PS3 Move vs Xbox Kinect vs Nintendo Wii
PS3 Move vs Xbox Kinect vs Nintendo Wii
As everyone knows, there’s 3 main video game systems on the market today – The Sony Playstation 3, the Xbox 360, and last but not least, the Nintendo Wii. And although all 3 systems vary in features and capabilities, they are all outstanding systems in their own right.
The Playstation and the Xbox decided to battle it out with sheer performance, while the Wii decided to change the game by focusing on the experience instead of the graphics. And as history tells it, the innovative design of the Wii was hugely successful and blew the competition out of the water. And then of course the competition came out with their own versions of that hugely successful system.
Enter the Playstation Move and the Xbox Kinect
During that four year period, they spent a lot of time and money developing these systems. I’m excited to see what Nintendo comes out with next, as 4 years is a large head start! But on the other hand, 4 years is also a long time to re-engineer the competition and come out with a new and improved system.
Ok… Thanks for the history lesson. I’m sure Playing PS3 Move Games is great, along with the Wii and Kinect, but seriously, let’s get to the real question – What’s the difference?
The Nintendo Wii
As mentioned, the Wii was not only the first to market, it totally redefined interactive gaming. The system is dependent upon a Motion controller that uses gyroscopes to monitor and replicate movement. Essentially, the controller measures speed and acceleration in 3D space, and transfers that movement to the video game characters.
Since the sensor is measuring your movement, it has no idea where you started. It can tell how you’re moving the controller, but it has no idea how it started. As an example, the system doesn’t know if you’re starting with your arm in the air, or down by your side. To take care of this problem, Nintendo included the sensor bar that attaches to your TV. The sensor bar emits IR light that is picked up by the controller, giving it a sense of it’s position. In addition, using a technique known as triangulation, the sensor bar provides a means of determining the controller’s distance – thereby providing forward/backward motion capabilities.
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Nintendo Wii List Price: $199.99 Sale Price: $149.99  |
The Xbox Kinect
Microsoft decided to “borrow” the Wii’s concept of interactive gaming and combine it with the Xbox’s superior graphics. Being Microsoft, they even through in some innovation of their own. To combat the Wii, Microsoft came out with the state-of-the-art Kinect Sensor – a sophisticated camera system capable of generating a 3D moving image of people and objects within it’s field-of-view. The camera is not only capable of separating people from the surrounding objects, it’s capable of recognizing faces.
The Kinect Sensor illuminates it’s field-of-view with near infrared light, and determines distance by measuring how long it takes the light to travel from the sensor, bouncing off a person or object, and returning to the sensor.
The Kinect Sensor is capable of tracking up to six people, but only two can be active players. Utilizing it’s advanced motion analysis and feature extraction, the Kinect Sensor accurately models your movements – the Kinect can even recognize some gestures and translate them into the virtual equivalent! And as a bonus feature, Microsoft even through in some facial recognition technology, providing the Kinect the ability to recognize you!
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Xbox 360 Kinect Sensor with Kinect Adventures! List Price: $149.99 Sale Price: $144.99 |
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Xbox 360 Kinect Special Addition Sale Price: $399.99 |
The Playstation Move
The Playstation Move is Sony’s version of interactive gaming. It combines techniques found in both the Wii and the Xbox Kinect video game systems – it combines controller motion detection along with video processing. However, the PS3 Move does not transmit near-infrared light.Instead, the system utilizes the colored sphere on the controller for precise range measurements.
The Playstation Move comes with the Motion Controller and the Eye Camera. It works by utilizing video processing to detect the player and their motion. The controller is utilized to sense the players movement, where the camera detects the player’s upper body and tracks it’s movement. The colored sphere on top of the controller is used to aid in making video detection of the player’s upper body even better, in addition to providing a precise range measurement – the camera knows the size of the sphere, and therefore can determine how far away it is from the camera by measuring the number of pixels taken up in the image. The sphere even changes colors in order to make detection and tracking easy in any light condition.
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Playstation Move Starter Bundle List Price: $99.99 Sale Price: $89.72 |
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Playstation 3 320GB System/Playstation Move Bundle Sale Price: $471.00 |
So which is better???
We talked about the different technologies, but that doesn’t tell you which system is better! And to be honest, there isn’t any clear winner – it depends on what you’re looking for.
The PS3 Move is the most accurate of the three, providing very precise location and movement measurements. It’s great for shooter and action style games. Where the Xbox Kinect was designed with fun of multiplayer interaction and amusement in mind. The Wii is the oldest of the systems, and can’t compete in the graphics department. The Wii is great for family type fun, as it’s geared towards family and kid type play.
Of course, if you already have a game console, you may want to simply go with that system’s interactive gaming package.
My Favorite
As mentioned, it is totally up to what you want out of the experience to determine which system is the best for you. But my favorite, my favorite is the Playstation Move!
There are a couple reasons I like the Playstation Move the best. In order, here are the reasons I like the Playstation Move the best:
- More accurate motion replication;
- Wrist movements are accounted for; and
- Pets do not disrupt game play.
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