With Kinect now an optional peripheral for Xbox One, one question begs to be asked: how do you feel about peripherals? Do they further immerse us in the games we play, or are they a senseless waste of money? Read both sides of the issue, and leave your thoughts below! They Allow Developers To Get Innovative In the best case scenarios, games with dedicated peripherals have given us some of the most unique experiences we've ever had. When Nintendo's Zapper launched in the US in 1985, a new era began. One where hardware for specific games could be immensely popular when leveraged the right way. Until that time, shooting games were mostly restricted to local arcades. Now, we could have fun pointing at ducks and clay in our very own homes. Tons of folks bought The Zapper for the very few games that used it, but it still provided this industry with a gameplay experience and peripheral phenomenon like it had never seen before. 1 / 8
Fast forward to more recent years, and we can see that in each generation there's usually one peripheral that captures a similar level of hype. In the PS2 era, Dance Dance Revolution dance pads were a crazy lucrative idea. Still, they managed to get us off the couch, having fun in a way that no other console game has replicated to this day. Then of course there was Rock 2 / 8
Band. The full set of instruments was insanely expensive to buy, but most of us invested in it because it was the only game that offered a working full band simulation. Most great peripheral games come bundled with extremely innovative concepts. Many don't work out, but the ones that do are magical. Part of the reason the right peripherals work is because they further immerse us in games. Read the next page for more on that matter. Immersion Beyond Controllers 3 / 8
What is it that made Zappers, DDR dance pads, and Rock Band so darn popular? Not just their unique gameplay aspects, but also the fact that they strived to further immerse us in content that we loved. Duck Hunt, DDR, and Rock Band could have functioned with standard remotes, but instead we were encouraged to perform more true to life actions that totally suited the gameplay. A hunting game allowed us to shoot, a dancing game allowed us to dance (sort of), and a game about being in a band allowed us to physically play in one with our buddies. 4 / 8
As silly as these big plastic contraptions are, in the best cases, they allow us to become tied to our favorite games on a completely physical level. Despite the strong a story a game like Last Of Us had, did its controls have any resemblance to real life? No way! We were still glued to our couches, tapping buttons on a static game pad the entire time. TLOU achieved immersion through other means, but it never grew to the intense level of mainstream popularity that these peripheral-required franchises did. That's because it didn't give us the truly active experience that only great peripherals allow. Plus, the previously mentioned uniqueness helps a lot here too. That's of course in the case of good peripherals, but what about bad ones? Click ahead for my thoughts on fragmentation. 5 / 8
Market Fragmentation Through Hardware While this console generation is still young, two of the most talked about peripherals these days are Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's PlayStation Camera. Both devices have been touted to offer similar gameplay, voice, and recording experiences, but there's one major problem: they're optional. Kinect will be available as a separate purchase for a yet to be disclosed price, and Sony's sensor currently retails for a cool sixty bucks. 6 / 8
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