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Jul 13 / Ozymandias

Kinect, Molyneux, and “Milo and Kate”

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Just wanted to point folks to a Wired UK write-up of Peter Molyneux’s TED talk today… it’s a great read! In general, I think folks are going to be really impressed by some of the Kinect titles that’ll be available this year (and no, that is not a hint about Milo and Kate’s release date!) My favorite quote in this article?

Lastly, Molyneux departed with one intriguing nugget of information about the title. He wouldn’t say when it was going to be released (I’d put money on Christmas 2011 — Microsoft isn’t going to want this one hanging behind Kinect’s release too much), but he did disclose that Milo’s mind won’t be on the disc — it’s in the cloud, and gets much smarter the more people use it.

We’re at the very beginning of a huge shift in how applications of all sorts (including games) are built. As more and more logic is shifted to the cloud, we’re going to see really interesting scenarios that just couldn’t have been enabled before. This “hive-mind” is just a small example – and if you branch-predict ahead a little, you really start seeing huge shifts in what the word “platform” means, and how people (and developers/publishers) interact with it.

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  • evil_avatar

    @Ozymandias Molyneux must be a moron. Only 1 in 5 360′s are connected to the net. So 4 out of 5 people get the “dumb” Milo.

  • http://twitoaster.com/country-us/ozymandias/ Ozymandias

    [Blog] Kinect, Molyneux, and “Milo and Kate” | Ozymandias | http://www.ozymandias.com/kinect-molyneu... #Cloudgaming #Coolstuff

  • http://csdprojects.co.uk/ Alex Atkin UK

    Yeah because of course it WON’T say “Internet Connection Required” on the box or anything. DUH!

    The point here is that Milo CAN’T work without one, the whole concept is its a centralised learning AI. If it worked “just off the disk” it would suck. Bearing in mind I am totally against cloud computing, I hate how companies like Microsoft can on a whim turn off my ability to play games by disabling game updates or turning off the game server. But in this case its the only way it can work, Milo needs to evolve or would get boring real fast.

    Besides, its pretty obvious that is the whole point of launching the new console with built-in WiFi. Kinect is meant to be a social experience so its natural they are expecting more people to have it hooked up online. I can’t imagine that many people will even buy Kinect stand-alone anyway, I think most people will buy it bundled with the console so getting it online will be a whole lot easier than it ever was before.

  • modeps

    @Ozymandias He’s just tired from going to the gym.

  • http://ozymandias.com Ozymandias

    You guys need to think longer-term… Kinect is a platform, and any ‘cloud learning’ that happens can extend across platforms, applications, sequels, etc. There’s a ton of learning that can happen before even a v1 game like Milo and Kate ships, and updates, downloadable content, etc can all carry updates if needed. And over time, with millions of people using different types of applications, you can imagine lots of opportunities for developers to leverage the cloud in interesting ways. This conversation reminds me of one of the rules of thumb to shipping anything new… it’s gotta be “good enough to criticize.” Bit of a tongue in cheek statement, but there’s a grain of truth to it… and the good news is that you’re criticizing. ;)

  • http://twitoaster.com/country-us/ozymandias/ Ozymandias

    @evil_avatar Gotta think longer term… Kinect is a platform, and all of this “cloud learning” extends over years… to apps, devices, etc.

  • http://twitoaster.com/country-us/ozymandias/ Ozymandias

    @modeps Heh… one day I’ll get the time to go to the gym and get tired again… then I can be snippy! ;) (No offense @evil_avatar !)

  • evil_avatar

    @Ozymandias Technically, Kinect is a failure waiting to happen, not a platform. :)

  • evil_avatar

    @Ozymandias And going to the gym does suck. I should stick with eating donuts and counting the days till my heart attack.

  • evil_avatar

    @Ozymandias @modeps Remember, I wasn’t wrong about Alan Wake. I won’t be wrong about Kinect. I’m seldom wrong.

  • Robert

    As much as I would like to try “Kinect” it simply is not a $150.00 peripheral in this type of current recession. I am really not sure what MS is trying to do…You should sell it for $69.99 and games for $29.99 and I guarantee it will fly off the shelves as most everyone will get it. Currently IMO it will be a failure due to the high price point and inevitably will have to be price adjusted to meet the current market demands thus missing out on the initial “timed” launch which will hinder the experience.