Is Your Living Room Big Enough For Microsoft Kinect?
Microsoft is making a big push into the motion-controlled gaming market with Kinect for the Xbox 360, but a new ad begs the question: Is your living room big enough to accommodate it?
Or rather, is your living room big enough for you to jump around in safely.
Some images from the Kinect manual reveal that Microsoft recommends at least 6 feet of open space in which to use Kinect. The problem is that for many people in small houses or especially in apartments, it might be hard to clear up that kind of space without getting rid of furniture altogether.
It gets worse if you plan to play with more than one person, in which case Microsoft recommends at least 8 feet of clear space.
We've had a chance to play Kinect at the E3 gaming convention and we definitely think that 6 feet may even be a conservative estimate. The games are so engrossing that you are jumping and thrashing about without even realizing it, taking up much more room than you might have anticipated. And with two people waving their arms and jumping about 8 feet of clearance would likely start to feel cramped.
And it's not just a matter of preventing users from crashing into furniture. A Microsoft representative told us that the Kinect camera and sensors work better when the user is standing back, allowing the sensors to get a look at the whole body. You can't expect to just keep your movements confined and stand 2 or 3 feet away from the TV.
Kinect is not scheduled for release until November, so it's not clear yet if it will be popular enough to induce people to remodel their living rooms in order to accommodate it.
