Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Kinect support announced

Eurogamer: "Gargantuan role-playing game The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim will get Kinect support, Bethesda has announced. Support for Microsoft's motion-sensing device will come via a free title update due out this month. A video showcasing how it works is inside."

[Emilio_Estevez]

Nice to see there hard at work fixing all those bugs.

[TheGamingArt]

We know where their priorities are. Its why I'm not buying their next game.

[Grap]

good luck with that. i will be enjoying my Elder Scrolls games in my lovely PC.

[jimineyscrickets]

To each their own. I had a great time in Skyrim.

[Anon1974]

I'm having a great time with Skyrim right now. It's hardly been out of my console since Christmas. Aside from a mammoth appearing in mid air once and a couple of game seizing moments, I never did experience any of the bugs everyone else was going on about. Can't wait for the DLC, and I still have tonnes to do in the regular game.

Bethesda always gets my money. Fallout 3 was buggy as hell when it first game out but the game was fantastic. Given the size and scope of the game worlds they create, which really is unmatched in the industry, I think Bethesda does a great job and when there are problems, I always find they're quick to address them. I'm sure the review process for the patches doesn't help when they try to fix things promptly.

The reality is games are getting bigger and bigger, and will continue to do so - and that means more room for things to go wrong. At least they have the option to patch their work. Back in the day, if a game shipped broken (and it happened all the time) it was broken...period.

[pandaboy]

Their priorities are where the money and user base is unsurprisingly. Microsoft are just so much more intelligent than sony with 3rd parties. Developers actually care about implementing Kinect controls whether it's useful or not.

This is where sony have been absolutely moronic with playstation move. An open world rpg is perfect for move support, just imagine the possibilities, and yet we haven't seen one major rpg/open world game use it. We didn't even see portal 2 use it, which was absolutely perfect for move. We won't see MGS Rising using, another perfect opportunity gone astray.

Sony should be getting this though to the 3rd party developers but no, they are just simply too idiotic/lazy/stingy. Instead we see it predominantly tacked-on to first party FPS games that nobody cares for and does little for the gameplay.

I really wish Microsoft were the ones who came up with move, then we might actually see it applied in some interesting ways across several genres. I'm sick to death of sony's incompetency in this regard. They really did just release move for a quick cash in on the motion fad and didn't care about getting 3rd parties to support it.

[jimbobwahey]

I'm glad Microsoft didn't come up with Move otherwise all PS3 owners would see is dancing games and mindless shovelware aimed at children and parents who don't know any better.

Luckily though, Sony has been making good use of the technology to pump out a continual steam of games aimed directly at hardcore gamers who appreciate the accuracy and precision of the device, which results in a vast library of excellent, high-rated games that cater to the hardcore crowd. I think that given the downright pathetic support Kinect has recieved and it's relegation to being nothing more than an expensive paperweight, the Move is certainly in much more capable hands with Sony who you know, actually have games :D

[Bigpappy]

I use Voice Commands in ME3 all the time. It works well for quickly selecting weapons, throwing granades and getting companions to use specific powers. This feature will be in many 360 games going forward, to reduce the use of menus.

[tokugawa]

@ jimbobwahey lol did you get paid by sony to write that nonsense drivel??

incredible what fanboys come up with

[EVILDEAD360]

'They should fix the bugs first'

It's on the 360..you know the version that didn't have many to fix.

Mass Effect 3 was the only game to take my life away from Skyrim.

Kinect worked like a charm for ME3 and I'm laughing because I even mentioned that the only thing they could use Kinect w/ Skyrim would be for shouts..guess I was wrong.

I keep hearing that Kinect never was used in hardcore games but let's take a count of the 360s biggest hardcore franchises

Halo
Forza
Mass Effect 3
Elder Scrolls
Fable

Other than Gears and Call of duty Kinect has now been used in a majority of the big ones.

Even so...definately didn't see something like this coming this soon.

Evil

[Gazondaily]

Now you all have a reason to scream:

FUS RO DAAAAAH!

[calibann]

I don't think you have any idea how games companies work. Are you under some sort of impression that Bethesda has only 1 team working on 1 thing at a time? They have teams working on bugs consistently, their last update fixed a whole host of bugs. Why does it have to be Kinect OR bugs? Why can't they be working on both?

[Drake117]

common sense doesn't exist here for the most part, don't worry about it.

[VINNIEPAZ]

Like Drake said, common sense isn't one of this sites strong points. Now Sony fanboys, thats any story. Anything Kinect or Xbox related is gonna get bashed around here.

[dmeador]

This is what I was gonna post reading some comments. People act like fixing bugs is like eating a pizza, and the more people grabbing pieces the quicker it will go. It simply doesn't work like that. Law of diminishing returns. Adding 10 more people to the team might see 8 of them twiddling their thumbs 87% of the time.

Be thankful a company is giving you free, awesome content.

[Awesome_Gamer]

They should fix the bugs first.. Greedy a-holes *sigh*

[monkey602]

Yeah 6 months after release and they are still supporting their game with new features for free. How could they

/sarcasm

[Emilio_Estevez]

So you're happy they're giving voice commands to 2 of 3 platforms, when it could have been done for all 3? I would be fine if it wasn't a gimmick, but obviously they'd prefer to rub on Microsoft's crotch then actually please their fans.

This isn't a new feature for at all of their buyers. That's my point.

[monkey602]

I couldnt care for the new features at all. I bought Skyrim for the PS3. Never had more than a few freezes and I played for over 100 hours to get the platinum. It's just nice to see they are still trying to add new elements to the game

[Grap]

lol what 3 Platforms? PC got that Addition long time ago only ur PS3 that got no love so 2 out of 3. I think Bethesda and I can live with that.

[LOGICWINS]

"So you're happy they're giving voice commands to 1 of 3 platforms, when it could have been done for all 3?"

If fans want the feature that badly(lol) then they should buy a 360/Kinect. Clearly this is what Microsoft wants to happen. Good on them. Exclusive games and features are the reason why buy different consoles. It's not on the PS3 simply because its an EXCLUSIVE feature to the PC/360, no more, no less.

[JaredH]

Why are people mad about this? The reason they're using Kinect is because voice is built in and takes nothing to implement. Remember that they got this working over a couple weeks and it was part of the video of future possible DLC at DICE? And that was with a small team.

[-Alpha]

@Stab

Speak for yourself-- this is far from a gimmick if it works as well as they show it. This makes the game a whole lot better to play. Anyone that plays Skyrim knows how cumbersome it is to go through the menus constantly, this Kinect support is wonderful and exactly what I wanted to see.

As far as rubbing on MS's crotch, that's business, deal with it. I see Sony and EA sleeping in bed all the time. I don't like it, but at least in this case it brought out something that we may have never seen to begin with. VC could have been done for all 3, but to actually do it is another story, and this is where MS's "crotch sniffing" motivates Bethesda.

If MS didn't do this it'd be "Kinect is useless", if they do it's "Bethesda is gimmicky". I like what I saw a lot, let's just hope it works the way it is advertised.

[Iceman X]

Other games don't need Kinect for voice commands, like End War did it with ANY mic. So i ask why do someone need to pay $200 for Kinect, for something that your mic can do it? Microsoft is paying then to.

[The Dude]

Man what a greatday kinect support for Skyrim and Sony laying off 10,000 workers and shrinking into the distance :)

[SilentNegotiator]

Well, they said it would get uses for hardcore gamers....too bad it's all because of under the table deals for microphone use.

I'm sorry, but I've seen VC since SOCOM (and I know it's not the first) and it had no trouble having VC without making compromises. SOCOM looked great for a ps2 game of its time and had some fairly large maps. So don't tell me that Kinect's little application processor and environment (of which ps3 has a similar version of) is the reason this "can't be done" on regular old microphones on ALL of the platforms.

[JaredH]

Do you honestly think if Kinect didn't exist they would have even tried VC? It's not like the game was made with it in mind(like Socom, Binary Domain, EndWar, etc. were). It's just a small free update months after release that doesn't even add that much.

@below
Actually that wasn't their huge marketed gimmick. Dragons were and shouts came from that...

[SilentNegotiator]

On a game whose huge marketed gimmicks are "shouts"?

Absolutely. If they had a less disastrous launch, I'd say "yeah, they would have included it as a part of the plan"....but no, it had game and quest breaking glitches when it launched. They couldn't even think of a side feature like that when the game was full of issues.

edit: They go hand and hand, then.

[dark-hollow]

voice hotkeys replacement is actually seems quite useful.

[Jazz4108]

The 360 versions of their games usually play pretty well now the ps3 is another whole story but this gen a lot of devs have had trouble with the ps3.

[mugoldeneagle03]

If the Kinect support actually turns out good, then why is this a bad thing?

I don't give a shit about Kinect at all, but it needs more hardcore games before I and many others buy the thing. This definitely helps

Lets just hope it doesn't turn out like Star Wars

EDIT: Eh, video showed all voice commands. Guess I thought wrong to think full support

[WitWolfy]

WHAT IF SKYRIM IS BETTER WITH KINECT?!?!?!

[mcstorm]

There has always been hate on here for Kinect no matter if the news is good or bad. I have Kinect and I think its a really good device it just adds that little bit extra to the 360 games and it is also good that the family can now play games on my 360 as this is one thing the device was lacking. I like the voice controls with Kinect too in apps like Netflix ect. Yes you can press a button but when your phone is going off ect saying xbox pause is a good thing to have.

I also use Kinect with Forza 4 too as the head tracking for the in car view works really well for me anyway.

I have also yet to paly Skyrim. I got it when it came out but Forza 4 has kept me going back to it instead of playing other games I got after it which include Skyrim, F1 2011 BF3 Halo CEA and Gears 3 plus I picked a PSV up too so between this and forza 4 its kept me off them.
But from the Video I think the voice control looks like it could work very well on this game and I thought they may of done something like this for Fable 3 but they never did.

They way I look at Kinect is its not for everyone just like Move and wii is not but I think adding Kinect support to games like this without damaging the game its self and not forcing anyone to use Kinect with the game is a good way for developers to make games like this on the 360. Kinect has all the tools ready for the developers to add into there games for the voice ect so they don't need to reprogram it into the game as such so it makes things like the voice control and body tracking work with the game rather than trying to do it the other way roud.

[TBM]

meh to me its a useless feature, but for those with the camera more power to them. i actually havent played skyrim for the last two months. as good as it is, it was getting boring with the fetch quests over and over.

ill probably pick it up again when i have the urge.

[Hufandpuf]

why?

[xPhearR3dx]

Why not? It's free. If they want to keep adding new features for free, even if you don't use them, I wouldn't complain. If this was any other company they would have charged money starting with the new kill cams.

[Zynga]

If they said the same thing with ps move support. I bet you wouldn't be complaining.

[Machioto]

Well duh, the ps move is a actual controller and I wonder if their implementation is based of the f.a.a.s.t system or in house that's better.(there is video of morrow wind with faast system in it but, to me is unnecessary.)

@tai other that 3d tracking a lot of what showed with kinect could be achieved with a regular camera and the ps eye had an array of microphones.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

@Machioto...if all that can be done with the PS eye as you say...why hasn't it been done? Simple question...

[Machioto]

I have two theories,

1It's not part of the ps move skd.

2.Microsoft wants people to believe this is feature that is exclusive to kinect,a bit off topic if anyone remembers end war it was suppose to have exclusive ps eye implementation but the dev said in the report it had to be all right with Ms.

[Hufandpuf]

I don't have a PS3 genius. Try harder.

[Biggest]

"if all that can be done with the PS eye as you say...why hasn't it been done?"

Because they didn't do it. Boom! Simple question answered. You know that the PS Eye has a microphone. You know that the Move is tracked in a 3D space using the PS Eye. Why you would question what you know is the real issue, Dlacy13g.

[Tonester925]

1 to 1 movements HELL YES!

Screaming Shouts at my TV NAW

[aviator189]

What do you mean by "why?" Bethesda obviously saw that many people are buying kinects and thought that maybe they could enjoy skyrim with it as an optional FREE feature. It's free, what's to complain?

[The Meerkat]

"fus ro dah"
"FUS RO DAH!"

"F..U...S....R...O.....D ...A....H"

(presses shoulder button)

[yourfather]

after ME3's voice command support i don't think Kinect have any problem with voice control

(well if you just joking ignore me and i'm sorry)

[Tonester925]

I can't imagine myself screaming Shouts at my TV lol

[360GamerFG]

Yeah well fortunately Bethesda isn't as limited as your imagination.

[360GamerFG]

Thank you Meerkat, and that kids is how you do a dragon call on ps3.
Voice command is only supported on PC and X360

[Angrymorgan]

Stupid really, I was using voice commands on socom back in the ps2 days.....not that I actually want it now but yea its bullshit, kissing microsoft ass,
Ps3 seem to get shitty deals from Bethesda

[xPhearR3dx]

@Angrymorgan

You were using BASIC voice commands and a very limited number.

Kinect is built for this kind of thing. Saying "Bravo, fire at will" is a lot easier to program than "Fus Ro Dah". Plus, you're looking at 200+ voice commands, not 20.

Look at cellphone technology. It now supports all sorts of voice commands. Where older phones do not. Simply plugging in a regular headset wont cut it.

[Angrymorgan]

@ Xphear
Maybe your right but I don't believe it couldn't be done if they made the effort

[Machioto]

@xPhear they took that processor out of kinect because it would raise the price and all of it is in software, Sony has something similar called playstation vr,it doesn't use the ps eye but the sing star mic.

[xchamp]

Would you want them to support move for PS3 then

[Genghis]

well the fact is, move is NOT supported in this. neither is the PSeye, neither is this VR stuff.

Sony is not spending money to do this kind of thing.

Microsoft is.

End of story.

[WitWolfy]

@Meerkat
Dude that was me in Mass Effect 3 lol

[TheBioLover]

Why not just use regular microphones so it can be on PC and PS3 as well?

[ExCest]

Yeah. These voice commands are actually really good since the menu is annoying on PC. It actually would help to have these voice commands.

[AllroundGamer]

cause some people still think (mostly MS), that Kinect is something magical with advanced technology, but in reality it's just a simple webcam with a microphone... and they need to push their product at all cost :)

[Shadonic]

not just a simple webcam as you can see there's 3 different cameras in it that combine the information from all three cameras to produce what we see today, The move has a simple webcam but also has the move controller which basically does the same thing as the wii motion plus just more precise.

[M1chl]

Don't think so. Its because, its super easy to do this with MS SDK, nobody cares if you have to implement your own Voice-recognition SDK. It would be too costly. Even the the price-point, sitting on 0$, shows how much effort you have to put on this. So its nothing magical, just MS has some libraries ready to use for things like this. Just try it for yourself on PC : )

[AtomicGerbil]

@M1chl

Wrong! Sony already has voice recognition libraries as part of it's PS3 SDK. It wouldn't take anymore effort to implement this on PS3 than the 360.

[aquamala]

because Kinect is not just a microphone, it includes voice recognition as API that developers can just use. To do the same thing on PS3 developers would have to implement it themselves or buy that IP from someone.

[andibandit]

I dont know why aquamala is getting disagrees cause he's spot on. Oh wait i know, im on N4G.com.
Not saying it cant be done on PS3, but obviously if MS has done most of the hard work in the API, implementing it would be simple.

[AtomicGerbil]

Aquamala is not spot on, do some research. As I've stated above, the VR libraries are already in the PS3 SDK. Coding on both systems would be near enough comparable.

[JaredH]

Well I've only heard good things about Mass Effect 3's Kinect integration from people who've actually used it so this might turn out the same. Apparently it's cool to not have to wear anything and just talk normally but I still could care less about buying a $150 peripheral that's only function in core games is a cool microphone.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Steel Battalion will be the game to change that from what I have seen.

[Shadonic]

im waiting on Ryse its made by crytek and honestly it seems to be their main project at the moment and their putting more effort into it than most of the other kinect titles produced by other companies. its not the kinect its just like how the producers make the game mechanics.

[aquamala]

count me as someone that thought voice commands in ME3 is dumb, but I find it very useful as I don't need to pause the game to select a command in the wheel anymore.

[Tai_Kaliso]

Even after we heard from Bioware about how Kinect would work with Mass Effect 3 and why they were able to do it with Kinect and not a simple microphone.

Kinect has voice recognition built in, it works a million times better than old headset based voice commands.

Its not like voice commands are a new thing, they've been around for a while, but they didn't really work well at all. Endwar is a perfect example of this.

Kinect has the ability to do this, so they get voice commands added.

Its a nice little feature and I'm glad that more companies are adding things like this for us Kinect owners.

[Shadonic]

i wish they could release kinect integrated controls as DLC so they can sort of test out their ideas with kinect on the public.

[Moncole]

Late April fools?

[OllieBoy]

Bethesda sure have their priorities straight. What a joke.

[omi25p]

how dare they release free DLC. Im boycotting Bethesda now.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Anyone who didnt think this was coming was fooling themselves. After Todd Howard talked about their "brainstorm" session where they all worked for like a week on ideas they could do for the game, this specifically was brought up.

[fossilfern]

Is there not a mod for the PC to use the mic for shouts ?

[OC_MurphysLaw]

not sure about a PC mode for a mic but I do know someone already did a mod for kinect on the PC version.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[fossilfern]

Thanks but I did find it :D

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com...

[Nes_Daze]

I rather press a button atm, maybe down the line I'll grow into liking it but it seems like a gimmick right now. Then again, I'm not fond of any motion controllers or..kinect.

[DigitalRaptor]

I see they'd rather accept Microsoft paychecks than spend time on fixing the game's numerous bugs, which is ultimately the more important thing. Great work Bethesda. You continue to prove your worth in this industry. /s

[_Aarix_]

-_- yea cause free features are bad. Get over yourself.

[Silly gameAr]

If only they can stop worrying about features and actually fix their games. I might actually kiss Bethesda's ass like some people do.

[jocomat9]

who else would want move on skyrim?

[Regent_of_the_Mask]

There would be no point. Sure, the Move is very accurate but what good would it be in a game like Skyrim that has piss poor combat mechanics?

[jocomat9]

i disagree. i think if it was implemented it could be pretty awesome.

[Ramses3]

When are we going to see Kinect being used for actual IN GAME CONTROL, instead of microphones.
Title may as well read "microphone enabled". Nothing new, weve seen voice command stuff for years.

[Imalwaysright]

Didnt you know? Kinect owners paid € 150 for a glorified mic because with its lag and innacuracy that thing can hardly be called a controller. I wouldnt even pay € 20 for a mic let alone € 150 but hey to each his own.

[biRdy]

Microsoft just earned a huge chunk of change from Skyrim players.

[NewVegasTroop]

so Bethesda adds kinect support to skyrim, something nobody asked for, yet ps3 gamers have been asking for a trophy patch for oblivion for years get a middle finger? Bethesda wft?

[Bladesfist]

Seriously, does adding these pop ups to game increase their value to you? Do you really feel like you have to be rewarded to play a game. I just don't understand why people care about these things. I play games for my enjoyment not for annoying pop ups.

[NewVegasTroop]

yes it would, and my enjoyment is getting those "annoying" pop ups

[marioPSUC]

you know that was actually pretty neat, you dont have to go into the menus to equip weapons and shouts. I don't see why this couldn't be put into the PS3 or PC version with just mics though

[360ICE]

Kinect my black ass, this is voice command! Only bringing it to Kinect is the biggest gimmick I've ever encountered because then it's not just talking to a microphone - it's talking to an "intelligent tracking device".

I can just see the 360s, Kinects and Skyrims being torn of the shelves as this goes viral :P

In all seriousness voice command is pretty cool though

[dubt72]

Is it cheesy as hell? Yes.
Is it also awesome? Hell, Yeah!

[Regent_of_the_Mask]

I'm glad I never bought this overrated buggy game. There is no point in buying a game published or developed by Bethesda as it will always be a ripoff with tons of glitches in the game that they never fix cause they're too lazy to make an engine that works so they just rehash their old buggy engines and slap together a mediocre game that gets overhyped by retards.

[dmeador]

Haha, clearly you haven't played the game. Or just like to hate

[Ps3-PCgamer]

ERROR: Does not compute

[zero_cool]

All i gotta say is go to hell bethesda you always screw over playstation 3 gamers the most so i hope your company goes under!

Cheers Gamers & Happy Gaming!

[videoxgamexfanboy]

I never could understand how some many people could hate on added features that are optional...must have other agenda's. They can add as many features as they want. Im sure their capable of fixing any bugs aswell. N4G is turning into a dumping ground for crybabies

[GraveLord]

I will laugh at people who buy a $150 microphone(Kinect) just for this or Mass Effect 3.

[Genghis]

I'll laugh at whoever buys the overrated Wii clone for...uh...hmmm...

[MilkMan]

Lame.

[hazardman]

I have Kinect but will not be using this feature. But after seeing it in action on the Gameinformer site, it works really well with little to no lag which was impressive(to me anyway). Maybe I'll yell a few shouts out, when no-ones around, maybe.

[Iceman X]

End War, Binary Domian and MANY other game have voice using ANY mic, So what's specail here with Kinect?? Microsoft's check book!! I have np with voice control but why aren't they letting you use any mic? Other games do it fine.

[Regent_of_the_Mask]

Sure that can be done in other games but you're also forgetting that Bethesda don't have anyone talented enough at their company to do that.

[typeN8]

O my..i wish i could trade my ps3 copy for a xbox copy
This is sweet

[Neurotoxin]

I shall be the envy of all my friends.....

[AtomicGerbil]

FYI

http://www.psu.com/forums/s...

It can be done just as easily.

[badkolo]

great news and im starting to like ms's approach at getting kinect used more in core games, seems to working for them and this approach will make kinect even more popular as time goes on.

[LAWSON72]

Looks actually good might set my kinect back up but I would prefer some dlc

[gameseveryday]

that's one expensive microphone...