The Evil Within Director: Kinect Will Make Next Gen Horror Games “A Lot Scarier”

Shinji Mikami talks about Kinect observing one's heartbeat and facial expressions could add to the horror genre.


In an interview with GamesIndustry International, The Evil Within director Shinji Mikami talked about next generation technology that will offer better graphics, and how camera technologies like Kinect will make games “a lot scarier”, which he calls “a big advantage over the previous generations.”

Regarding tracking of facial expressions and reading the player’s heartbeat, Mikami stated that, “If the accuracy improves and we can really observe the player’s facial expression and heartbeat the game could react to that and that could really be something we could use for survival horror.”

We already heard rumours about horror games using Nintendo’s ill-fated heartbeat sensor, which could allow for some interesting possibilities before the company decided to hush it up the very next year. Can Kinect do a better job, especially with the Xbox One allowing for more powerful motion recognition and a 1080p field of view? It can’t be any worse than Rise of Nightmares…right?

Kinectnext gen consolesShinji MikamiThe Evil WithinXbox One