Kinect "can't do a good lightsaber game"

One of the chief architects of Sony's motion sensing platform PlayStation Move reckons the upcoming Star Wars game for rival motion sensing add-on Kinect won't be much cop.

Anton Mikhailov, a software engineer at Sony Computer Entertainment America's research and development department and the brains behind the algorithms that make the Eye camera interpret movement of the Move controller, reckons "there's no way Kinect can do a good lightsaber game".

And while LucasArts and Sony are yet to announce a Move-compatible Star Wars game, Mikhailov guaranteed, "It'll be damn better than Kinect's."

"I'm not in the product planning division so unfortunately I can't tell you much more about that," Mikhailov told Eurogamer when asked about a possible Star Wars Move game. "But technologically it's 100 per cent feasible.

"We can overlay objects over the controller in AR. You've seen that in Start the Party, and swords are a really popular one. The fidelity is certainly there to do all sorts of Star Wars kid-style action. You can very well do the lightsaber."

The main difference between Move and Kinect is an obvious one: Move uses a controller the Eye camera detects, while Kinect offers controller-free gaming.

Star Wars Kinect was unveiled during Microsoft's E3 2010 Project Natal extravaganza event with a short trailer.

It's set for a Christmas 2011 release, and, according to Kinect poster boy Kudo Tsunoda, is "super compelling".

However, there has been concern surrounding the project - we've seen nothing of Star Wars Kinect since its brief E3 2010 video demonstration.

The game is quietly in development at Ghostbusters: The Videogame creator Terminal Reality, which is using the Infernal Engine to build it.

The video shown during E3 2010, which you can see below, suggests Star Wars Kinect is an on-rails third-person action game in which the player wields an imaginary lightsaber and duels Darth Vader.

Mikhailov added: "I'm usually not very aggressive, but I will say it'll [Move's Star Wars game] be damn better than Kinect could ever do.

"There's no way Kinect can do a good lightsaber game. Just never. Unless they give you a stick. If they give you a stick then they can do OK, but then they're going to ruin their whole no controller motto.

"I've seen the demo but it's so scripted, and wasn't it like, faked?

"Technologically I find it hard how you can do a lightsaber, because there are so many ambiguities, and it's nearly impossible to track the angles of your wrists.

"I can sort of see them doing it, like hold your hands together and move like this [holds them out in front of his body], and then from the x, y, position and for the angle. If anyone's listening, you guys should try that. That would probably work all right."

Mikhailov should know: he revealed to Eurogamer that Sony stopped research on 3D camera technology before it settled upon Move.