2012 saw the continued evolution of three consumer technologies — autostereoscopy, touch-sensing, and motion sense – with direct application in the gaming world.

As an analyst in the tech industry (I do this gaming stuff for fun and occasional profit), I’ve witnessed these burgeoning advancements spread from the fevered dreams of OEM engineers to vertical-market trade shows, the Consumer Electronics Show, and finally E3 and the games industry.

None of these technologies debuted in 2012, but they’ve each matured and become an indispensable part of gaming. For perspective, here’s a link to last year’s article.

Seeing in three dimensions without goofy eye wear

For those who don’t know, “autostereoscopy” is an informal term in the tech industry for glasses-free 3D – “stereoscopy” refers to the process by which combining two offset images gives the illusion of depth (three dimensions), and “auto” denotes the glasses-free component.

Autostereoscopy uses a parallax barrier to create 3D images without the need for special glasses. This differs from an active shutter system (like Nvidia 3D Vision), which, through special driver software and glasses that present alternating left- and right-eye images, presents the illusion of depth.

Most consumers are familiar with polarized 3D systems, by far the oldest and most mature of these technologies. These are the sort most often found in theaters and theme parks.

Of the three techniques, autostereoscopy shows the most promise, but the tech is inherently limiting, as the 3DS amply demonstrates. The biggest downside to glasses-free 3D is its highly restrictive viewing angles. In my own experience, it ranges anywhere from 45 degrees to 60 degrees. Move too far in any direction and it breaks the illusion. In that way, the 3DS – and its parent technology – are not dissimilar to a hologram.

When the 3D revival began in recent years, the consumer electronics industry threw all their weight behind this oft-maligned gimmick.  CES became saturated with 3D TVs, 3D movies, 3D projectors, 3D laptops, 3D gaming, and more than enough 3D to turn off consumers — which it did. Whereas the leap from cathode ray tube (CRT) to flat-screen was monumental, 3D wasn’t nearly enough to convince most people to abandon their “obsolete” LED TVs. Most consumers apparently saw it as a stop-gap solution.

OEMs lay the groundwork for autostereoscopy

I saw the foundation of the 3DS’s glasses-free 3D tech at optoelectronics events (essentially, anything having to do with displays and lighting), and a large manufacturer – rhymes with “Carp” – demoed a small form-factor display long before it did (or didn’t … shhhh) become part of a certain Nintendo handheld.

And yet, Nintendo’s autostereoscopic handheld system – which may or may not have utilized display technology from Japanese manufacturer, Sharp – faced an uphill battle due to inherent limitations with the tech, itself.

The 3DS was hobbled from the start – health reports loudly trumpeted claims that 3D was unhealthy for children, while many viewers (myself includes) get headaches and/or nausea from observing stereoscopy for too long. And up to 12 percent of the population suffers from “stereoblindness,” which prevents the individual from seeing 3D images.

But the 3DS’ biggest handicap was its restrictive viewing angles, given that its claim-to-fame was its autostereoscopy technology. On July 28, Nintendo partially mitigated this problem with the release of the 3DS XL, which increased the screen size by more than 90 percent — (top: 4.88 in [124 mm], bottom: 4.18 in [106 mm]). But was it too little, too late?

GamesBeat writer Jasmine Maleficent Rea noted that “The 3DS XL is what the 3DS should have started as.”

But she also addressed the system’s improved capabilities: “A wider viewing area enhances the 3D effect, making some games that were too blurry in 3D a joy to play. For those of us with horrible vision, larger screens are a must, and because of this advancement, the 3DS XL is a great step toward people accepting a ‘gimmicky’ feature as a viable gameplay tool.”

Most consumers still do see 3D as a gimmick, and autostereoscopy is but a fancier gimmick. But for stereoscopy to ever become part of mainstream entertainment, it must shed the clunky glasses and develop into a mature, glasses-free technology.

Pinching, swiping, and styli

Capacitive touch – which underpins your iPhones, Samsung Galaxys, Droids, and countless smartphones – has become more prominent as the platforms supporting it have eked out a bigger piece of the pie. And resistive touch – the passive cousin of capacitive – has done even better for itself, featuring prominently in the Wii U gamepad (not to mention countless commercial applications like ATMs and credit card payment machines).

Resistive touch sensing – which registers pressure via fingers, styli, and other objects – is hardly a new technology. Because of its versatility compared to competing systems (like capacitive touch), resistive touch is popular in commercial applications like ATMs.

Nintendo utilized this relatively primitive touchscreen technology for its DS and 3DS systems, presumably to save a buck and to enable the use of styli.

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Fergal Gara, Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment UK, has been talking about sales of the Playstation Move periphal, saying, “I’d say we have a solid foothold. Could it, should it, have done more? I think so.”

In an interview with industry magazine MCV, Gara pointed out the importance of having strong software to support sales of the Playstation 3 motion sensing device. “We’ve had a widely different performance from the various Move titles. Sports Champions is by far the most successful, selling a couple of hundred thousand units, which is a healthy performance. But it does vary thereafter.“

Gara was referring to UK sales, but, with the exception of Sports Champions, sales of Playstation Move games have been generally indifferent worldwide. At the time of writing, worldwide sales for the ‘Playstation Move Heroes’ game stand at 102,111 units. Move based game ‘Start the Party’ has worldwide sales of 370,731 and ‘Eyepet and Friends’ has only sold 52,916 units worldwide. Sports Champions is way in front of its rival Move games, with worldwide sales of over 3M, but it must be remembered that this game comes bundled with the Move starter pack in the U.S.

Pondering the future for Playstation Move, Gara said, “We are in the market, we have got a shout. Forthcoming titles are going to be important. We take some encouragement from things we can mention, such as Sorcery which is on the schedule, and other things that we know are bubbling under. It is a focus from a studio point-of-view to bring out stronger titles.”

Sony Computer Entertainment Chief Executive Officer Jim Ryan added, “There are few things that we have got a lot more clear-minded about in terms of targeting the family, social markets, and not being all things to all men with Move.” Ryan remains positive about the future of Move, saying, “Our developers are making a step-change in their ability to do exciting things with Move software. And the fruits of that will be seen in 2012 and beyond.”

Sony has implemented Playstation Move controls in many of its games since the device launched, including core titles such as Killzone 3, SOCOM and MAG. One of 2012’s most anticipated games, Bioshock Infinite, will also be supporting the Playstation Move peripheral.

[Sales figures courtesy of VGChartz]

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Those are astounding numbers for any consumer electronics products. But in the video game business, they still mean that Sony is in third place among the Big Three. The good news is that all three major console makers are enjoying a robust and profitable business in this generation of consoles.

By comparison, Nintendo has sold more than 86 million Wii consoles and Microsoft has sold around 53 million Xbox 360s. And Microsoft has shipped more than 10 million motion-sensing Kinect systems since November. Sony marked the milestones at the end of its fiscal year, as of March 29.

The PlayStation 3 went on sale in 2006, while the PlayStation Move went on sale in September. Since sales continue to be brisk, Sony isn’t expected to launch a new video game console anytime soon. Nintendo, by contrast, has seen a significant slowdown in the past year for the Wii, and it is now rumored to be announcing a new console at the E3 game show in June.

Sony also said that the PlayStation Network now has more than 75 million registered accounts in 59 countries, across both the PS 3 and the PlayStation Portable. The PlayStation Store on the network has a total of 105,988 downloadable items, including games, movies and TV shows. Sony and its partners now have 155 Move titles on the market, while the PS 3 has 2,128 games available. Those games have sold more than 480 million units worldwide. In the U.S., more than 80 Move titles will be available by the end of the year.

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The system is also now a Guinness World Record holder: The Kinect is the “Fastest-Selling Consumer Electronics Device” because it managed to sell 8 million units in its first 60 days available — from its launch on November 3, 2010, to January 3, 2011. That means the Kinect has outsold both the iPhone and iPad in their first 60 days on the market.

In comparison, Sony said that it shipped 4.1 million Playstation Move motion controllers after being available for two months. That number doesn’t specify how many Move devices were actually sold to consumers though, and Sony hasn’t issued any updated sales numbers since late last November. Sony’s silence tells us that the Move is not doing nearly as well as the Kinect.

Given the above numbers, we can infer that the $150 Kinect has sold 2 million units in 2011 so far. That’s a definite slowdown from its ridiculously strong 2010 holiday season sales, but it’s still impressive for such a new device. The Kinect still has some issues, as VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi noted in his review of the system, but clearly it seems that consumers are taken with the idea of a full-body motion control system.

Hackers have also found plenty to like about the Kinect. The device was hacked only a few days after it launched, and it didn’t take much longer for hackers to use that exploit to make cool science-fiction interfaces a reality. Wisely, Microsoft chose to embrace the hacker community by releasing a software development kit that will let amateurs tap into the Kinect’s capabilities.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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That’s a pity because Killzone 3 promised to be one of Sony’s great games for 2011, with enough potential to help swing the console war ever so slightly in Sony’s favor. And if the motion-sensing technology worked perfectly, Sony could have introduced hardcore gamers to a truly next-generation experience in first-person combat and thereby carved out an important technological leadership role for its console in the process.

The game is important because it is the first real hardcore game to exploit Sony’s Move controller, which has been outsold by Microsoft’s more casual Kinect motion-sensing system for the Xbox 360. There are dozens of game publishers and developers working on Move-related games, all of them hoping that they can create a Move game with mass appeal among hardcore and casual gamers alike. If they succeed, the PlayStation Move can become a critical part of the PlayStation economy. But if they fail, then the Move could suffer the same inevitable decline that many accessories do after their initial splash in the market. If that happens, both Nintendo and Microsoft would breathe a sigh of relief, as they’re targeting gamers who have more casual tastes.

Playing with the wand-like Move and its companion left-hand navigation device is merely a good experience, not a fantastic one. And while the motion-sensing Move and the non-stop combat won’t make you sick, the story of the otherwise-epic sci-fi combat game is very hard to stomach. I suspect that the weak story is the reason Killzone 3 received a lukewarm rating of 84 out of 100 on Metacritic, a review score aggregator. By comparison, the ground-breaking Killzone 2 received an average review score of 91 out of 100 back in 2009. At the time, I considered Killzone 2 to be the best game on the PlayStation 3, before the even-better Uncharted 2: Among Thieves game came out.

That’s why I’m disappointed to give Killzone 3 a score of 84 out of 100. It seems that developer Guerrilla Games, a subsidiary of Sony, tried to push Killzone 3 out too fast, just two years after the debut of the previous game, which took more than four years to develop. It has become fashionable for game publishers to take their biggest hits and churn out game after game, but in this case it seems to have hurt the brand. This could easily have been a 90-plus-rated game.

I played the single-player campaign all the way through and was impressed with the outstanding core combat experience. Fighting in Killzone 2 is intense, with lots of enemies challenging you at the same time, both at close range and from far away. The enemy is smart enough to hide and shoot. If you stand out in the open, you’ll easily get taken out. This is a continuation of the high-quality experience that made me believe last year that Killzone 2 had lived up to its hype. The movie-like experience of combat is as good as any of the great shooting games, such as Gears of War, Halo, Resistance, Battlefield and Call of Duty.

The problem is more with the storyline that leads you from one combat scene to another. It starts out good, but then gets a little ridiculous as characters get into a rut of stupid behavior, like an ISA commander who repeatedly refuses to commit his forces to a battle that is going to stop an invasion of Earth. I mean, what commander could be so dumb? The only thing dumber are the enemy Helghast generals, who engage in infighting to a ridiculous degree. They fight and they almost kill each other, only to drag out the uncivility to crazy levels even as the ISA becomes a mounting threat to the existence of the Helghast.

Of course, with a video game, you can put up with the story if the game play itself is fun. In Killzone 3, you can play in much larger, sweeping levels. Bullets can pierce through then metal walls and it’s quite satisfying when you score a headshot on an enemy Helghast soldier, whose haunting orange-lit helmets are spellbinding to look at. You can fly over enemies with jet packs. The sound of the Helghast screaming through their muffled helmets is riveting. The combat is as close to realistic as this generation of consoles is going to get.

Fans who can stomach the violent first-person action and foul language of this mature-rated title shouldn’t miss it. I didn’t play the game in stereoscopic 3D, largely because I don’t like that experience for games.

But I played half the game chapters with a regular game controller and half with the Move, which is very much like playing a shooting game with the Wii but more accurate. I was skeptical that the Move would work well, with a movement control in my left hand and an aiming device and trigger in my right hand. But it does the job, allowing you to shoot very accurately.

By itself, that’s a big technological victory. For years, game developers have been trying to deliver accessories, such as the Wii remote and the Wii Motion Plus, that allows you to shoot accurately in a game. Most of the time, the aiming doesn’t work. I’ve always been much better off using a game controller than a pointing device in shooting games. But after a short time of getting used to it, I stayed with the PlayStation Move and finished the game with it.

I had to dial down the sensitivity of the Move controller by a notch because I found that the cross hairs moved around too much. Once I changed the sensitivity to a notch below what was recommended, I was able to get a steady aim. This didn’t turn me from a couch potato into an active gamer. Rather, I just sat on the chair and moved my fingers a little. That’s important because it’s very easy to get tired playing a game where you have to hold your hands out from your body for a long time. I managed to play Killzone 3 for hours at a time with the Move controller. If you want an even more realistic experience, you can buy a PlayStation Move Sharp Shooter peripheral that turns the Move into something resembling an assault rifle.

But the story is the hard thing to abide. Killzone 3 picks up where Killzone 2 left off, with the forces of the human Interstellar Alliance (ISA) forces stranded on the planet Helghan (homeworld of the Helghast race), where they have taken out the Helghast dictator, Visari. Tomas “Sev” Sevchenko and Rico Velasquez (heroes from the last game) are back in the middle of the action. The Helghast have counter-attacked (setting off a nuclear bomb in their own capital) and driven most of the ISA off the planet, save for a small contingent that has to survive in the planet’s war-torn ruins. The dark atmosphere of planet is one of the star attractions.

The plot starts out good enough with Rico rebelling against his hesitant commander, Captain Narville, and the Helghast leaders jockeying for control of the remaining Helghast forces. But the infighting devolves into a ridiculous civil war that makes the job of the ISA easier. The problem with the civil war is that it moves the focus of the story to the Helghast leaders, which you can’t play. You can only play the ISA grunts, who seem to be treated like a sideshow in the story toward the end.

I did enjoy playing with the jet pack, which added a third dimension to tactical combat in the freezing arctic installations on Helghast. And it was a lot of fun being inside a walking tank, known as a mech, with lots of cannon and machine gun firepower. Beyond city fighting, you now get to see more of the jungles of the planet Helghan and you have to face off against some very difficult and fast-moving enemies. A lot of the game has to be played in stealth mode, where you try to avoid other soldiers rather than fight them. But there just aren’t that many great places to hide in the terrain. Also, the frame rate, or speed of animations, gets unacceptabl slow at times.

There’s an interesting battle that takes place in zero gravity. When you shoot the enemies, they start floating up into the air. But your grenades become virtually worthless in that environment, as they fly forever and you can’t really aim them. I also enjoyed the “brutal melee” system, where you can close ranks with an enemy and engage in a brutal scripted knife fight. The finishing kills are animated in a particularly gruesome way. Believe it or not. For gamers, that’s considered innovation. The game has also gotten kudos for its addictively fun multiplayer combat.

Killzone 3 takes two steps forward with all of the innovative things it tries to do. But the story takes it one step back from being a great game. You have to admire the folks at Guerrilla Games for pushing the envelope. But it’s getting very expensive to swing and miss in the age of blockbuster video games. Fortunately, Sony has a very full slate this year, with big titles ranging from Uncharted 3 to The Last Guardian. Hopefully, one of those games will knock it out of the park.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The sales numbers show that Kinect is proving to be a big hit since its debut 25 days ago. Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, said the company is on pace to hit its forecast for 5 million units sold by the end of the year. The hands-free game control system is Microsoft’s latest bid to dominate the living room in its ongoing battle with Sony and Nintendo. Kinect has a 3D motion-sensing camera that allows you to control a game with body movements, without the need to hold a game controller in your hands.

“Kinect on Xbox 360 was a top performer at Target this weekend,” said Nik Nayar, vice president, merchandising, at the Target retail chain. “We expect Kinect will be a must-have gift this holiday season, so Target will continue to receive consistent shipments of Kinect throughout December.”

Kinect is now available at more than 60,000 retailers in 38 countries. Nintendo, for its part, said this morning it sold 900,000 DS handheld units and 600,000 Wii consoles during the week of Black Friday. Sony has said its PlayStation Move motion-sensing wand units are in short supply as well, but it has not disclosed any sales numbers, beyond saying the company shipped 1 million units to retailers in its first 30 days. It’s a safe bet to assume that Microsoft is coming out on top among the console makers in the current round of competition.

Kinect isn’t perfect, as we noted in our review of the system. But we do expect it to be one of the top gifts of the holidays because it offers a kind of magical, easy-to-learn experience for people who don’t consider themselves to be gamers.

Many of these ideas for gifts aren’t brand new. That’s because new stuff breaks and costs a lot. You won’t see web-connected 3D TVs that play apps on our list because that’s too far on the bleeding edge now. They’re just not safe purchases, given how fast the technology is changing and how much better and cheaper they’re going to get with time.

Our top picks were easy. Apple or Apple or Apple. Which Apple device, was the hard question. But the iPad captured everyone’s imagination this year, as the device’s unique design finally set fire to the tablet computer category. Some devices like the Apple iPod Touch and the iPod Shuffle are also great products, but we can’t make our list full of nothing but Apple devices, can we? Throughout the year, these devices got more and more useful as the apps multiplied and the content, such as Beatles songs, arrived in droves.

What’s the right way to shop these days? Start online to find the best deals and prices. Skip the store warranty. Watch the prices go down. Of course, that won’t work with some items on this list. Microsoft’s Kinect motion-control system and the Sony PlayStation Move, for instance, are in short supply.

You can find our last year’s list here. Here’s this year’s list:

1. iPad (Apple. $499 to $829). The iPad still has about 95 percent of the tablet computer market, even though it was introduced way back in March. As we suspected, games have turned out to be the most popular application on the iPad as well as the iPhone. The mesmerizing 9.7-inch screen is great for hand gesture controls, and the accelerometer control lets you tilt the screen to make things happen. Titles such as Angry Birds show that developers are producing apps that work great on the unique hardware platform that Apple created. But other apps, such as the New York Times and Flip Board, have made the iPad into a great media consumption device. The iPad isn’t as versatile as a computer, but when you fire up an app on the iPhone, you can pretty much bet it’s going to work and it’s going to be easy to control. A lot of critics have called it too expensive. Apple should bring down the price and come out with new versions on a faster timetable. But the iPad comes with one big advantage: You can get a ton of free stuff, given the thousands of free apps available on it. From the New York Times to the loads of free games, the iPad is one of those devices that can wind up saving you a lot of money on content. Many of the paid apps are just 99 cents.

2. iPhone 4 (Apple. $199 to $299, with two-year AT&T service). Apple outdid itself and its competitors again by coming up with the best phone on the market (check out our iPhone 4 review). The high-resolution retina display delivers sharp images, and the combo camera and camcorder can capture great images to display on the device. It does video calls, multitasking, high-definition video, and the reception problem — known as Antennagate — has pretty much died down, as all you have to do is get a cheap rubber case to ensure your calls don’t get dropped. The wide variety of apps — nearly 300,000 of them — make this phone more useful to people who want to have a combination of productive work and diverting entertainment in one device. Games, books, and location apps are taking off like wildfire with iPhone consumers. Apple is adding new functionality with its improved operating system. You can find games more easily with Game Center, browse through iAds, and organize your apps with ease.

3. Kindle (Third Generation) (Amazon. $139, $179) The Kindle has long been a good gift idea, but it’s even more compelling this year, since Amazon has dropped its price considerably with the introduction of the $139 WiFi-only model. The $179 model with 3G is still a steal compared to its $259 price this time last year. What’s more, the third-generation Kindle offers many improvements over previous versions, including a higher contrast E-Ink screen and an impossibly thin profile. It’s not hyperbole to say that the Kindle is even more portable than a small paperback. Amazon will soon add book lending to the device, so you’ll be able to share books with friends easily. And the widespread availability of Kindle software across other platforms (iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, PC, and more) means that you’ll always have access to your ebooks.

4. Kinect (Microsoft.  $149, $299 with Xbox 360 bundle). Microsoft’s motion-control system for the Xbox 360 (which starts at $199) is rough around the edges. It’s not as good as we expected, but we are hard to please and it’s a lot better than other competing products on the market. We’ll wager this sells well because there are an awful lot of consumers who don’t care about Kinect’s weaknesses, which include inaccuracy, weak games (sold separately), and a limited power of recognition. For kids, it’s a magical device that lets them use their bodies to control a game on the TV screen. If you can suspend disbelief and tolerate the inaccuracy, it’s a pretty fun experience. We get a kick out of watching people play the system for the first time. They don’t mind making fools of themselves in front of their family and friends. In that sense, Kinect is inspiring wonder in consumers who were fascinated with Nintendo’s Wii motion-sensing console in 2006. Since Kinect is a software-upgradeable platform, Microsoft has a lot of time to iron out the bugs and then issue software fixes for them later. Also, game developers are likely going to learn how to make great games that compensate for the limitations of the technology. That reduces the risk of buying the system now. For now, this is the closest thing to the gesture-controlled computer that Tom Cruise used in the film Minority Report. For Microsoft, that is high praise. Usually, Microsoft’s devices come nowhere near Apple’s in terms of creating magical experiences. This device may be very hard to find by the end of the holidays, given the high demand for it.

5. OnLive MicroConsole (OnLive. $99). This system is one of the biggest bargains you’ll come across. Bundled with a wireless controller with fast reaction times, the MicroConsole is disruptive for the game consoles. By attaching it to your TV and the web, you can use it to play high-end video games on a high-definition screen with 1080p resolution. The MicroConsole taps OnLive’s games-on-demand servers. Those servers compute the game images and send them down at high speed over broadband connections to the device, which displays them on the screen. Normally, the game consoles do all of the heavy-duty computing. But with server games, the distribution system is all digital. A lot of critics said the technology wasn’t feasible. But OnLive has blown past everyone’s expectations and delivered a high-quality console experience, as you can see in this video. You can boot up the system and start playing a game in about 15 seconds. The box is tiny, and it’s silent. The only hitch right now is that there are 35 games, and you can’t play the hot game of the season, Call of Duty Black Ops, on the Onlive system. You also need a 5-megabit-per-second broadband connection to play HD games on a 40-inch TV. Better content will come, and when that happens, consumers and console makers will finally realize just how disruptive the OnLive system will be.

6. Roku XD (Roku. $80) Roku’s latest generation devices are cheaper and more capable than anything the company has produced before — giving you little reason not to pick one up if you still need a way to watch Netflix streaming video on your TV. The XD is the mid-range offering in Roku’s lineup, but there’s also the cheaper $60 Roku HD, or the top-end $100 Roku XDR. We like the XD because it gives you pretty much all the features you would need, and it’s a much better value than the $100 Apple TV. It offers a better Netflix experience than the Apple TV, as well as other services like Hulu Plus that Apple doesn’t offer yet. While you don’t have the convenience of iTunes purchases on the Roku, you have easy access to TV shows and movies via Amazon’s video on demand store.

7. MacBook Air (Apple. $999 to $1,599) Much like the iPad, this device blurs the line between work and play. But it has a lot of the features that the iPad ought to have, such as universal serial bus (USB 2.0) ports and full browsers. It’s great for entertainment because it has the full Mac OS operating system and all of its applications. It can also run Microsoft Office and other productivity apps. The device uses flash memory instead of a hard drive. That means you can turn it on instantly and it’s fast. You can switch back and forth between fun and work without having to reboot or wait a long time. That speed is a requirement for any device that purports to straddle the line between work and play. The MacBook Air comes with either an 11.6-inch screen or a 13.3-inch model. It’s only 0.68 inches thick at the thickest part and just 0.11 inches at its thinnest. It weighs 2.9 pounds, but it’s made out of solid aluminum so it’s sturdy. The size matters because you can carry it around and it won’t give you a backache. The FaceTime video phone app lets you call people with an iPhone 4 and chat with live video. It’s beautiful enough that people will stop and ask you about it. So it can’t be bad for your social life either.
8. Sony PlayStation Move (Sony. $49 and up). The PlayStation Move is Sony’s big bet on motion controls for the Playstation 3 (which starts at $299). Based on our interview with motion-control guru Richard Marks, Sony didn’t think that 3D motion cameras, such as those used in Kinect, were ready for prime time. Instead, Sony stuck with a wand-like device you hold in your hand. It has traditional buttons, but it also has a variety of tracking sensors — a light bulb, an accelerometer, a gyroscope and a compass — that give it pinpoint accuracy in tracking where your hand is moving. As such, it could prove to be much more accurate than either the Nintendo Wii or the Kinect. So far, Sony has a good combination of hardcore and casual games for the Move. But it lacks a killer application to really make the device sell. We’re not sure if Sony stretched far enough to go beyond Nintendo and to match Microsoft with the Move. If you’re a Sony fan, this could be your best purchase for the holidays. But Microsoft’s Kinect will probably stretch the imagination farther with its no-controller motion-sensing system. With Move, you get a better experience if you hold two controllers in your hand, and you also have to have a PlayStation Eye camera. When you add up all of those costs, you could spend $130 or more on the whole system.

9. Samsung Galaxy S (Samsung. $199 with two-year contract from AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint) Out of nowhere, Samsung unleashed some of the most compelling Android smartphones ever seen — and it also had an ambitious plan to bring them to all major US carriers. Samsung’s Galaxy S phones aren’t the fastest or most fully featured Android phones out there, but they are a happy medium between mainstream Android handsets, and monstrously large phones like the Evo 4G. All of the Galaxy S phones feature a 4-inch Super AMOLED screen, which is by far the brightest cellphone display available, and run Samsung’s 1 gigahertz Hummingbird processor. If you’re having trouble choosing an Android phone at the moment, it’s hard to go wrong with any of the Galaxy S options. And yes, even iPhone 4 owners will be envious.

10. Nook Color (Barnes and Noble. $249) Just when you thought Barnes and Noble’s Nook e-reader was in serious trouble — given the new Kindle’s better display and cheaper price — the company unleashed the shockingly inexpensive Nook Color, a device that appears to be part e-reader, part tablet, and all Android. The Nook Color drops the E-Ink display of the original and instead opts for a 7-inch touchscreen LCD display. It’s half the price of the iPad, and more portable to boot. It’s also a better option for younger kids, as it’s far more rugged than Apple’s tablet. It’s not a genuine Android tablet, since it won’t run Android apps, but B&N says it will let developers create apps specifically for the Nook Color. We still prefer the Kindle for pure text reading, but if you’re interested in electronic magazines, or a way to enjoy colorful children’s e-books, the Nook Color is by far one of the best values this season.

Front photo via Mat Packer

Microsoft said today that some stores are selling out of its Kinect motion-control system, which launched on Nov. 4 and sold 1 million units in its first 10 days. David Dennis, a spokesman, said the company is working hard to keep up with demand and has increased manufacturing of the systems, which sell for $149 and work with an Xbox 360 game console. The company has also started expediting shipments via air cargo to increase its supplies.

Last week, Microsoft game chief Don Mattrick warned consumers that they should get their Kinect units by Thanksgiving. He also predicted that Microsoft would sell more than 5 million Kinect systems by the end of the year. (See our review of Kinect here).

Meanwhile, Sony’s Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing in the U.S., said in an interview that stores are running low on supplies of the PlayStation Move controller, a motion-sensing wand that you can use with the PlayStation 3 game console. There are plenty of bundles available for $299 that package Move with a PS 3. But Dille acknowledged that Sony misjudged the demand for the stand-alone Move controllers. He anticipates that supplies will be short through January for the Move controllers in all major territories.

Overall, video game sales are down 8 percent year to date. Last year, consumers waited longer to make purchases. Sales in October were mixed, but Dille said that there are lots of high-demand items in the video game aisles of stores, including Move, Kinect and Call of Duty: Black Ops.

“That bodes well for the holiday selling season,” Dille said. “We have a catch-up problem in all three territories that will last until January or February.”

Sony hasn’t said how many units of the Move, which went on sale in September, have sold through at retail. The company said that it shipped 1 million units to stores in its first month. (See our Move review here). Tonight, Sony’s big exclusive game of the season, Gran Turismo 5, goes on sale. The racing game is the biggest title in part because Sony’s other big game, Little Big Planet 2, has been delayed.

Nintendo says it expects to have plenty of hardware for the holidays. Sales of the Wii and DS have slowed down this year after a torrid couple of years. I suspect that Kinect will be the winner of the season by a wide margin. But it’s going to have to set the world on fire to hit 5 million units sold.

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Hundreds of professional dancers were bumping and grinding in honor of Kinect’s big game, Dance Central from MTV. The launch is part of a marketing campaign aimed at snaring mass market consumers who play games casually. So far, those gamers have flocked to the Nintendo Wii, while Microsoft has drawn the hardcore gamers with its Xbox 360. If Kinect is a big hit, then that could change. Nintendo, whose Wii sales have been sinking for months, will finally be on the defensive.

Earlier today, Microsoft’s games chief, Don Mattrick, said in an interview with Bloomberg that Microsoft expects to sell more than 5 million units in the current quarter, up from the previous estimate of 3 million units. If that happens, it would make Kinect a phenomenal hit. In its first six weeks on the market back in 2001, the original Xbox sold 1.5 million units. And in 2005, the the Xbox 360 sold 1.5 million units in its first weeks.

Just minutes ago, Mattrick sold the first Kinect system to a guy named Peter (pictured at the bottom), who had been waiting for days outside the Toys ‘R’ Us store in Times Square. At the same store, Microsoft previously launched the Xbox in 2001 and the Xbox 360 in 2005. The big hoopla in Times Square is part of a $1 billion marketing blitz to promote Kinect and Windows Phone 7 cell phones, which go on sale on Nov. 8.

At $149, Kinect is much less expensive than a brand new console. But it has a chance to deliver a completely new experience for users. Microsoft has integrated Kinect with its Xbox 360 dashboard. You can navigate through the console menu and select films with a wave of your arm. You can use body motion to fast forward or rewind a streaming movie. You can also use Kinect to make video chat calls.

Much like Wii games, Kinect titles will get gamers off the couch and performing activities that will leave them exhausted. Dance Central offers the magical experience of letting you use your body to mimic an animated dancer on the TV. If you do a good job, you score more points. The system works well whether you’re an expert dancer or a neophyte. If you want to exercise, you can play Ubisoft’s Your Shape fitness game. Whatever game you play, you’ll likely have an audience watching you on the couch, as Kinect has a strong family draw. I’ve played both of those games and am betting they’ll be among the most popular titles on the Kinect among the couple of dozen that are available at launch.

Larry Hyrb, also known as Major Nelson, Microsoft’s in-house blogger, has been tweeting like mad and posting pictures from Times Square such as the ones in this post.

The initial reactions of the first purchasers will be important, since they will be the first to test Microsoft’s design decisions with Kinect.

Sony launched its PlayStation Move in mid-September to lukewarm reviews, but the company claimed it had strong sales, shipping 1 million units in a month.

The Move controller has a wand-like device that you hold in your hand. It is more accurate than the Wii, which tracks you via infrared scans, an accelerometer, and a gyroscope (the latter is in the special Wii Motion Plus controller add-on).

The Move has an accelerometer and a gyroscope in its handheld controller. But it also has a two-dimensional camera, which tracks your body shape as well as an LED light attached to the end of the wand. Richard Marks, co-creator of the Move, told us in an interview that Sony considered the 3D camera that Kinect uses, but rejected it on the basis of cost. (That’s why Sony can sell its Move controller for as little as $49, or $99 with a camera).

Besides using a novel 3D sensor, which captures an image of a room in three dimensions and then translates the location of objects in the room to the console, Microsoft also added a near-infrared sensor to detect motion in any kind of lighting.

With the expensive 3D camera on board, Microsoft chose to keep costs down by not putting a processor into the Kinect system itself. Instead, the system relies on the Xbox 360′s processor, which can put a strain on the overall system and make it harder to play truly hardcore games at the same time you’re using Kinect.

The verdict is still out on whether Kinect games will be as accurate as Sony’s Move games. Remember, with Kinect, there is no controller or even buttons in the user’s hands. But Kinect game designers may be able to design around the limitations of the system so that users don’t notice.

If Microsoft truly succeeds with Kinect, it will finally have its mojo back. With failures such as Windows Vista and its weakness in phones, Microsoft has ceded the aura of making magic products to companies such as Apple.

And Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer says that motion-sensing technology such as Kinect will likely become the user interface for all sorts of electronic devices, from TVs to computers, much like Apple’s touchscreen user interface has become the heart of smartphones and tablet computers. If that comes to pass, Ballmer and Microsoft’s investors will be the ones dancing.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The PlayStation Move is a motion-sensing wand-like controller that is Sony’s answer to the Nintendo Wii. It is more accurate and responsive than a Wii controller and is thus the first major change to the controllers for the PlayStation 3 since the system was introduced in 2006.

Peter Dille, head of marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America, said that Sony will reveal more data on a global basis when it reports its earnings later this month. He said he could not say just yet how many of the Move units have sold through at retail yet. But he said the units are sold out in many retailers and Sony is replenishing supplies via air freight.

John Taylor, an analyst at Arcadia Research, said he believes that several hundred thousand units of the Move have been purchased at retail. It’s not sold out in most locations, he said.

“It’s OK on sales,” he said, “but not spectacular.”

The Move went on sale in North America on Sept. 17. Microsoft’s own motion-sensing system, the Kinect peripheral with its 3D camera, will go on sale for $149 on Nov. 4. In September, Sony sold 311,000 PlayStation 3 consoles, up 38 percent from August, according to market researcher NPD.

Dille attributed that increase in part to the Move bundles, which package the PS 3 with Move hardware. Dille said that PS 3 peripheral sales rose 163 percent from August to September, a reflection of good sales of the Move. He said there are 24 Move-enabled games on the market, including Sony’s own Sports Champions game. Sony also just shipped The Shoot, which comes packaged with a gun-like peripheral. About 15 more Move games are expected to ship by March 31.

Sony

The system for the PlayStation 3 game console uses the existing PlayStation Eye camera to sense the position of a new device, the Sony PlayStation Move controller, which has an LED-lit ball on top of a stick that is shaped like the handle of a sword. The controller has traditional buttons on it, but you can use it to control a game simply by swinging it around because it has motion-sensing technology inside it.

It costs $99 for a camera and controller bundle, or just $49 for a controller alone; that means a two-player Move system will cost you $150). If you also want a left-hand Move navigation controller (to move with left hand as you are shooting and aiming with the right), you have to pay another $29. If you want to buy a bundle with a PS 3 with a 320-gigabyte hard drive, the Sports Champions game, and one controller/camera, it will cost you $399.

With Move, you can finally share some of the delight that Wii users have known, swinging your handheld wand-like controller as if it were a ping-pong paddle or a broadsword. I’ve played around with it and I’ve enjoyed the experience. I agree with Sony’s claim that it has a much more accurate device than the Wii controller, but I sense only its potential.

I predict that Sony is going to sell a lot of these systems to mainstream gamers over time, far more than its mildly successful EyeToy cameras. But I haven’t played a Move game yet that really knocks me for a loop. I’m still waiting to find a killer app, which could be hidden among the dozens of games launching for the Move this fall.

If that killer app doesn’t emerge, then Sony is in for a tough battle, as it is wedged between the Nintendo Wii, which with its Wii MotionPlus add-on has the accuracy of a gyroscope-accelerometer combo, and Microsoft’s Kinect, which uses a 3D-sensing camera to map a physical space and monitor motion in a room.

Richard Marks, the co-creator of the Move, said in an interview that the combination of the 2D EyeToy camera and the handheld Move device will give Sony the highest points for accurate measurement of a user’s motion and  intentions. The only time it doesn’t work that well is when you hold the Move controller behind your back.

That’s because the camera depends on sensing the presence and location of the LED-lit ball on top of the Move controller. That allows it to fix the exact location of the controller, at least on a two-dimensional plane. It doesn’t work so well in a bright or a dark room, so you have to adjust your lighting. With an accelerometer, magnetometer (compass), and gyroscope built into it, the Move system can sense where your arm is and what you’re doing with it.

The system works. It’s pretty good at detecting what it needs to in any given game. But you have to calibrate it every time you start a new game. That’s annoying and it means that you can’t jump into a game nearly as fast as you should. Instead of pick-up-and-play, it’s a device where you pick-up, calibrate, and play. You have to make sure you are standing in the right place (within 12 feet of the camera) to be seen properly. And the accuracy is not 100 percent, no matter what Sony says. It’s close to 100 percent, but the misses are annoying.

I’ve tried out three games with the Move, all made by Sony: EyePet, Start the Party, and Sports Champions. With EyePet, you incubate and hatch a virtual pet and play with it on the floor. You can pet it and make it fetch a ball. It’s cute and has a sense of humor, but skews toward the youngest players. Start the Party has a bunch of party games where you can compete with a rival player at things such as catching bugs in a basket.

The game that held my family’s attention the longest was Sports Champions. The game is a poor rival to Wii Sports, the hit game on Nintendo’s Wii console. My kids told me that flatly. That’s because the game completely lacks any personality its characters, who are drawn with lifelike dimensions but don’t really do anything amusing. They are quite bland compared to the cute and funny Nintendo characters.

That said, Sports Champions has a number of mini games that are well done. They expose both the weakneses and the strengths of Sony’s new controller. Archery was one of the games that was well done. You can take on an opponent in a kind of speed match to see who can shoot the most targets in a short time. You have to reach over your back and squeeze the trigger to grab an arrow. Then you move your hand with the controller to the fore and point it at the screen. At that point, an arrow image appears and you aim it at the target. You let go of the trigger and it flies to the target. If you hit the target, you get point and you push it back in the direction of your foe. If you push it all the way, in a kind of tug-of-war game, you win the round.

The sensation of grabbing and pointing the arrows felt true to the actual motion. But, in one of the Move’s flaws, it did not detect the arrow-grabbing movement every time I tried. That’s annoying, suggesting that for all of the claims of accuracy, motion-sensing systems still aren’t completely accurate. The archery game was a little more fun than the archery game in the Nintendo Wii Sports Resort game, but I can’t say it was demonstrably more fun or accurate.

The ping-pong game that comes with Sports Champions is also pretty good, but not perfect. You have the same lifeless characters. You can swing your controller and make the paddle move in various directions. But when you serve a ball, you have to move your controller up and then swing it. A lot of the time, you miss. That means it’s not very intuitive to serve a ball. Once the ball is in motion, it’s easier to hit. But you don’t hit the ball exactly the way you expect to do so every time. You can blame that on your own error, or on a lack of precision. Still, it’s accurate enough to get into the game and feel like you’re immersed in a deal with a ping-pong player.

The most entertaining part of the Sports Champions game was the Gladiator Duel one-on-one combat. In this mini game, you choose a character and then fight a sword duel with another character in an arena.You then start whacking each other. You can put more force into a blow or jump up and down. If you pull the trigger, you raise your shield. And you can generate a power blow once you get enough hits on the other player. The game automatically moves you around with one controller, so you can concentrate on whacking the other player. Occasionally, the system fails to detect that you’ve delivered a blow and you have to do it again. But for the most part, it works and it’s fun.

I think that over time, the game developers will learn how to make games with precise timing that fits with how different kinds of users play the games. But the system and the games are not there yet. Based on my interview with Marks, who showed me many different types of movements that are possible with the Move, I am confident that those games will arrive and that this system will be more successful than the EyeToy, which sold 10 million units.

For now, Sports Champions is a nice introduction to the Move. But Sony has to do a better job of identifying the launch titles that live up to the hype, or get to work on some new titles that will do so. I look forward to playing more Move games, especially shooting games such as Time Crisis. And I look forward to peripherals that can make the Move more accurate or realistic. But Sony hasn’t knocked out either Nintendo or Microsoft as far as I can see.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Researchers make artificial skin from nanowires so a robot can unload your dishwasher — The rise of the machines has begun. Researchers have created artificial skin from electronic materials known as semiconductor nanowires.

The secret of Groupon’s success is … good writing? — Among startups, there’s a tendency to emphasize product technology, rather than fuzzier skills and qualities that don’t “scale”. But chief executive Andrew Mason said that the success of his popular social buying site Groupon had less to do with brilliant tech and more with good writing, and with unfashionable technology like email.

Nasty surprise for some Xbox 360 owners: No Halo Reach co-op for you — Gamers who thought they were making a smart move by picking up Microsoft’s entry-level Xbox 360, which retails for $199 and comes with 4GB of memory, faced a nasty dose of reality when they found themselves unable to access Halo: Reach’s online co-op mode.

Halo: Reach generates $200M in sales in first 24 hours — Halo: Reach became the biggest game of the year in just 24 hours.

Yahoo unveils three-year plan to become cool again — Chief products officer Blake Irving acknowledged that the company has a challenge in “bringing cool back to Yahoo.”

And here are five more stories we think are important, thought-provoking, or fun:

VentureBeat’s 5 favorite DEMO companies — VentureBeat’s writers chose the best launches among the 70 companies who took the stage at the DEMO conference.

Intel’s AppUp store puts chips down in Apple, Google rivalry — Intel isn’t happy just putting its chips into every imaginable device. It now wants to help developers sell apps that run on the devices its chip powers, too.

Sony PlayStation Move’s creator wants motion control to be as accurate as possible (video) — Richard Marks, co-creator of the PlayStation Move, likes to be right on target. Here he’s interviewed by VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi.

Aurora’s rebranding bets on protein bars and lotion, not biofuel — Aurora Biofuels is no more. The company announced Monday it has changed its name to Aurora Algae, effectively repositioning itself in a crowded biofuels market by no longer tying its name or products to just biofuels.

Windows Phone 7 delayed for Verizon, Sprint, other CDMA networks until 2011 — In what will certainly be looked at as a blow for Microsoft, the company revealed that its upcoming Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system won’t support CDMA networks like Verizon and Sprint until the first half of 2011.

Microsoft’s top video game executive Don Mattrick said he expects Kinect to provide Microsoft with one of the “biggest holidays ever” for sales, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Motion gaming is the flavor of the holiday season in 2011. Sony will get a bit of a jump on Microsoft by releasing its Playstation Move motion controller in the immediate future. Sony also earlier today said it expects to sell around 15 million Playstation 3 units by the end of its fiscal year in March 2011.

Both Microsoft and Sony seem to be making rather bold claims as the oft-called “recession-proof” video game market shows signs of weakening, with sales in August down about 10 percent, largely a result of weakening portable hardware sales.

But despite an otherwise gloomy outlook, gamers and developers may have a lot to look forward to in the coming months if the strong initial showing by Halo: Reach is anything to go by. The game kicked off the holiday sales season with a unprecedented sales, racking up $200 million in about 24 hours and blowing the previous Halo sales records out of the water. The newest Halo’s sales, however, did not match the previous record of around $300 million in one day for Activision-Blizzard’s Modern Warfare 2 title.

On top of Halo: Reach, several other Triple-A titles — like Call of Duty: Black Ops, Medal of Honor, Fallout: New Vegas, Rock Band 3 and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 — are on deck and look like they could make quite a splash for the traditional controller. Launch titles for Kinect include a variety of activity-heavy games like Dance Central and EA Sports Active.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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