Microsoft"s Kinect motion sensing camera-controller for the Xbox 360 console has mostly been used for casual and family games like Kinect Sports and others. But that plan is slowly changing if info about a newly revealed game development studio is correct. The recently relaunched web site for Microsoft Game Studio Vancouver, combined with a resume from one of its team members, has shown that Microsoft is prepping to make a more hardcore shooter game that will use the Kinect camera-controller.
Microsoft Game Studios Vancouver, located naturally in the Canadian city, is actually not new; it"s a game development division that was originally called Zipline Studios. According to an online resume from the studios Art Director and Senior Artist Shawn Woods (spotted first by NeoGAF) the studio was originally working on "social microtransaction games". Not any more. Woods now writes that the focus of the studio has changed along with the name and now the team is working on "a core AAA shooter experience using Kinect."
The studio"s job openings as shown on the company"s web site also reveal that the team is working with Epic Games" Unreal Engine for the game"s graphical basis. The big question is: What kind of shooter game are we going to get from this studio? Will it be an all new game or perhaps a Halo title that will used Kinect"s technology? Meanwhile PC owners are still waiting for Microsoft to release the promised official PC drivers for the Kinect camera. The drivers are supposed to be released later this spring.