Join two of IGN Australia's editors, Cam "Swishy Pants" Shea and Stephen "Rockmonster" Lambrechts as they discuss Microsoft's obsession with Kinect and what that means for the Xbox 360 faithful.

So Steve, if there was ever any doubt as to Microsoft's commitment to Kinect, that doubt was well and truly erased at E3 earlier this month. The press conference in particular was one long parade of Kinect games or Kinect-enabled games. There was Ryse, Fable: The Journey, Kinect Disneyland Adventures, Kinect Star Wars, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, Kinect Fun Labs, Kinect Sports 2 and Dance Central 2, as well as Mass Effect 3 voice support, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier's Gun Smith, the announcement of Kinect integration for a bunch of EA Sports titles, and the fact that all future Tom Clancy games will support it in some capacity. We already knew Forza 4 would have Kinect functionality, but so will Halo Anniversary, not to mention Minecraft. Minecraft!? And hell, the company didn't even show all the titles on the horizon in the press conference. Fruit Ninja Kinect is coming, as well as Rise of Nightmares, The Gunstringer and the five Japanese-developed Kinect games announced at last year's TGS.

And+a+whole+new+generation+of+Star+Wars+Kids+is+born.

Standing+in+my+own+living+room+-+what+fun!

I've+got+nothing+against+good,+multi-racial+fun,+but+I+also+like+shooting+Nazis+in+the+head+from+the+comfort+of+my+couch.+Just+saying.

All of this raises the question - is Microsoft too focused on Kinect? It's now standard issue with the system, but there's still a massive install base that doesn't have the peripheral. These are the people that helped get the system to where it is now, but is Microsoft leaving them out in the cold?Not entirely, Cam. The way I see it is that these people will still get to play hardcore titles like Mass Effect 3 and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier without the need for Kinect integration. Those games will play as wonderfully as they always have, and at least gamers aren't being forced to utilise these features. As for the rest of the titles shown off at E3, I can't imagine that many core gamers are going to shed any tears over giving stuff like Kinect Disneyland Adventures a miss. Granted, it's unfortunate that the majority of Microsoft's first party line-up has been reduced to a bunch of kids' games, but at least we still have the likes of Gears of War 3 and Halo 4 on the horizon, not to mention all of the third party titles that will be appearing on the system.There is however a niggling problem, in that more games targeted at the hardcore will inevitably start appearing for Kinect, and gamers will have to give in and accept it, or miss out on some really cool games. At the moment though, it's too early to tell if these games will even be any good, as Microsoft didn't show any of them at E3, and we've hardly heard a peep about those potentially-interesting Kinect titles announced at Tokyo Game Show last year since. Could these games change everyone's tune about Kinect and motion gaming in general, or do you think they'll end up being dumbed-down like everything we've seen so far? Lord knows I've always wanted to play a Fable shooting game on-rails…Couple of interesting talking points there. I agree core gamers won't shed a tear over missing out on a Disneyland game, and I also agree that Mass Effect 3 and Ghost Recon are taking a smart 'Kinect is optional' approach, but I think the real issue here is one of focus. Microsoft has always struggled to provide enough exclusives for Xbox 360, and its current focus on Kinect is taking it even further away from ensuring its core audience is satisfied. Don't believe that a lack of exclusives has been an ongoing problem? Take a look back over our yearly Console Showdown features. PS3 beat out Xbox 360 in 2008 and 2009 – largely because of superior exclusives, while Xbox 360 won in 2010 – mostly because PS3 dropped the ball on exclusives last year, while Microsoft turned in its usual average performance in that regard.I love my 360 – it's my 'go-to' machine, but the reality is that for a company with so much money, Microsoft has done a poor job cultivating strong first party development and has only done marginally better with second party publishing agreements. Sony has the better first party studios and second party relationships.The 360's advantage for a long time was that games released on both PS3 and 360 were invariably better on the latter, but now that developers are well and truly up to speed in developing for PS3, that's no longer the rule. And now, Microsoft has spent the last god-knows-how-long obsessed with Kinect, which – for all its cutting edge technology – has yet to prove that it's anything more than a home for kids' titles and mini-game collections. There is very little evidence that this will ever be a good fit for core experiences, as the kinds of games I like to play rely on control fidelity, not gross movement.I'm not saying there aren't strong core games coming to the system, but I am saying that games like Gears 3 and Halo 4 should be the baseline exclusives – the exclusives we expect – and that there should be a whole lot more coming in addition to those titles. Instead, the fact that Microsoft is so determined to make Kinect a success means that resources and focus are inevitably pulled from other areas. And like I said, there's little to no evidence Kinect is going to satisfy my needs any time soon. Child of Eden? Better with a controller. Rise of Nightmares – one of the few 'adult' games coming to Kinect? Nice try but it's incredibly clunky right now. There's no way I'd prefer to play that to a well-crafted traditional survival horror game.And let's not even get into the fact that you need a pretty sizeable room to even make the thing work. I personally have to stand jammed against my couch and even then it's touch and go. But maybe we're missing the point. Microsoft has always desperately wanted to court the mainstream market, and with Kinect it's finally settled on a vehicle to do just that. Maybe we're just not that important in the grand scheme of things anymore.Well we definitely aren't as important to the company as we were at the launch of the Xbox 360, that's for sure. We used to get a string of exclusives in all genres, including shooters, racing games, adventure games… even JRPGs! But it seems that as multi-platform titles like the Call of Duty and the FIFA series' continue to grow in popularity and quality, first party exclusives are no longer necessarily top dog in the eyes of many gamers, and in fact, a lot of modern players see online functionality as one of the most important elements of which console to back. When all the biggest games are on multiple consoles, game buying consumers will generally take into account things like whether they would rather play on Xbox Live, PSN or with a mouse and keyboard on their PCs. In terms of console gaming, Microsoft has at least ensured that its online set-up will provide a superior experience than its competitors in most instances. In this regard the company is definitely giving gamers what they want.I do agree though, that if Microsoft wants to maintain the loyalty of its core customers, it needs to provide them with more exclusives. With less big hardcore titles coming out for the 360, and Sony constantly getting better with its online service (PSN hack notwithstanding), it's ultimately going to be the exclusives that keep people hanging around. At the moment, Sony has the edge over Microsoft, and if it's not careful, the company could lose grasp of its hardcore following. Show me a 360 gamer that isn't jealous of Uncharted and I'll show you a liar!That said, it's also worth noting that Microsoft delivered a string of hardcore exclusives this generation that didn't succeed to its expectations. The company has actively sought out developers that fans love, and on paper it seemed like these games should have gone through the roof, but for some reason or another, they just didn't take off. On paper, a Silicon Knights-developed passion-project about futuristic Norse-gods sounded incredible. Unfortunately the result was Too Human. On paper, a Remedy-developed horror game was also a brilliant idea, aside from the fact that it took Alan Wake five years to come out and by that stage, it didn't have the impact it could have. And finally, on paper it seemed like a bunch of Xbox-exclusive JRPGs from the people that created the Final Fantasy series would be like mana from Heaven to hardcore gamers. Unfortunately, people buy Sony consoles for that kind of thing. You can't really blame Microsoft for dialling-down its focus on the hardcore games that haven't really been lapped-up by its hardcore audience, can you Cam?Of course I can. It's a competitive space and Microsoft needs to compete. The company really should care about its core audience and releasing titles that click. The wider market may be inordinately bigger, but there's still plenty of cash to be made keeping its most dedicated players happy. Personally I think it's a really risky approach to pull back from aggressively pursuing Xbox 360 exclusives in order to almost entirely focus on Kinect. Microsoft knows killer apps make a system and it's trying to manufacture those for Kinect, which is fine for that expanded audience, but not for us. You made a great point about Uncharted before by the way. It's games like that that mean the difference between me recommending a friend buy a PS3 versus recommending Xbox 360, and I doubt I'll be going with Xbox 360 on the strength of Kinect any time soon.From a market position perspective, however, there's no doubt that Microsoft is in a tricky place – and has been for years. People say that Nintendo has the casual space sewn up, but the reality is that Nintendo AND Sony have the casual space sewn up. You can't underestimate the power of the PlayStation brand. Sony has done a fantastic job of catering to a core audience, as well as making PlayStation systems a fun party option. Brands like SingStar have done wonders for PlayStation, and by and large Microsoft's efforts to do similar things haven't succeeded. So here we are. Microsoft wants a piece of the space and is going all in with Kinect. Sony, on the other hand, has the luxury of being able to position Move as an optional extra.I'm not saying I don't want Kinect to succeed, just that Microsoft needs to understand that there's a large slice of their audience that doesn't yet believe in the 'magic of Kinect' or that it's the 'future of entertainment.' I'll willingly admit it if they prove me wrong, but there's absolutely no way that's happening any time soon, and in the interim I'd really like to have a larger selection of bad-ass Xbox 360 exclusives to play. Final thoughts Slambrechts?Obviously I'd also prefer a larger selection of Xbox 360 exclusives that play more to my sensibilities. I'm just saying that I do sympathise with Microsoft to an extent. The company really has tried to please the hardcore, and after seeing the success of the Wii, it made perfect sense for it to devote a large chunk of its resources to a new, family-friendly gaming experience. After all the money it's spent on Kinect, Microsoft really can't afford to not give most of its attention to it, just as much as it can't ignore its newer, more casual customers. I agree that this is quite a shame, as I sure as hell am not interested in standing up and waving my arms around in a game. Even if that game was leaning more towards the hardcore spectrum of genres.I guess my final thought is that I'd personally prefer it if Microsoft put more of its Kinect focus into making 'Better with Kinect' titles, rather than straight up controller-less games. I do not enjoy standing up in my living room, being forced to play a game without one-to-one response time for my actions, and no sense of feedback. I just can't get into it. However, I'd have absolutely no problem using Kinect as an accompaniment to traditional games. Mass Effect 3's ability to actually talk in conversations is much more of an exciting and futuristic gaming prospect than jumping around while my onscreen counterpart follows a second later. As for exclusives, I really hope that once people have gotten used to Kinect, Microsoft and its publishing partners will settle into making some new IPs – new games and brands - that feature traditional controls with optional Kinect functionality, where appropriate.

What do you guys think about Kinect and the state of the Xbox 360 platform? Post your rants, raves and intelligent discussion below.Want More Great IGN Features?