A Sporting Look At the Xbox 360 (Interview)

[RaychelSnr]

The debut of the Wii U signals that the end of a (rather long) console generation will soon be upon us. And, while neither Sony or Microsoft has released firm details regarding what’s next, the end of a year seems like a good time for reflecting on what has been, and looking at what’s to come.

I’ve was recently given a unique opportunity to interview representatives from both Microsoft, as console maker and first-party publisher, and Majesco, a third party publisher; mainly to evaluate how the Xbox has performed as a console for sports games.

Kudo Tsunoda (General Manager of Microsoft Studios),Tony Chien (Majesco Senior Project Manager), and Jon Black (Majesco Producer) answer my questions, and help reflect on the relationship between sports gaming and the 360.

Read More - A Sporting Look At the Xbox 360 (Interview)

[bhurst99]

It's ridiculous how much these guys try to sell Kinect as this great thing for sports games. Kinect might be the most overrated piece of technology in terms of sports gaming of the last 20 years. What it promised was no where near what it delivered.

[DaveDQ]

I really don't think the Xbox 360 has contributed much to the sports gaming landscape, and the above answers to the questions asked are very much proof of that. It has been the developers that offer the contributions. Take for instance, baseball and the MLB to be more specific. One developer (2K Sports) really dropped the ball with their baseball efforts on the 360. A baseball game on the 360 was entirely up to them. The 360 itself did nothing to offer us baseball. Across the way, Sony continued its strong strides with MLB The Show on the PS3. Again, s solid developer was responsible.

I don't expect these guys to go into detail about such things. Them falling back on their current project (kinect) is a given, but the Xbox 360 has done very little in the way of sports gaming.

[djbaker]

Wow, based on one Sony produced MLB baseball game? Kinect Sports and fitness games have as much of an impact, if not more. Should we include dance central as a sports title as well?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[videlsports]

I think the kinect is one of the innovations of the xbox. I mean from sports fitness, and fighting games, I played these games for hours, and lost some weight in the process. It made me and my daughters and wife play the games. With the camera video talk, as well as calling your plays and audibles in madden, it has a lot of potential IMO. I love it.

[GlennN]

Sony has the Move, 360 has the Kinect. The main difference in sports gaming on the two consoles, to me, is The Show. While I would love to have baseball on the 360, that's a lot of importance to be placing on one game. You could have easily called the article A Look At Sports Gaming on Consoles of This Generation and had the same result, no?

[Jimbo614]

I don't own a 360. I'm a 55 year old guy that likes running CPU controlled Franchise modes in all sports. I just wanna come home, put my feet up and relax with my favorite sport game of the moment. I don't want to have to jump up and down, wave my arms or act like an idiot in order to enjoy my game,
This artice is like Armeggeden for guys like me. They're saying that they have ZERO interest in whether I exist or not. Or whether anybody over the age of thirty exists or not.
It was nothing more than a chance to hype an idea from two years ago that didnt go over like they hoped.
It's like when Clearchannel was hyping HD radio. And BTW, whatever happened to HD Radio?
The same thing thats goiung to happen to the Kinect; Because these guys are clueless when it comes to satisfying their customers... guys like me.

[DaveDQ]

Re: A Sporting Look At the Xbox 360 (Interview)

Jim, I do agree that there isn't much there for someone that has an interest in running franchises etc. But I think asking the console to do that is not the right focus. The emphasis will always be with the developer. In this case, the hardware is the 360 and the software is coming from guys like EA, 2K etc.

What Microsoft initially did with XSN Sports was promising, but evidently their focus groups didn't see potential with it and let it go. They dropped all of their sporting games and wrote off what possibilities were there.

But for sports gaming to really excel and progress, the burden is going to have to be on the developers.

[Jimbo614]

Dave; I see your point; TBH, to me, this whole article was about the Kinect anywayt, and very little about the Xbox.
My problem is that the big wigs in gaming, seemingly across the board, from the CEO of EA, to the Reps of Microsoft and Xbox, have decided amongst themselves that everything must be directed towards Online and Interactive gaming. Microsoft decides it's big feature is going to be the Kinect, so therefore, they subtlely shift the focus of the software designers to create games which take advantage ( I E promote) the Kinect, thus garnering more sales revenue etc.
Nothing wrong with that except the end result is the elimination of the alternative.... me.
It reminds me of when I was a child, we'd all decide that wearing red was cool that day. Anybody that wore blue had cooties. Well, that was great if you was in on the joke; but it sucked if you wasnt. So now, all the marketers have decided that Interactive is cool. Those of us who happen not to enjoy cheesers or want realism are suddenly "Not Cool". The point being that the Interactive reasoning is just as Arbitrary as the Red/Blue reasoning was to a bunch of six year olds.

[Soulrak]

What a shocking surprise. Another article hyping the already over-hyped piece of hardware that is the Kinect. I couldnt see that coming from the onset of the article. (end of sarcasm) Kinect has done absolutely very little for sports gamers because the majority of sports gamers could care less about Kinect & in all likelihood has very little to no bearing on whether or not they buy the sports title. It surely does not for me. It is obvious by now that Kinect is Microsofts binky. They are riding that train because they simply have nothing else to fall back on. Not only that but the company as a whole are fully focused on Kinect. Thats the direction they are going in. Thats great & all, if I cared about Kinect. I agree whole heartedly with Dave. Kinect has little influence on the sports game. The developers have vast majority & thats to continue to create great games. Kinect is a cool little perk.. but not a gamechanging perk by any means. Why wasnt the fact that 2k dropped the baseball (pun intended) mentioned? The 360 as of right now has NO baseball title coming to its console next year. How about that? Real questions on what they intend to do about it when its competitor has been hosting the best baseball game for nearly the last decade. More of the same from MS. Part of the reason why i finally gave up on them & went exclusively PS3. The GAMES are what matter. Not hardware. Always has been that way, always will be that way.