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Tag: Kinect Sports Rivals

  • ‘Kinect Sports Rivals’ Tournament Payouts Revealed

    Microsoft’s Kinect Sports Rivals is finally on the way and with it will come plenty of speculation and argument about just how useful the Kinect is to the Xbox One platform.

    Regardless of the general apathy consumers have had toward the new Kinect, Microsoft is still pushing Kinect Sports Rivals as the next big release for its new console. The game is set for release on April 8 and Microsoft’s advertising has shown that people still look incredibly silly while playing Kinect games.

    To help market the game to the Xbox One’s install base, largely populated by more dedicated than casual gamers, Microsoft today announced a Kinect Sports Rivals tournament that will pay cash and prizes to the the winners.

    The tournament, called the “Kinect Sports Rivals World Championship” will begin on the day of the game’s launch. Players can pre-register for the tournement starting today through a special website set up for the tournament.

    Once signed-up, players will have to compete in the championship modes for wake racing, climbing, and bowling. Though this does mean buying the game, and taking time to unlock the events and championship courses, afterwords players will be able to climb the leaderboard in their region for a chance at several prizes.

    Total leaderboard rank will be determined by combining scores in the three different events. A live final match-up will take place at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con in July where finalists in each country (those in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, UK, France, Germany, and Brazil are eligible.) will play against each other.

    Prizes will be awarded for those who place 11th and better. Most of the prizes consist of cash payouts, with fifth through eleventh place receiving $500, fourth place receiving $1,000, third place receiving $2,500, and second place receiving $5,000. The first place grand prize winner will receive $10,000 and a choice of one of four different vacations to either Bora Bora, China, Peru, or Switzerland.

  • New Kinect Touted in ‘Kinect Sports Rivals’ Preview

    It is now clear that Xbox One console sales are quickly falling behind the PlayStation 4. The largest factor in this is almost certainly the fact that the Xbox One offers less computing power at the higher price point of $500 (versus Sony’s $400 PS4). Though Microsoft has consistently insisted that the Xbox One offers a superior value proposition, it appears that consumers do not agree.

    This situation has led to a growing call from some gamers for Microsoft to drop the Kinect peripheral from its mandatory placement alongside every Xbox One console sold. The logic goes that if Microsoft would give up on the Kinect it could better compete with Sony on price.

    Whether or not this is actually the case, it seems that Microsoft will no be abandoning the Kinect anytime soon. Since before the launch of the Xbox One Microsoft has been touting the features of the new Kinect.

    The only problem is that gamers have not seen many of these features used outside of the polarizing voice commands. Kinect Sports Rivals, which Microsoft picked to help sell the Xbox One to mainstream consumers through an appearance on Jimmy Fallon last year, was delayed past the console’s launch window. This left the Xbox One with only a dance and Ubisoft’s poorly-received Fighter Within to show off the new Kinect.

    Now April is approaching and Kinect Sports Rivals is finally nearing release. With the Titanfall launch out of the way, Microsoft is now once again marketing the Kinect as a feature. The first of these efforts is, of course, a new Kinect Sports Rivals preview featuring dubstep and good-looking people flailing their limbs about:

  • ‘Kinect Sports Rivals’ Finally Coming in April

    Kinect Sports Rivals was supposed to be the Wii Sports of the Xbox One. The launch title that could somewhat justify the mandatory use of the Kinect peripheral and bring something less bloody to the Xbox One’s launch lineup.

    Like many of the Xbox One’s multiplayer features, however, Kinect Sports Rivals was delayed past launch. Though Microsoft provided Xbox One owners with an extended “Preseason” free trial of the game’s modes, it’s clear that the delay was a disappointment for the publisher.

    Today Microsoft announced that Kinect Sports Rivals will finally be launching in full on April 8. The company also made a point to state the game will be rendered in 1080p, though the game’s frame rate wasn’t mentioned.

    In addition to the release date, Microsoft today previewed the three teams players will be able to choose from in the game. Each team sports a different look, attitude, and equipment loadout.

    The Wolf Clan wears a lot of red and are styled as low-tech island natives. The glowy-purple Viper Network is heavy on technology. The Eagle Legion are the white and white-wearing preppy people. All of these teams and their over-the-top personalities are previewed in a new Kinect Sports Rivals trailer:

  • Take A Look At The World Of Kinect Sports Rivals

    Today marks the beginning of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, but most of us are probably already tired of snow. To take your mind off of all things winter and snowy, Microsoft has just the thing – a new trailer for Kinect Sports Rivals

    In a new video released today, Rare shows us the new environments they have built for the latest entry in the Kinect Sports franchise. Not content to stick with the same old environments people have come to expect from sports game, Rare instead transports players to an island full of fantastical terrain ripped straight out of locations like China’s Zhangjiajie National Forest Park.

    As for the gameplay, it’s your typical Kinect Sports title. Players will have to move their whole bodies to control their on-screen avatars in various events, like tennis, bowling, jet ski racing and mountain climbing.

    Kinect Sports Rivals will be released in Q2 2014 exclusively for the Xbox One.

    Image via xbox/YouTube

  • Watch Jimmy Fallon Play Some Xbox One Games

    Last week, Jimmy Fallon checked out the PS4 right before its launch on November 15. What ensued was a humorous look at Sony’s new Playroom software using the PlayStation camera. Now it’s the Xbox One’s turn on late night television, and Microsoft fired back with its own camera-based games.

    Last night, Fallon and Will Forte checked out the Xbox One one last time before its launch tomorrow. Instead of playing one of the more hardcore launch titles, however, Fallon instead checked out Kinect Sports Rivals for the new console. It’s not exactly the most thrilling thing, but it’s at least fun to watch.

    With both consoles now having a major presence on late night television, they now have to battle it out at retail. The PlayStation 4 shattered launch records last Friday with over one million consoles sold in North America alone on day one. The Xbox One will be launching in far more territories on day one so it has a better chance of selling even more units tomorrow.

    If the above video has sold you on the Xbox One, the new console will become available starting tomorrow. If you don’t have it preordered, however, you probably won’t be able to get one in stores. There’s always eBay, but the scalpers will be out in droves tomorrow to make a tidy profit on the new console. You’re probably better off hitting up every major department store looking for any unsold units.

    [Image: Late Night with Jimmy Fallon/YouTube]

  • ‘Kinect Sports Rivals’ Trial to Launch With Xbox One

    Despite a new Kinect being packed-in with every launch Xbox One, there will be no Kinect launch title from Microsoft itself. The device can, of course, be used to navigate the console with voice commands, but that won’t exactly justify its inclusion in launch boxes to many gamers. And, sure, Ubisoft will be there to pick up the slack with Fighter Within and Just Dance, but it does seem odd that Microsoft is so bent on making Kinect a mandatory part of its next-generation plan without a launch title for the peripheral.

    Today Microsoft announced a stop-game measure for this oversight, revealing that a preview of what’s to come with Kinect will be available on launch day. A special free trial of Kinect Sports Rivals will be available for download on November 22. The “Preseason” download features the wake racing mode from the full game.

    Xbox One owners will be able to enjoy the Kinect Sports Rivals Preseason from launch day until sometime in March 2014 – presumably around the time the full game will be released. The free trial will have monthly challenges and opportunities to earn and unlock in-game items such as jerseys or wake racers. The in-game items will carry over to the full game, and Xbox One owners who download the trial sometime between launch day and November 30 will receive a “Founder” title and exclusive in-game items.

  • Kinect Sports Rivals Might Just Sell You On Kinect

    The original Kinect Sports titles were some of the best selling Kinect games on the Xbox 360. Now Microsoft and Rare are bringing it back on the Xbox One with a ton of new features enabled by the newly improved Kinect.

    In a new video from Microsoft, the folks at Rare talk about their work on the new Kinect in Kinect Sports Rivals. The legendary studio reveals that they can use the high definition camera in the new Kinect to create an almost picture perfect stylized recreation of a player’s face in the title. That version of you is then uploaded to the cloud and added into other player’s games.

    The developers also reveal that they can now accurately track subtle movements so it’s possible to play more realistic versions of games like tennis and bowling. One example is that the camera can detect slight variations in the wrist so players will be able to put just the right amount of spin on a bowling ball.

    So, how is this supposed to sell the core on Kinect? After all, Kinect Sports Rivals just looks like an upgraded version of the original Kinect Sports. That may be true, but the new facial scanning features should have everybody excited. For the first time, players may finally be able to actually play as a character that actually looks like them instead of the crude recreations we get in Miis and Xbox Live avatars.

    Kinect Sports Rivals will be released exclusively on the Xbox One in 2014.