In the latter half of September, Producer Harry Robinson and Software Director Andy Dennison from the Rare fun club headed over to Japan to showcase Kinect Sports Rivals at the Tokyo Game Show. Now that he’s recovered, Harry gives us a rundown of how it all went. Read on for the skinny and some photos of the booth, TGS antics and Tokyo sightseeing. Jealous? Us? Not at all… (maybe a bit).
After a few long days speaking with people and demoing the game, I’m delighted to say that Kinect Sports Rivals had an incredibly good showing at Tokyo Game Show.
During the two press days, all four booths were in constant use, with members of the media playing, filming and conducting interviews to find out more about the game and the next version of Kinect. The Japanese teams handled all Japanese speakers and I covered all English speakers, including some TV stations in Canada, Australia and Thailand as well as a bunch of websites.
From what I could tell, all feedback was positive, with many people surprised at how much they enjoyed the experience. Wake Racing and Climbing were both on show, and I can’t count the number of times I saw the light click on in people’s heads when they started playing Wake Racing as intended (like a bike) and really got a sense of how the game is meant to feel when played properly.
The stage demos were a big hit too, with the build perfectly producing an immaculate ‘Harry-san’ Champion twice a day that blew people away. It was a perfect accompaniment to the Kinect evolution demo that preceded it, connecting so many of the technology threads into one mighty showcase. As well as being visible from the stage itself, this was also broadcast live to a huge screen above the giant Titanfall mech (accompanied by booth girls) that was a consistently busy spot throughout the day.
During the public days, the entire Xbox booth was crammed with people. We were delighted to find that KSR had a minimum queue time of 30 minutes for the duration. Many Japanese people expressed interest in the original Kinect, but cited room limitations as the major barrier to entry. We were able to give them a flawless demo of how wide the field of view was, which seemed to genuinely impress them and get them excited for the game’s launch. They also loved being able to immediately feel the difference in the gameplay, with subtle, nuanced hand movements giving them very precise control over their wake racers and Champion climbers.
The Japanese team did a fantastic job of demoing on our behalf and could show off the experience incredibly well. The booth attendees all had training and seemed to be strong gamers, picking up the events in no time and doing us proud.
The major point that I took away from TGS was how positive and excited people were about the game. All feedback was glowing and everyone that I saw had a great time playing. Hopefully, this version of Kinect will resonate more with a pretty amazing Japanese audience and they’ll get to experience the game that we’re all working so hard to create!
Image credit: Official TGS13 website
Check out the bonus gallery below for some great TGS images and holiday snaps of Harry and Andy enjoying Tokyo. Sayonara!
