GameInformer- Microsoft had such high hopes for Kinect. Jumping into the giant wake created by Nintendo's smash hit Wii, the Kinect first debuted as the Xbox 360's response to motion-controlled gaming in 2010. A huge marketing push drove early adoption of the peripheral, with sales topping 10 million in just three months. The future looked bright.
So bright, in fact, that Microsoft doubled down by including an enhanced version of the peripheral in the box for Xbox 360's successor, the Xbox One, upon its launch last November. But with Microsoft announcing an Xbox One bundle that removes Kinect from the package, the Kinect's 15 minutes of fame look to be over. With this new reality setting in, we count down 10 ways the Kinect failed Microsoft and consumers.
Joy Ride Turbo launched 10 years ago today. The first title was Xbox Kinect exclusive, yet this sequel failed to support the device at all.
Cultured Vultures: "Sadly, not all hardware is created equal, and no matter how much developers might try, some gaming hardware just fails to hit the mark. We’ve compiled a list of 10 gaming hardware fails, and boy did some fail hard."
I would label the Power Glove, Kinect, and that Tony Hawk skateboard more as hardware addons hardware failure would be like the Virtual Boy and one day Stadia.
The picture should be the 360 RROD. When I think of gaming hardware failures that's what springs to mind. Kinect and it's bundled price tag definitely hobbled the already underpowered Xbox One though for sure so I would give it a close second place.
Lol I had the Atari Jaguar, surprised its "competition" the 3DO isn't on the list too, both as "popular" as each other.
Stadia is a weird one. It hasn’t sold at all well but in terms of how it works it’s still miles ahead of Xcloud in terms of stability and performance. Xcloud is still a way behind and that needs sorting but it will be in time. Stadia for me is one of those things that will go down as a what could have been moments. With better marketing it could have been a roaring success. I still play it and it remains the best place in my opinion to play CyberPunk 2077. Only platform I have played it on without having any issues at all. The tech is great. The concept is fine. Marketing terrible. Shame really.
The Xbox One was Microsoft’s Nintendo Wii U. Undercooked, undersold and just an unholy mess. The thing is with any of these failures is to learn from them and thankfully both Nintendo and Xbox did just that to the benefit of gamers everywhere.
Xbox 360's Kinect had flopped yet Microsoft insisted on mandatory Kinect for Xbox One, driving the price up and alienating their potential customers.
the tech was pretty damn good but their focus on making it the centerpiece was not. Had they opted to keep it as a secondary or even tertiary device, it may have found new use for AR/VR.
Kinect requirement, TV focused, DRM, and $100 buried Xbone before it even stared.
I was kind of excited for the kinect. It had potential. That was until i tried it at one of their Microsoft store. The thing was so laggy and worker who was there, had no clue what he was doing. It kind of made rethink about buying an Xbox One with Kinect.
The damage to the Xbox brand was so hard that til this day they are just the last place brand in the market.
Its sad because the Xbox one version of Kinect was actually pretty solid. Not for motion games, I couldnt care less about those, but for the other features that are now commonplace in the gaming ecosystem. Things like voice control and optional motion features in games. Stuff that Sony did with the PS camera was pretty sweet and they could have done some of that stuff with Kinect.
The tech was pretty sweet when implemented right though. Who remembers the implementation in Dead Rising 3?! You could lure zombies away by saying stuff into the kinect, it was a bit hokey at first, but it actually enhanced the game significantly once you learned all the different voice commands. There was and still is nothing else like that!
The focus on TV seemed to be an issue for people, but the TV pass through had some real potential. They could have had cable companies giving the XBone out instead of cable boxes! I understood what they were trying to do, but they needed to show the games too, and thats where they lost the core gamers. Being able to jump right to a sports event or TV show with out leaving the console was actually a pretty cool thing. I spent many nights switching between NHL games or TV shows and jumping right back into my games seamlessly, just by telling Kinect to do so. It was better than people care to admit, but I loved it!
People say XBone had no games, but on launch I got Dead Rising 3, AC Black Flag, Watch Dogs, Killer Instinct, Battlefield 4, Forza 5, and Ryse. That was actually a pretty solid lineup in hindsight! Then later on it got gems like Quantum Break, Dead Rising 4, Sunset Overdrive, Gears 4 and 5, the Ori games, Rare Replay, Forza Horizon 3/4, State of Decay 2, ReCore (SUPER UNDERRATED GEM), Halo 5, Halo Wars 2, and all the great 3rd party stuff as well! I dare anyone who sat on the Xbox One to go back and give it a shot now.
It was actually a pretty great console all things considered. Yes the PS4 had better 1st party stuff, stuff that MS just couldnt top or even compete with, but there are some really great games that a lot of people missed out on that they would probably really enjoy if they actually played them. Thats why I recommend a Series S and Gamepass to a lot of people, as its a great way to get an awesome lineup pf games for super cheap!
This may be slightly too presumptuous at this point. True, it may ultimately fail, I don't have some crystal ball to know either way. However, there are roughly 4.5-5 Mil XB1 owners so far that have it, and of those that do, that vast majority like it...even if they never use it for gaming. It also has not been discontinued, they will still bundle it with XB1 if you choose, and they will sell it individually as well. They are still making games for it, and it still plays a nice role with Skype/Twitch. I suspect it will also help out later with AR/VR tech that MS is working on. Saying it has failed out of our living rooms at this point seems like wishful thinking more than fact.
I also notice that most people that say they don't like it, don't have one (which would explain why Gamestop says they saw a boost in XB1 interest since offering XB1 without Kinect). If it's not for you, it's not for you...no harm no foul. However, I actually love it, I don't really game with it much, but the new Kinect is actually pretty impressive tech wise, and it makes navigating the UI really easy. I'm glad that I have one, I wish more people would give it a chance rather than just dismissing it (if they did). Either way, time will tell...
well said bubble up
Is kinect a discontinued product?
Nothing dampens Kinect delusion it seems.
Lack of games and no imagination in the ones they produced,just dance and sport related.