E3 2013 Review: Where Were the Motion Control Games?

The Electronic Entertainment Expo showed us a lot, from the medieval times of “Ryse” to actually being able to see the PlayStation 4, the gaming horizon looks pretty bright. A growing feature of the industry has been motion-control gaming. The Wii, Xbox Kinect and PlayStation Move are all becoming more popular. However, according to CNNMoney.com, this feature was almost not existent at E3.

Motion control gaming has been around for a little while now. When the Wii first came out, fans were happy to jump and move in front of their television while they played “Wii Sports” or “Wii Fitness.” Pretty soon Xbox’s Kinect and PlayStation Move joined the party, with games like “Just Dance.”

Therefore, CNN Money’s Adrian Covert raised a good point.

“Could Microsoft and Sony not tap a single developer in advance of E3 to conjure up an amazing idea for the Kinect 2 and Eye Camera,” Covert writes. “Could Nintendo not call upon its own army of in-house developers -- which includes Mario and Zelda visionary Shigeru Miyamoto -- to make us care about its clunky GamePad?”

Microsoft did something small with the Kinect and while Nintendo presented the Wii U they did not show any games for their new device. So, think of all the things that were shown at E3 and previous launches. Microsoft showed us a console the can let you Skype while playinh games like “Call of Duty: Ghosts” and “NBA 2K14”. EA Sports created technology that makes dribbling a basketball in a video game almost like dribbling a basketball in real life. The PlayStation 4 lets you share your gaming experience with the push of a button.

So none of the big names could come up with, and present, a revolutionary motion control gaming experience?

Regardless, Covert points out that “all hope wasn’t entirely lost.”

Gaming company Oculus, known for Rift—the virtual reality headset that monitors your head movement—has created a HD prototype that makes things seem way more real.

Oculus and developer CCP have come together to create Eve-VR—a space-fighting game for the Rift. According to Covert, the game nearly reaches the virtual reality dreamt about decades ago.

It may be that Oculus and CCP are picking up the slack for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.