October 31, 2012

If you’ve spent late nights trying to conquer a Kinect for Xbox 360 game or battled your roommates in EA Sports’ Fight Night games, then you’ve played games developed by Kudo Tsunoda. Kudo has created video games for industry giants, served as the creative director of Kinect for Xbox 360, and currently is Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President for Next Gen Experiences. He’s created  Gears of War 2, Forza 3, Kinect Star Wars, Kinect Adventures, Army Men: Air Attack, and EA Sports Fight Night. In addition to Kudo telling us about the future of gaming and how he goes about developing great games, we'll also host a video game tournament where you can face off against Kudo and your fellow Drexel students.

The tournament will be on Thursday, November 15^h at 4PM and the lecture will will follow at 6:30 PM, with both events at the Bossone Research Center (3140 Market St.). The winner of the 16-player tournament will challenge Kudo later in the evening for bragging rights and a worthy grand prize.  Kudo chose Kinetc sports v.1 - 400 meter hurdles for the competition and we'll have consoles set up so players can warm up, followed by a session to seed everyone prior to the tournament.  

During Kudo’s 15 years in the video game industry, he has designed such genre-defining features as “Fight Night’s” Total Punch Control system and the Army Men Air Attack Winch Mechanic. His games have grossed more than $1billion dollars worldwide including several #1 selling titles; Kinect for Xbox 360 is the Guinness Book of World Records record holder for the fastest selling consumer electronic device in history.  This event is co-sponsored by the Kal & Lucille Rudman Institute for Entertainment Industry Studies, the Game Art & Production program, and the College of Engineering’s Computer Science Department. For more information on the tournament, email Zeek Weil at zw36@drexel.edu.