THQ announces Kinect’s first augmented reality game

Kinect isn’t just for motion gaming anymore. THQ and Blitz Games Studios are going to use the peripheral to produce its first augmented reality game. Fantastic Pets literally places you in the game’s world where cute and cuddly animals await. Fantastic Pets is scheduled to be released in March 2011.

Fantastic Pets is being marketed as a casual title geared towards families. The goal is to simply take care of, and play with your pets. Everyone starts out with a cat, dog, horse and lizard. These animals can take on other forms such as dragons and unicorns.

Kinect brings you into Fantastic Pets by implementing voice and gesture recognition. You’ll be speaking and interaction with your pets in a series of mini-games. THQ hasn’t stated how many, or what kind of mini-games Fantastic Pets will have. There will also be talent shows in which you can show off your perfectly trained animals. The ultimate aspiration is to become the top pet trainer. Fantastic Pets even lets you take a picture with your virtual pets and share them whomever you what.

Augmented reality games usually bring virtual objects into the real world through an outward facing camera. Since Kinect faces you, you become the real subject in a virtual world. From a technological standpoint, it’s pretty neat. However it’s not anything new. EyePet uses a similar technology with the PlayStation Eye and Move controller.

Via [THQ] Read [Spong]