Halo 4 will not support Kinect for gameplay. Speaking to CVG, Halo franchise director Frank O’Connor explained that 343 Industries’ new shooter is a core game that is best suited for traditional gamepad controls.
“Halo is a core game series, and more than many others is directly linked to the muscle memory of holding an Xbox controller, going back as far as the days of the Duke on the first Xbox,” O’Connor said. “Kinect is a logical extension of the UI, and with regards to some of the sci-fi themes we’re actually pretty excited about it, but not for the controls. That’s not what it’s for, and we would never try to shoehorn that into our game.”
Though there will not be Kinect support for Halo 4 itself, O’Connor said Xbox Live application Halo Waypoint, which can be launched through Halo 4, will work with the motion control technology. This was not detailed.
During the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Microsoft confirmed that all first-party Xbox 360 games would utilize Kinect in some way. It is not clear if this development mindset has since changed.
Elsewhere in the interview, O’Connor claimed that Halo is not out to topple Activision’s behemoth Call of Duty series. He said though Microsoft has hired former Treyarch and Infinity Ward developers, and those staff are bringing “some of their habits” to Halo, the two franchises are intrinsically different.
“We haven’t tried to chase that tail,” O’Connor said. “[Call of Duty games are] good for specific reasons, and Halo is good for a different set of specific reasons. I think the closest we’ve come to that conversation about Call of Duty, is that we wanted to have an amazing player progression experience that wasn’t just aesthetics.”
Halo 4 is due out only for Xbox 360 November 6 worldwide. Development on the project recently came to a close, with the game now headed to certification before mass production. For more on the title, check out GameSpot’s previous coverage.
