Xbox and Kinect

With the announcement of a new design and Kinect Xbox remains, without doubt, the best place to play the best games. The new Xbox hardware will be released on July 16th and will cost £199, it comes in a Piano Black finish boosts a 250gb hard drive and built in Wi-Fi(n).

For a long while Xbox has been the home entertainment hub for many customers but it could be quite noisy and there is nothing worse than the rotation of the CD interrupting the crucial point in your favourite thriller (ok granted there is plenty worse.. Divorce, third world debt and global warming to name a few…. But you get my point). The other big announcement at the Electronic Entertainment Expo was Kinect.

Kinect is a controller a little like the Wii, in that it enables you to interact with games in a more natural and engaging way with your full body…. But in contrast to Wii there is actually no controller.

A camera unit built into the Kinect tracks multiple players movement, recognises faces and speech and creates an experience that’s so natural that technology evaporates and players become part of the game.

Best of all the concept for Kinect was developed in the good old UK at the Microsoft Cambridge R&D facility. I visited Cambridge during my second week at Microsoft and was stunned by how many extremely smart people they have working for them. It's quite humbling actually as you soon realise that almost everyone is a Dr or has a million letters after their name and is world renowned in their field. I can't wait till July for the new Xbox, It';s my understanding that the Kinect hardware will be released a little later on in the year.