Call of Duty: Ghosts using voice commands for Xbox One Kinect

Activision Publishing head Eric Hirshberg talks about how the Kinect integration and improved visuals of the Xbox One are influencing hte direction for Call of Duty: Ghosts.

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Call of Duty: Ghosts was the biggest (and one of the only) gaming pitches Microsoft made at its Xbox One announcement. Activision has once again thrown its lot in with Microsoft for exclusive content, and Activision Publishing head Eric Hirshberg has talked about how it plans to leverage some of the console's features.

For one, the Kinect being integrated into every Xbox One means they can count on users having it hooked up to the system. "I made a passing comment that you're going to see voice integration, voice commands via Kinect, which is something that we haven’t done in the past with Call of Duty," Hirshberg told GamesBeat. "We think the improvements to Kinect really excite us because of the level of responsiveness and detail."

He then went on to imply that a more formal outline of the Kinect features will be coming later. "Obviously, we didn't reveal that element today. We just mentioned it. But we’ve always made sure that we don’t just use new technology for novelty's sake. We always make sure that it makes the gameplay better. In this case, we think it will."

Hirshberg also said that the more detailed visuals has influenced the direction of the story on all platforms, since more realistic graphics make characters more believable. "The more human and natural they feel, the more we can build real connections with the characters through the narrative," he said. "That's why we're focusing so much on story. That's why we're working with someone like Steven Gaghan. That's why we're focusing on a single squad for the entire campaign. Traditionally, Call of Duty has jumped around, and your identity changes from level to level. Sometimes that even happens multiple times per level. This commitment to going through the adventure and the journey with one band of brothers is going to be a nice shift for the franchise."

For an early look at what Infinity Ward is showing off for the game so far, check out our preview.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 24, 2013 9:30 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Call of Duty: Ghosts using voice commands for Xbox One Kinect.

    Activision Publishing head Eric Hirshberg talks about how the Kinect integration and improved visuals of the Xbox One are influencing hte direction for Call of Duty: Ghosts.

    • reply
      May 24, 2013 9:57 AM

      Yeah, "Xbox Off". Right guys?

      Guys...?

    • reply
      May 24, 2013 10:26 AM

      I really hope we can see something like this in the future: http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=26061475#item_26061475

      • reply
        May 24, 2013 10:27 AM

        guaranteed at some point this generation. it's too perfect to not implement.

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      May 24, 2013 10:31 AM

      the ability to more easily control your squad mates might finally create a real alternative to so many scripted scenes in squad based FPS. You at least won't need the most basic breaching, grenade tosses, etc to be some perfectly choreographed dance if the player is able to initiate them as they please (or not at all).

    • gmd legacy 10 years legacy 20 years mercury mega
      reply
      May 24, 2013 10:32 AM

      bark!!

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      May 24, 2013 10:33 AM

      I wonder if you can choose a name for your dog to command it with.

    • reply
      May 24, 2013 10:39 AM

      Xbox fetch.

    • reply
      May 24, 2013 10:43 AM

      didn't EndWar for 360 use voice commands? did anyone care about it then?

      I don't see how Kinect2 brings anything when you could do voice commands with any mic

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        May 24, 2013 10:50 AM

        It did but that was only one game. Rainbow Six 3 for Xbox had voice commands too but all of them required a mic and development. The Kinect provides the tools for anyone else to use and now that the new system has Kinect by default, then it'll be easy to implement system wide. It's like how PS3 had Sixaxis at the start and everyone was able to use it (better or worse).

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        May 24, 2013 11:04 AM

        the accuracy of doing with "any mic" clearly hasn't been very good historically across all platforms. There's also a big difference between providing a robust voice recognition framework/SDK for devs and asking everyone to reimplement it themselves (which they fundamentally can't do well since a large part of improving accuracy is gathering tons of voice data at scales like Apple/MS/Google do).

        All EndWar proves is a single voice controlled RTS on consoles didn't work. Whether due to its particular execution or other larger concepts (like RTS on consoles for example)

      • reply
        May 24, 2013 3:44 PM

        [deleted]

    • reply
      May 24, 2013 10:56 AM

      Go to bread

    • reply
      May 24, 2013 2:51 PM

      Having Binary Domain flashbacks, did not work well with my Australian accent.

    • reply
      May 24, 2013 3:19 PM

      The fail keeps piling on.

    • reply
      May 24, 2013 3:42 PM

      'XBox, Teabag dead player! TEABAG, I said! T-E-A-B.....awww forget it!'

    • reply
      May 24, 2013 6:01 PM

      A better looking Call of Duty with a story line like Ghost has me excited!!! Call of duty was always about answering the call to perform with heroism and courage against all odds to defeat tyranny and evil and i think the story of ghost hits it right on. Dont mess with 60fps and just improve the graphics and refine the controls and you have another COD blockbuster. Cannot wait to play this on my new XBOX ONE!!! Oh will not be using voice command.

    • reply
      May 26, 2013 12:11 PM

      Fetch! Roll! Play dead! Sit, booboo, sit! Good dog.

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