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Story by Nathan Grayson

Fri, Jul 22, 2011 | 09:50 BST

Kinect Star Wars at Comic-Con: “There are 100 million Star Wars fans, but not all of them play games”

Sorry, hardcore gamers. This probably isn’t the Star Wars game you’re looking for. Does that necessarily mean it’ll be bad? Of course not. But LucasArts and Microsoft made no bones about their aim during Kinect Star Wars’ Comic-Con panel: this one’s for “families and kids.”

“There are 100 million Star Wars fans, but not all of them play [video games],” said Kinect Publishing head Jorg Neumann, outlining Kinect Star Wars’ core philosophy. He also added that it’s “not at all a dark game,” as that – like traditional game controls – can alienate potential fans of Lucas’ alien-packed universe.

Catering exclusively to the Clone Wars generation, however, would send just as many fans packing. That in mind, LucasArts is practicing what Yoda preaches: balance.

“[The game] needs to be accessible and light,” LucasArts lead producer Greg Derrick said. “And we didn’t want to go too stylistic like Clone Wars. [We] wanted to push the power of Xbox, but still be familiar.”

Delving further into contradictory waters, Terminal Reality developer Seth Hawkins talked up his game’s nearly subterranean depth. He explained:

“Early on, we imagined what the experience would be and wanted to capture that experience. It was fun to wield a lightsaber, but [Terminal Reality] wanted to go deeper.”

However, Derrick later added that “no heightened skill is necessary” and “most of us are going to just swing our arms around and go nuts.” So, in the immortal and extremely eloquent words of somebody, umm.

Odds are, the “depth” they were referring to will at least in part stem from all sorts of appropriately Star Wars-y side attractions – from podracing to “things you’ve never seen in a Star Wars experience.” Apparently, the podracing’s not some painful excuse to take a lightsaber out of your hands either. Hawkins explained that it was – at one point – merely “mediocre,” but has since evolved to become “fantastic.”

As far as release dates go, “This Christmas” is all that’s being said for now. Until then, there’s plenty more over at GameSpot – including our favorite Kinect hype quote ever: “infinite manner of expression.” Practically poetry, that.