s no will against it but we’re not working on it right now.
Considering Kinect is capable of multi touch-like control systems we can certainly foresee a real-time strategy game working, but would you be disappointed if Halo came to Kinect as an RTS instead of a shooter?
User Comments
1. soaduk
05 Mar 2011, 01:39 GMT
I didn't think much of halo wars and rts games don't work well without a mouse hence no more command and conquer. It'd be even worse with no joypad either unless they can improve the sensitivity of kinect which i doubt they can now.
2. eclipticus
05 Mar 2011, 09:57 GMT
, I think RTS would work well enough with kinect. just use your hand to move the icon on the screen. Black and White proved its possible to have a game with little to no buttons.
As far as the article, the title is a little misleading, O'Connor doesn't explicitly say that it is a HW sequel, it could just be a mini-game, or a Kinect Feature for a regularly controlled game. Also, having something work and succeeding at it is two different things. They made ET work on the Atari. Barely, but they did. Would it be of quality, he never mentions that. But possibly the Will is not there because what ever they get to work, would not be up to the quality.
I think we can all safely say that if they can get a HALO title to work on the kinect at a satisfactory level the "WILL" will most certainly be there, even if it is only by the guys looking at the bottom line.
But with that being said, I don't think anyone would be disappointed if more genres and titles came out for the kinect.
3. soaduk
07 Mar 2011, 00:24 GMT
I just don't think kinect would add anything to rts games they don't seem an obvious candidate. Can you image how many times you click the mouse playing rts games on pc? Or drag over specific units to select them? How would that translate to kinect? And would there be any benefit? Kinect seems more suited to games where you control a single character 1-2-1 hence all the sports, fitness and dancing games. I'd love to see different genres but only if they actually benefit from kinect. Fps would, rts I dont see it.
4. eclipticus
07 Mar 2011, 18:02 GMT
You're the first person to say that FPS would benefit from Kinect. Which, In my mind just goes to show that it is all about the way you would view the possibilities.
While there are numerous clicks in your typical RTS style game. Many of these can be streamlined. I think all it takes is a different approach to understanding and creating a UI.
Of course, that doesn't mean what ever interface is implemented will be wildly successful.
5. soaduk
08 Mar 2011, 00:25 GMT
Maybe I should have been more clear...i meant fps could benefit, youd still need a pad or light gun to make it work but the movement/leaning etc would be a potential improvement over just a pad. I take your point about rts too maybe I wasn't thinking outside the box enough.
6. thekng02
08 May 2011, 00:58 BST
it might be good