Add your face to the wizarding crowd in Harry Potter for Kinect

Warner Bros. Interactive announces Harry Potter for the Kinect, which releases this fall. Time to bust out that robe and hat combo from the closet once more.

Not magic, motion control: The Leap controls your computer with a flick of a finger

Anyone who has wanted to point their finger at their computer to make something happen will appreciate the Leap, a new motion control peripheral from startup Leap Motion. The small aluminum device uses finger waves and hand gestures to interact …

GamesBeat Weekly Roundup

If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best games stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

The DeanBeat: Can Microsoft’s Kinect gain cred from hardcore gamers?

Microsoft’s Kinect has always held out tantalizing promises. As a user interface, it brings computing devices to the edge of greatness but falls just a little short of our dreams of the Star Trek holodeck or the cool transparent, gesture-controlled …

Microsoft Kinect’s NUads is what the TV industry needs to survive the future

What if your ads watched you while you were watching them? Microsoft is set to debut its new motion-sensitive advertising project NUads next month, which the company says will revamp the TV ad industry by doing just that.

The company’s …

Game News Roundup: Sony loses billions and Microsoft ponders Kinect-controlled internet browsing

Sony's PlayStation division loses $2.8 billion over the full year, and Microsoft is working on Kinect-controlled internet browsing for the Xbox 360.

Microsoft confirms $99 Xbox 360 + Kinect subscription deal

The rumors are true. Microsoft confirmed today that it will offer a $99 Xbox 360 console and Kinect bundle (with a $15 monthly subscription fee) in its retail stores.

The deal will be available via the above online coupon, which …

Kinect hacking at a whole new level: Here are the finalists for the Kinect Accelerator

Today, Microsoft is announcing eleven finalists in the ultimate Kinect hacking showdown: a spot in a TechStars-backed accelerator just for Kinect-based ideas.

Kinect hacks have been something we’ve been keeping an eye on for a while, and it turns out …

GamesBeat Weekly Roundup

Here are some of the stories that ran on GamesBeat this week. We’re running more articles exclusively in the GamesBeat section of VentureBeat, particularly when they’re mainly of interest to our game readers. The broader-interest posts will continue to run …

Kinect for Windows 1.5 will have better tracking and broader reach

The Kinect for Windows 1.5 developer kit will be available in late May, Microsoft’s Craig Eisler, General Manager, Kinect for Windows, announced recently via blog post.

With the 1.5 software development kit (SDK) will come Kinect Studio, an application that …

How Fable: The Journey will use the Kinect in revolutionary ways (interview with Peter Molyneux)

Game designer Peter Molyneux discusses in detail how the latest Fable will use the Xbox 360's Kinect in never-before-seen ways...and why he stores his iPad in his underwear (seriously).

Angry Birds gets gesture controls

Not content with being flung into space, the Angry Birds behemoth is evolving alongside the popularity of motion control. SoftKinetic, a leading developer of gesture-based platforms for consumer electronics, showed off a tech demo showcasing this experience in full flight.…

Dylan’s Desk: You will soon be using a Kinect, even if you don’t have an Xbox

In Microsoft's vision of the future, Kinect sensors are everywhere: In your living room, your kitchen, at school, and even in the supermarket, above the fruit display.

And why not? The $150 motion-sensing device provides a cheap way to add gesture and voice controls to any application.