Kinectimals creator David Braben has today stated that "second-rate" Kinect shovelware should be doomed to fail in the marketplace.

In a NowGamer interview, Kinectimals creator and Frontier Developments founder Braben disucssed the negative impact of "me too" titles that plague formats, while suggesting that publishers tarnish their brand with poor shovelware releases.

It comes just weeks after Kinect launched with a strong starting line up of titles including Kinectimals, Dance Central and Kinect: Sports. However, similar to Wii, a string of poor quality third-party titles has already started to emerge.

"With any platform in the past there have been a raft of second rate and “me too” titles that disappear without trace after a few months," explained Braben, "Personally, seeing a small inclusion [of Kinect] in what are often called ‘AAA’ titles is a good thing, and I don’t think it matters that it is not using the tech to the full, in the same way that many games don’t use all the buttons on the controller. It is the quality of the overall experience that matters."

When asked if Microsoft should apply more quality control to weed out shovelware Braben continued, "The implied censorship in your question I think is a slippery slope. I would hope games that are fundamentally poor, third party or otherwise, will simply fail in the marketplace. It is up to the publisher whether to tarnish their brand with such a title."

Meanwhile, Braben's Kinectimals has sold impressively since launch. You can check out our full Kinectimals review here, as well as our full David Braben interview here.

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/4786/braben-kinect-shovelware-should-fail?

Oi Braben shut up and produce Elite 4 now you tart !!!

you serious? Kinectimals is just a "me too" of EyePet.....

He should criticize "me too" titles after supporting the release for something like Kinect, >.>.

Wow, these statements are stupid.  So pretty much every shooter this gen should fail?  What about just about every platformer?

Pretty much any game that isn't completely new, including Eye Pet since it's just a suped up Tamhucki or howver you spell it, is a me too game.

shovelware is inevitable, the good thing about them is many of them sell especially if they are at a budget price

It hasn't sold that impressively since launch...

I don't agree with him, I hate shovel-ware, but it's only a reaction to consumer demand. If stupid parents want to buy rubbish games for their kids, then let them and I'm sure they'll enjoy the horrible combination of visuals and gameplay, even if the more 'in the know' consumers know better. It also probably helps that they're cheaply made and more likely to return a profit. If the guy doesn't want the bad shovel-ware to tarnish the image of his shovel-ware, then he should probably take it up with Microsoft's quality control.

It's not that parents are always stupid, it can also be that they want to save money.

My sister has three young kids.  She can either buy them a $30-40 quality DS game or a $5 shovelware game.  I know which one is better, you know which one is better, she knows which one is better, her kids do not and do not care.  They care only about making their littlest pet run across the screen or that Dora is doing whatever it is she does.

Whichever one she buys, the kids are giong to get the same amount of enjoyment and paytime, so why should my sister pay 6-8 times more money?  A 4-8 year old is going to enjoy some horrible shovelware game just as much as they are going to enjoy New Super Mario Bros.

Shovelware games very much have thier place and are very useful to people that want to save money.  We would notice the difference, a four year old isn't and it's going to save the parents a lot of money.  If you don't like shovelware, don't buy it.  It's that simple.  It existing does nothing to bother you.

You make a good point. Shovelware exists for a reason. And a lot of times gimmicky games, made on a low budget turn out to be big hits. I don't see why people complain. The more games out there the larger the variety. And it's not like there is going to be another video game crash like back in the early 80's.

That's what I said, but I was more of an asshole about it. I know better, parents and kids don't, but if they're happy with buying shovel-ware, then it's fine. Shovel-ware has a market and as long as the games sell, then I don't see a problem with publishers releasing more and more of them.