Apparently, one thing seems to now have become very clear about Kinect: it does not work well if you happen to be in a seated position. All of the demos that we have seen, including the driving games, were shown with the players using Kinect in standing mode.

Why were they always standing, you might ask? Well, apparently from the whispers that we hear, at least right now Microsoft does not recommend that developers suggest that Kinect games can be played in a seated posture. The technical reason from the back channel talk that we are hearing has to do with the way that the device scans to pick up body or skeletal movement.

From what we have seen, the only activities that are performed in the sitting position have been voice activated. While it will likely be possible to calibrate the device to work in the sitting position, it seems that right now Microsoft isn’t there yet to be able to do this; and this has led to the recommendation to developers that they focus on titles that will be popular for use in the standing position only.

Microsoft is apparently telling people that the suggestion that Kinect will not work with players who are seated is simply bogus, and they address the issue in the Q&A that they have on the Xbox 360 press site, stating that there are plenty of experiences that players can have using the device in a sitting position. The examples they give, however, seem to be focused more on the media entertainment aspects of the device than on actual gaming.

This could be an interesting gotcha with Kinect. We do suspect that with improvements in the hardware and software detection technology this restriction will improve over time. However, while clearly the majority of the applications are designed to get players off the couch and into the game, some activities might be better experienced from a seated position. If Microsoft can’t sort this out, it could give Kinect a black eye before it even hits retailer shelves. We will have to see what happens, but it certainly is a very valid concern.