Microsoft Kinect-ing Japan

I spent two whole minutes on that headline. Sorry, what? Oh, news… of course. Well, according to a press release I received from the ever-efficient PR machine at Microsoft, Kinect is going to be hitting Japan pretty hard.

They have, at the Tokyo Game Show, announced a list of “five immersive, exclusive Kinect for Xbox 360 games”. The list includes things we’ve heard of before like Codename D from Grasshopper Manufacture and Steel Battalion Heavy Armor from Capcom. There are a couple of new titles on there though, including Rise of Nightmares from Sega which looks set to be a kind of horror-adventure game. That might disprove the doubters that say Kinect is just for kids/families/people who like ponies.

Rounding out the list is the “spooky fun” title Haunt from NanaOn-Sha which is a mystery game for the family and Project Draco. My first thought on hearing that final title was that we’re getting some sort of dragon-flying game and, sure enough, it’s billed as an epic 3D flying shooter from the director of Panzer Dragoon.

So it would seem that not only do Microsoft think that Japanese developers can help them further drive their influence in Japan but also that Kinect has the potential to really do well in the East.

7 Comments

  1. Aw man, I love ponies. What what? Oh yeah – Kinect. I think they’re seeing the successes of the Wii in Japan as a way to try and finally have some luck with the 360 over there.

  2. I like the sound of most of the games, will have to see how they shape up

  3. They like money

  4. Project Draco sounds good, not sure about the others though.

  5. Codename D is a little bit intriguing. And I might watch out for Rise of nightmares.

    The rest are all a bit ‘meh’.

  6. Doubt it, I heard something like PS3’s are selling 4-1 against 360’s in Japan. I think Japan will always be a Wii/DS and PS3/PSP country, MS just isn’t going to sell enough 360’s there.

  7. If only microsoft was a japanise company

    then it would make quality games

Comments are now closed for this post.