Developer Rare is working on a follow-up to the Kinect Sports franchise for Xbox One. The game, called Kinect Sports Rivals, will use the next-gen console and Kinect camera to bring bowling, rock climbing, and other competitions to life.
Kinect Sports Rivals executive producer Danny Isaac went into some detail about how much better the next-gen Kinect is.
“The new Kinect for Xbox One delivers 10 times more power and is incredibly advanced technology,” Isaac said in an interview with Microsoft’s Xbox news service. “It can track even the slightest motions and gestures with pinpoint accuracy, like the simple squeeze of your hand to give your wake racer some gas in Wake Racing.”
One of the modes in Kinect Sports Rivals puts players on a jet ski in a game called Wake Racing. Players control the watercraft by holding their hands in the air and pretending to move the handlebars. To give it more gas, just like in real life, gamers will have to squeeze the imaginary throttle, and Isaac claims the Kinect can detect that very tiny motion.
The producer went on to explain some of the camera’s other features.
“Kinect Real Vision technology expands the field of view, meaning it can detect more players and track the flick of a finger from almost three meters away,” Isaac said. “The new active infrared camera enables Kinect to see in the dark. In other words, it’s truly a next-gen Kinect experience.”
Kinect Sports Rivals can also take a player and put their face into the game. Microsoft released a video of that process in action, and it looks like it works as promised.
Xbox One is due out in November, but Rare’s motion-control game won’t hit retail until some time in 2014.