Kinect Director: FPS Not Played on PCs Anymore

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By Kevin Parrish
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Kinect's creative director claims that FPS games aren't played on the PC anymore, however Tim Willits comes to the rescue.

Oh the horror. Kinect creative director Kudo Tsunoda recently told Game Informer in an interview that hardly anyone plays FPS games on the PC anymore. The comment isn't all that surprising considering that Tsunoda is out to promote Microsoft’s new motion sensing device for the Xbox 360. Still, his view will likely ruffle a few feathers in the PC gaming community considering that the comment isn't all that precise.

When asked about first-party games and exclusives for Kinect, Tsunoda said that Microsoft doesn't want to import a controller-based experience. He brought up FPS games on the PC as an example, saying that developers tried to port existing shooters over to consoles, however the games lost their fun-factor because the core control scheme (mouse, keyboard) was crammed into a single controller. According to Tsunoda, that changed with the original Halo.

"Halo did an awesome job of building a first-person shooter exclusively for the console, and now hardly anyone plays first person shooters on the PC anymore," he said. "It's all about the console."

What?

In retaliation against Tsunoda's seemingly biased statement, id Software's Tim Willits came forth and defended the genre and all the PC gamers still fragging each other outside the console realm. After all, who else would know better about the PC FPS than the creators behind the Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake franchises?

In a brief interview with Eurogamer, Willits not only defended the PC platform, but took a jab at the console platform's unstable presence in the gaming industry. "In my opinion, the PC will always be the core of the gaming industry--it is the timeless stable platform that as developers we will always be able to rely on," he said. "Unlike consoles, the PC doesn't disappear because one company decided it wasn't profitable or decided to make a new version. The PC platform is always evolving but staying stable."

Naturally, the best, precise controls for FPS games is on the PC. "The FPS genre is still great on the PC, the input controllers are very responsive, the keyboard allows many more choices and options, and the social networking of the PC allows you to reach out and play with your friends much easier than any of the consoles. Plus, as any hardcore FPS gamer will tell you, the mouse is still the best device for aiming."

Say that again? The mouse is still the best device for aiming.

Over the last decade, the FPS genre has seemingly divided into two classes thanks to Halo: the PC FPS and the console FPS. PC gamers will argue why their platform is far more superior than their console counterparts--console owners will likewise do the same. Nevertheless, the FPS genre is thriving on both platforms.

Kevin Parrish
105 Comments Comment from the forums
  • joytech22
    I own a PS3 and 360 and me personally like fps games on my pc rather than my consoles.
    Reply
  • micr0be
    make halo for pc and watch the domination and eventual death of consoles FPS
    Reply
  • tayb
    We can argue all day about which is superior but the numbers do not lie. There are exponentially more people playing shooters on the consoles than they are on the PC. While the comment that "hardly anyone" plays FPS on PC is patently false if he had said the "vast majority" play on consoles he would have been perfectly accurate. That's just the nature of the console beast. The consoles sell waaaaaaaay more games and, as such, have way more people playing said games.

    For proof see the sale of multi-platform FPS games such as Call of Duty. Games like that sell more in the first hour than they do total on the PC.
    Reply
  • nforce4max
    More Fanboy porn and nothing less. The PC will always have it's place for FPS games and no console will ever offer the flexibility nor freedom that the pc offers.
    Reply
  • duckmanx88
    i just got my ps3. love it, but aiming is too hard. going from tf2 to killzone 2 made me feel stupid. idk how people do it with a controller. why isn't their 1st party keyboard and mouse support for the consoles?
    Reply
  • Sykar
    is this the REAL reason why whenever a new game is demonstrated to the public, it's being played by a guy which sucks at the game cause he's playing the Xbox version?
    Reply
  • mlopinto2k1
    micr0bemake halo for pc and watch the domination and eventual death of consoles FPSThey made Halo AND Halo 2 for PC. I just got done telling someone the other day if we could play against each other in the same game, him on a console and me on the PC... I would smoke that ass, just because of the mouse.
    Reply
  • Strider-Hiryu_79
    duckmanx88i just got my ps3. love it, but aiming is too hard. going from tf2 to killzone 2 made me feel stupid. idk how people do it with a controller. why isn't their 1st party keyboard and mouse support for the consoles?
    There was for one ps3-title only. Unreal tournament III. LOL playing online with k/b + mouse + high sensitivity settings = doing circles around the controller-based players. I wish more console games had k/b + mouse support.

    This is another reason why they nixed the idea of having cross pc/360 players in halo 2/3 and gears of war games. Because k/b + mouse owns controllers hands down.

    "Halo did an awesome job of building a first-person shooter exclusively for the console, and now hardly anyone plays first person shooters on the PC anymore," he said.

    I think what he meant to say is that he thinks the future of fps will be people playing them with motion sensing devices doing the "bang-bang" or "pew pew pew" motions with their fingers instead of using either controllers or keyboards+mice.
    Reply
  • choonie2040
    that guy is such a retard how can he be working for Microsoft and say that wow must smoke,inject,sniff a lot of drugs
    Reply
  • cpburns
    For proof see the sale of multi-platform FPS games such as Call of Duty. Games like that sell more in the first hour than they do total on the PC.

    That's because you can't pirate the console versions anywhere near as easily. Money is the reason publishers favor the consoles. Platform openness and extensibility is the reason developers favor the PC.

    I'd guess that if you could look at total number of copies being played in either single player or multiplayer, regardless of legality of each copy, the PC would either be right on the heels of consoles, or would surpass them.
    Reply