Cast your mind back to November 2006 when Nintendo, with much furore, released the Nintendo Wii. Nothing like it had been seen before, a games console with a motion sensing controller. Fast forward four years and Microsoft have taken the motion sensing phenomenon one step further and developed Kinect (the controller-free gaming experience for Microsoft’s Xbox 360). With the gaming industry delivering new innovations to the user experience and interactions with video games, GfK is curious as to what the future gaming experience will look like and whether motion sensing or controller lead technologies will emerge as the dominant experiences of the future.

 

Over the past few decades the video gaming experience has dramatically evolved. With the development of motion sensing controllers and motion sensing systems the possibilities of how immersive a gaming experience becomes seems boundless. The gaming industry is thriving and its market is ever growing, with more and more consumers purchasing and engaging with the latest gaming experiences. There seems to be little hesitation by companies investing time and money into their gaming consoles to create that even more immersive experience for the user. Motion sensing in gaming appears to be the focus, at present, for the big companies such as Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony, but what will these companies do to take that level of immersion with the gaming experience one step further, now that consumers’ appetite for gaming is growing?

 

The appeal of motion sensing

To help answer this question, first let’s look at what it is that makes motion sensing so appealing and popular amongst mass market consumers/gamers. The Nintendo Wii was the first games console that was fully integrated with motion sensing technology. They sold 438,000 Wiis in the UK in the first five months of product launch and, to date, have sold 86.01 million units worldwide. One of the reasons that motion sensing in gaming has been so successful in terms of sales is because it enables someone who has, perhaps, never even held a controller to play games without having to harness the skills of an elite gamer (and by elite gamer, I mean gamers who play at least 18 hours of gaming per week). The motion sensing controllers are far more intuitive and familiar to the average, more mass market gamer, who is more likely to dip in an out of the gaming experience for fun and the occasional calorie burning activity. This opens up gaming to a whole new market: typically it has been male dominated, but now 42% of gamers are women, compared with just 38% in 2006. Gaming is also increasingly used as a family activity where 45% of parents play video games with their children weekly, up from 36% in 2007.

 

Wii, PS3 Move and Kinect

The Nintendo Wii was a great success and paved the way for this new user experience in the games industry. Recognising the success, Sony created the PS3 Move which uses similar technology to the Wii Remote. Following in that path, Microsoft developed the Kinect – abandoning the handheld controller completely and therefore removing even more barriers to the way in which gamers interact with the virtual space on their screens. As a result, gaming became even more intuitive by relying on human instincts and proprioception (one of the human senses, which focuses on where our body parts are, in relation to each other and whether we are using enough effort to move those body parts accordingly). Now, rather than using a game controller, the gamer is the controller. Using a motion sensing camera and four microphones which pinpoint voices, Kinect extracts ambient noises and picks up voice commands. As a result, this new experience has rewarded Microsoft with a place in the record books, selling an average of 133,333 units per day in the first 60 days on sale taking the title from both Apple’s iPhone and iPad.

 

Wii U: a new approach

The path that Nintendo and Microsoft have paved with the Wii and Kinect means that more and more games are appearing that have been tailored towards the motion sensing systems; it seems as though the Wii and the Kinect are ever growing in popularity. However, one of the leaders in the motion sensing games markets appears to be taking a different tack to immersing consumers even further in the gaming experience.

Where Microsoft appears to be focussing on removing barriers for the not so elite gamer, Nintendo appears to be focussing on designing a controller that could potentially appeal to both types of gamers (casual and elite). At the latest E3 Expo Nintendo revealed their, soon to be launched, Wii U, which will include a controller with a 6.2 inch screen. This allows gamers to see additional information that they would not be able to see on their TV screen and also allows them to see different camera angles, whilst they are in game play. The controller comes equipped with a microphone, a camera, analogue sticks and motion sensing technology. So for the elite gamer, buttons, triggers, bumpers and analogue sticks enables greater precision, accuracy and control and for the casual gamer, who wants to dip in and out of more fun and social games, the camera, microphone and motion sensing technology enables them to use their intuitive and instinctual learning with little effort. Rather than designing a console to appeal to either the elite or the casual gamer, Nintendo’s move in taking the gaming experience to the next level appears to be creating one console that can appeal and immerse gamers from both ends of the spectrum in the virtual space on their TV screens.

 

What do consumers prefer?

We asked consumers how they would prefer to play different genres of games, in order to help understand how the gaming market will need to adapt to consumer/gamer needs and desires. The results revealed that 48% of gamers would prefer to play shooting games, which require greater precision, accuracy and control, with a wireless handheld controller. In this section, the Kinect, which perhaps does not provide the same amount of accuracy, precision and control, came up as the least preferred method of game play when it came to shooting type games, with 30% of them voting against it. However, when gamers were asked about how they would play music/party/puzzle games, the majority (28%) prefer to play with a hands free controller, such as the Kinect. Figures suggest that the casual/social gamers are interested in sharing a common moral ground and having fun whilst playing games with friends and family. However, the elite gamers, who play the likes of Call of Duty, are more interested in beating their opponents with the use of skill and strategic planning, feeling immersed in their gaming with quick computer reaction times and mastering the peripheral to the best of their ability. So perhaps the future of gaming is one where companies need to address the needs of both the casual/social gamer and the elite gamer.

 

Conclusion

Currently Nintendo and Microsoft are leading innovation in the gaming industry and consumers think so too; 40% think Nintendo are the most advanced company in the gaming industry and 35% think Microsoft. It is understandable why this is the case, but, with elite gamers preferring precision, accuracy and control whilst in game play, and casual gamers preferring instinctual and intuitive game play, our findings suggest that the future needs to cater for both requirements. Sony only received 23% with regards to which company is currently leading innovation in the gaming industry. However, the recent hacking of their customers credit cards could have affected the score. Right now the handheld controllers target the elite gamer preferences, while the motion sensing systems target the casual gamer preferences. Nintendo are perhaps the closest company cater for both types of preferences with the Wii U. However, Microsoft and Sony both have the right hardware and software to do the same.

 

The future is always difficult to predict, but the organisations likely to be most successful in the gaming industry will be those that can appeal to the widest variety of these disparate gamer preferences, and deliver the different experiences that motion sensing and controller gaming have highlighted.

 

Further reading

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6418779.stm

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-03/10/kinect-fastest-selling-device

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-05/13/do-we-need-three-motion-controlled-consoles

http://blogs.ft.com/fttechhub/2010/03/ps3-motion-controller-is-not-that-moving/

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-06/03/microsoft-e3-expectations

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-03/03/playstation-move-dev-kit

http://us.playstation.com/ps3/playstation-move/move-me/

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-06/07/sony-e3-summary

http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/news/2011/nintendos_upcoming_wii_u_console_features_controller_with_62-inch_screen_43187.html

http://www.theesa.com/

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Tags: brands, consumers, Gaming, gaming experience, immersive gaming, Kinect, motion sensing, Video Games, Wii U