Microsoft: “No Reviews of Kinect!”

[binary solo]

Well I don't think the lack of supplying review kits to the game-reviewing media (if true) can be spun as MS having a great deal of confidence in the critical reception of the overall package (i.e. Kinect HW launch Kinect SW lineup).

Trying to equate this situation with the normal review embargoes that are part of the game and movie industries smells a little of desperation by those who want to put things in a positive light. Which kind of suggests there's a little bit of concern on that part of those who want Kinect to turn this generation on its head console sales-wise.

Also suggesting that either Kinect, or some of it's launch software, is still in the final tweaking phase a mere few weeks prior to launch as a reason why game review media haven't received review kits also sounds like a bit of a desperate spin. Surely you can't tweak the HW after some/all of the launch titles have gone gold, and surely all of the launch titles must have gone gold by now, otherwise getting all the SW distributed for the global launch would be in jeopardy. I might be wrong in how long it takes to get a global launch fully distributed, but I'd think this close to it you'd want both HW and SW in it's finished state and being mass produced already.

I don't think it's because MS thinks it's got a dog of a product on its hands. I think it's more likely that MS believe the game reviewing media wont "get" Kinect, or rather they'll "get" Kinect, but they won't "get" the SW line up. So I pretty much agree with people who have written along these lines. However I think MS are somewhat insulting the intelligence of a lot of the game reviewing media. I think the game reviewing media would, overall, give the Kinect launch line up a fair hearing and score the games appropriately. Taking the Move launch line up for example I think the Sports Champs meta score is reaonable, and threfore I think the Kinect Sports game, if it delivered an equivalent or better experience to Sports Champs, would get and equivalent or better meta score. In fact I'd be willing to bet (if I was a betting person) that the meta average of the Kinect lineup will be better than the meta average of the Move-required line up.

So, it's probably not so much a lack of confidence in the product (though some of the excuses raised in this thread suggest some of the fans might have lost a bit of confidence in the quality of the product) as it is a (unfair) lack of confidence / trust in the game reviewing media.

Unfortunately I won't be getting to try Kinect any time soon, because no one I know who has a 360 has the required space to be able to play it. Everyone either has it in their bedroom, or in a smallish room not hooked up to the main TV in the house. I'll still try to convince someone to buy it so I can have a go. They can always move their 360 to the main TV room when it's time to play Kinect, right?