Tsunoda says Kinect software will be hard to replicate

Microsoft's Kudo Tsunoda feels it "will be hard" for another company to try and replicate a controller-free system like Kinect due to "super-complicated technical" hurdles.

Speaking with Eurogamer, Tsunoda said since the software itself was so complex that the mighty Microsoft even had a bit of a rough time with it.

"What we've done with the software is something that's really hard to pull off," said the device's creative lead.

"We have a good advantage at Microsoft because we have groups like our Microsoft Research department that not a lot of other companies have, and we're able to solve some super-complicated technical problems in a short period of time.

"They were actually working on something like this before we even started it on Xbox. I think it's going to be super-challenging for anybody else to solve those problems."

You shall not pass, only trail behind

Should another company accomplish what Microsoft has with Kinect, however, Tsunoda said he thought the hands-free controller will have already moved above and beyond the initial launch offering.

"People have been trying for a long time and we're the first company that's been able to deliver this," he said.

"If people are able to figure it out, by the time they've figured it out we're going to be off into adding more new things to the platform. But I just think that's such a hard technology challenge that it will be hard for anyone to deliver on what Kinect is."

However, it looks as though there is another challenger out there, called iisu from Softkinetic and it is already being used in the Tiger Woods series.

Softkinectic CEO and founder Michel Tombroff believes it's better than Kinect, as he told Eurogamer it doesn't have any lag, and player detection and occlusion are more precise than Kinect.

Kinect hits November 4 in the US and November 10 in Europe.