This year popular EA Sports titles Madden NFL 13 and FIFA 13 are getting the Kinect treatment on Xbox 360. Unlike Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, which literally underwent an entire gameplay change with the addition of kinect, Madden and FIFA's Kinect additions are much more subtle. Nevertheless, the addition of voice commands in both games have been a much-needed feature in both titles, and EA Sports head Andrew Wilson sees the Kinect's role with future sports games only growing.
"I think that there are opportunities for both," Wilson told MCV when asked about the Kinect and whether he sees it as a nice feature or something to build games for from scratch.
"Certainly when we embarked on using Kinect for FIFA and Madden, we sat down and watched people play our games. The same when we put Kinect into Tiger Woods, we sat and watched people play our games," he said. "In Tiger everyone always wanted to swing, the Wii, Move and Kinect gave you that opportunity. It was natural. It enhanced the experience. It was how we wanted to play. You want to swing and feel like you’re Tiger on the first tee."
"When we looked at people playing FIFA and Madden, what we noticed was that they screamed at the screen a lot. A lot," he explained. "They were pushing the buttons, and simultaneously shouting commands, almost at themselves. It felt like a natural transition for us to make that screaming mean something. I’m actually really excited about what we’ve done."
He added, "I think when people heard about Kinect they thought it was all about motion but voice control is profound and changes the way you play."
"So in terms of ‘will that be seen in more games?’, yeah I think it will," Wilson concluded, "because most gamers are shouting at the screen for some reason. When we look at the future, we see that as big an opportunity as we as do motion control."
Everything is supposedly better with Kinect. Looks like we'll have to wait and see if that is true with Madden NFL 13 and FIFA 13. Xbox 360 won't be the only console making life easier with EA Sports titles. The Wii U looks to make play calling and substitutions in Madden even easier simply by touching the players on the GamePad controller's screen. Likewise, FIFA 13 will utilize the GamePad on the Wii U by allowing players to not only make substitutions and play calls with it, but also incorporating gameplay techniques with it like tackling and passing as well as free kicks.
So how excited are people for Madden NFL 13? Well, so far pre-orders are up 25%. The future sure is looking bright for EA and their sports titles.
