Unless you’ve been living under a rock these past few weeks you’ve probably heard of a little thing Microsoft is launching tomorrow called Xbox Kinect. It’s a motion sensing camera that removes the need for a physical controller altogether. Think about the Wii, now get rid of the Wiimote and replace it with a high-tech camera and microphone that can track all of your motions in full 3D space. This camera actually “sees” your body and tracks all of your movement as you move about your play space, similar to how motion capture is used in movies to animate CG characters (think Golem from Lord of the Rings, or the Avatars from… Avatar). It’s pretty cool stuff and I was actually lucky enough to be selected as a beta tester for the Kinect Program back in August and have had one of the units at my disposal since then. As a tester, I was given access to most of the Kinect features and a number of games to try out that I could report back to Microsoft on regarding bugs I came across or suggestions on how to improve the overall Kinect experience.

I wasn’t allowed to talk about anything Kinect Beta related until it actually launched, which is actually happening about an hour from now on the east coast. I’ll be honest, it was tough mainly because I’m a gaming nerd and love to have and talk about the latest and greatest things in the gaming world. Having a Kinect in my house 3 months before it actually released was be like having one of those super cool looking prototype cars the big automakers always show years before the actual model is released to the mainstream. Or, if cars aren’t your thing, think of owning the latest iPhone (or BlackBerry if you’re one of “those people”) months before it’s actually released to the public. Needless to say I walked around with a huge grin on my face for weeks with the knowledge I had something that no one else did. My head grew even bigger the more I saw how excited people were getting about this thing as launch day approached :)

I’m not really going to review the Kinect because all the software I tried wasn’t finalized (in fact most of it was being updated regularly throughout the beta program with updates via Xbox live).  What I will do is say that this thing is really cool and has much more to offer than the Wii or the Playstation Move. That’s not to say its miles ahead of the competition since all 3 platforms have their own twists on the whole motion control thing. The Wii is simple and it works, the Playstation Move has the ability to be super precise but Kinect stands apart for the simple fact it’s all about freedom. Freedom from having to use a physical controller, freedom to move where you want and control games how you please. The first time I booted up my Xbox with the camera plugged in I was hooked, I had never experienced anything like it. For a second I thought I was Tom Cruise in Minority Report, and then I remembered I’m not an insane actor who sold my soul to Scientology…

If gaming is your thing and you want to try out something cool I definitely recommend checking out the Xbox Kinect. That’s not to say you should run out and buy one tomorrow, most of the launch titles are fairly simple and won’t really please the so-called hardcore audience. Still, the games are ridiculously fun, simple and addictive (also gotta say they are a GREAT workout). Microsoft spent over half a billion dollars marketing the Kinect and are expecting to sell nearly 5 million units this holiday season. That’s absolutely huge when you consider this is just an accessory to a console that was released 5 years ago. It also doesn’t help when you take over Times Square on launch night, hit up Oprah, Ellen and just about every other media outlet in North America with Kinect fever…

Since I get to keep the unit Microsoft sent me back in August I’ll be saving about $150.00 bucks but I do plan to drop about 50 tomorrow on Dance Central because I really need to improve my dance skillz…