In 2006, Nintendo made a revolution in the field of game consoles, launching its new Wii console. It used a wireless controller that allowed the characters to control the movement of the hand. For example, a player could waved his hand, holding a special controller in it, hitting on flying tennis balls or waving a sword in a battle with a computer rival. Thus, players were involved in the game world, controlling the movements of the characters not only with the help of buttons, but also with their own movements.
In 2009, this innovation was picked up by two leading companies that produce game consoles - Microsoft and Sony - they announced similar technologies, but at a higher technical level. Microsoft generally decided to abandon any controllers in the hands of players, releasing a special touch controller Kinect, located above or below the TV and equipped with a special camera and two sensors, through which the game system tracked the movements of the players and transferred these movements to the game world. Sony also perfected the idea of Nintendo, which used both a camera and special hand controllers called Move, which allowed very accurately transfer their position in space. Both companies spent a lot of money in the promotion of their technology, they created amazing presentations, which had a big furore at the exhibitions of the gaming industry. Journalists, and then the first buyers were enthusiastic about this technology.
Initially, relatively few games were released, but then it seemed that it was a matter of time. Many developers of console games have announced the support of these technologies in their new products. These technologies showed themselves especially well not so much in classic console games, as in more adult directions - fitness programs, dance training, sports (tennis, boxing, darts, golf, bowling, archery, etc.). But in normal games, where the characters needed to wave their hands or shoot a lot, also the use of player's support in the game opened up new horizons.
But there were also problems - not all game developers managed to perfectly use the capabilities of the new controllers, in some games there were problems with the accuracy of the player's movements. However, it seemed that all these problems are temporary and in new versions of the software or the game consoles themselves artificial intelligence will be finalized for a more accurate perception of the actions of the player.
Several years passed, Sony and Microsoft announced the next generation of game consoles - PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Together with these generations, the companies have also finalized their controllers with cameras to monitor the players' situation. The kinect increased the resolution and there was support for using the joystick in the hands. And the company Sony began to equip its controller, watching the player PS4 Eye - two cameras instead of one, which also increased the resolution. It seemed that after the new controllers, game developers would re-release their games with the support of Kinect or Move, but at a better level, bringing management closer to reality. But this has not happened yet. In the press, the companies are rather reluctant to answer questions about why they suddenly cooled to this technology. Apparently, game makers have received less profit from games that support hand movements than originally expected. The real successful games, where developers were able to perfectly write control of the movements of hands in the gameplay came out a little. Many developers are disappointed in this technology and did not want to risk releasing support for new controllers that recognize motion. Yes, and the gamers relatively quickly passed the wow-effect and over time, the majority returned to traditional games, where the controls are answered by the buttons on the joysticks. In addition, many games that require hand movements, quickly exhaust players - in the same box, most people usually enough for a couple of short rounds, after which a few more days muscle aches.
However, I still hope that in the course of time the gaming industry will return to supporting this technology - in new games there are fewer and fewer new ideas that "catch" the players, and play clones of the same, albeit with better graphics quickly bored. Sooner or later, artificial intelligence will learn to perfectly recognize the movements of players and then gamers will increasingly prefer motion control, rather than buttons. In addition, game giants now invest a lot of money in the development of virtual reality game helmets, when the player is completely involved in the game world. And in virtual worlds, controlling hands is more natural than controlling buttons on the joystick.
I still prefer pointing a plastic rifle and pulling the trigger to using the control pad in 1st person/ over the shoulder shooters. It is a shame that they have seemed to give up on it.
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