Xbox 360 Motion Control Rumors Mount

The Wall Street Journal has cited anonymous sources who say Microsoft is at work on a 3D camera control device, corroborating rumors that have circulated in the games space for weeks. Citing "people familiar with the situation", the WSJ said that Microsoft's move into 3D motion control is an attempt to attract a broader audience -- the same mass market audience enamored with the market leading motion-controlled Nintendo Wii. Unlike Microsoft's 2D-sensing Xbox Live Vision camera, which released in 2006, the rumored 3D Xbox 360 camera can also detect depth, literally adding a whole new dimension to gaming applications. WSJ's piece comes weeks after Israeli newspapers reported that Microsoft had the intention of buying startup 3DV Systems and its Z-Cam camera technology. The news immediately sparked speculation that Microsoft would be making a motion-controlled play on Xbox 360. Then at the beginning of May, popular tech blog Engadget posted a picture from an anonymous source that supposedly showed the peripheral itself. Among the device's reported capabilities are full body and hand gesture control of games and characters. No handheld peripheral is required. Microsoft would be likely to show off such a device at E3 in the first week of June, although the company is characteristically staying silent about the rumor.