Xbox one is being burdened by Kinect

I have been gaming all my life and I have owned the; ZX spectrum, BBC ACORN, Nintendo Gameboy, Sega Megadrive, Atari ST, Playstation, Nintendo 64,playstation 2,Xbox,Xbox 360,PS3 and various gaming PCs.Anyone who may read this Blog might get the impression that I’m a Playstation Fan boy. However, this is not the case and if check out my profile you will see that I have both an Xbox and PS3 gamer tag. Please remember that this Blog only represents my opinion and that any figures quoted regarding the costs of individual items in the Next generation bundles are generalised and do not represent true prices but are used to illustrated a point.

The story of the Kinect begins with the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo had been struggling with it previous console claiming only mediocre sales on the GameCube and N64. The decision to launch an underpowered system with an innovative motion control was a daring move which paid off for Nintendo and resulted in unexpectedly high sales, most of which came from the non-gaming community, in fact the Wii was the must have item for every gamers ; mum, grandmother , aunty and little sister. The Wii was so successful that it caused both Microsoft and Sony both to have knee jerk reactions by releasing their own motion control systems, the Kinect and move respectively.

The Sony Move was pretty half arsed in fairness. Fortunately however, this allowed Sony to continue with their original business plan and they continued the production of many first party games. Microsoft coveting the success of Nintendo Wii with envious eyes whole heartily launched the Kinect 1.0 and quickly dropped many exclusives that were both popular and highly rated such as PGR and Mass Effect to help support it. However, the target audience of non gamers, which Nintendo exploited so successfully had moved on to other fashionable contempory devises such as the Apple I Pad and had no intension in purchasing and Xbox360 and Kinect.

There was an understandable ire amongst many Xbox gamers like myself. We had previously been spoilt with a plethora of exclusives like Mass Effect and PGR and seeing them being dropped like hot rock to support the Kinect was unbearable. Worst still an unending list of Kinect games aimed firmly at the non gaming market was all that it seemed Microsoft had to offer the Xbox populous in the foreseeable future. My own reaction to this travesty was to go out and buy a PS3 and nearly all my game purchases hence forth were on this system. My reaction wasn’t unique as many of my friends also abandoned the Xbox due to this outrage.

There was one feature of the original kinect 1.0 on the Xbox 360 which was tolerable and that was you didn’t have to buy it. So the decision to forcefully integrate it onto the Xbox one has not gone down well with me. First of all I don’t understand its relevance, as core gamers don’t want to flap their arms around in front of the TV. Also casual gamer tend to play franchises such as Call of Duty, FIFA, Need for Speed etc so Kinect is no use for them either. So in reality whose is it for, yes I know it changes TV channels but I already have a devise that does that for me, it is much cheaper and as a rule of thump come free when you purchase a new television, it is called the TV remote.

So not only is the Kinect irrelevant, it is also very expensive, in fact I have heard rumours that it cost as much to build it as the console itself which doesn’t surprise me considering that when the Kinect first launch it was around £160 in the UK . This should be is worrying for anyone potentially considering buying an Xbox one. Just think about it, if the Xbox one costs £430 and say maybe that at least £160 of that £430 is the cost of the Kinect 2.0 and around £50 is for the controller, then perhaps around only £200 can be attributed to the core components. It is not surprising then that the hardware in the Xbox one is inferior to that equipped by the PS4 which incidentally costs £350 and only comes with an controller £60 and cheap and cheerful head set which can be no more than £70 leaving £280 for the core components.

So in conclusion the PS4 is the more obvious purchase for me. Not only is it cheaper and more powerful, it is also represents better value for money. Money is not the issue here though as I personally wouldn’t mind paying that extra £80 if I was getting £160 more hardware in the form of a better APU or RAM for example but I refuse to pay the extra money for the irrelevant Kinect that I don‘t want.

[Donnieboi]

Lol that picture for the article is perfect

[iamnsuperman]

Kinect is cool but I just think a lot of its features are just gimmicky. Their main selling point for it is the voice commands thing. This could be done with a decent mic built into the One. Voice commands is all software based. You just need a decent mic to pick up the sound. Saying this though it is still a selling point as their closest rival (PS4) doesn't have it. I am not sure why Sony hasn't put a mic in their console. Hell stap the thing to the outside for all I care. It would mean one of the unique selling points for the One would have gone as Sony can do it too. Since they haven't It is still a selling point

I have always thought the Kinect was in the wrong market. I just see it being used better when it comes to online shopping/retail than gaming.

For me the Kinect is dead weight for the One. A lot of its features is just a more expensive solution to a thing that didn't need solving. It is cool the thing can recognise you and load your own profile just like that. But is this necessary. Like the Wii U with having the pause menu on the tablet screen. It is cool but it isn't worth splashing out for a Wii U gamepad when there was no problem in the first place (seen several games that even when you pause/look in the inventory it doesn't pause the game).

I think Microsoft (if they are that keen pushing it into the gaming market) need to get the Kinect solving actual problems and not things that are not a huge problem. Like the loading the profile/navigating the screen with your hands there are cheaper solutions to that problem already. The face mapping thing is a step in the right direction but I am going to wait to see it as a lot was promised with the first Kinect and which never delivered (scanning in skateboards comes to mind).

[Nicaragua]

The PS4 does come with a mic which is just as capable of doing voice commands, its just that the recognition software isnt baked into the OS like it is with the Xbox 1.

I think all the voice stuff is pretty cool, but its not a must have for me. MS seem to be putting a lot of resource into it to try and convince people that its a must have feature but its still very gimmicky, a lot like 3D on the PS3.

Kinect is a cool add on, but it dosnt justify its expense and the so called features it adds to games are worthless gimmicks. They need to get the cost down to about £50 and make it an option.

[kenmid]

So what's was the point of the blog you could have wrote in that in one sentence that PlayStation is better value for you.

[Automatic79]

Kinect is being used in a lot of meaningful ways for example:

1. Being able to configure the contoller to the player
2. Allowing for Xbox live cards to be scanned for online currency, DLC etc.
3. Ability to upload you facial profile into a game
4. Voice Commands for Xbox live, games etc.
5. Motion control for games
6. kinect motion for the User Interface and OS

Kinect is not a burden it is actually becoming more of an enhancement for developers. Allowing Xbox One consoles to come with kinect built in provides better features and gives gamers a better experience.

Just to give a list of some games that will be using kinect:

Deadrising 3-motion intergration
RYSE- Voice commands
Below- Unknown but is using kinect in a meaning full way
Kinect Sports-Rivalries- motion gaming
Killer Instinct- allows controller to configure for different players
Battlefield- Unknown but developer will use in meaningful way
Call of Duty Ghost- Voice commands
Witcher 3- Voice commands
D4- Motion gaming
Crimson Dragon- motion gaming

These are just a few examples in which developers are taking kinect and intergrating/enhancing the games.

Note: Illumiroom has not yet been revealed. Which can push immersion to a new level with kinect.

[RavageX]

Out of that list, the only thing that is actually NEW is 1 and 2.

Which of one these things I'd end up using personally.

3.

But the ability is already around, so basically if I were to buy an Xbox the kinect part of it would be dead weight.

The thing should be optional.

[dazzrazz]

2 bad Imma grown up man and hold absolute fucking zero interest in any of those gimmicky bullshit features which Microsoft thinks I need to enhance my console/gaming experience. Fawk No ! Usually you don't go to a dealer and buy most expensive version of a car with leather seats even you didn't want it but it was the only model they had... You simply look for other brand and thats what M$ is telling me to do this fall.

[Automatic79]

Enhancing your console/gaming experience is one of those things that you need to have in order to understand it. When you don't have it you don't know what you are missing. Just like a car with butt warmers when you don't have it you don't know what you are missing. When you experience it becomes a standard with each and every additional future purchase. You just can't go with out it. LOL.

[matgrowcott]

A lot of people, at the launch of the Xbox 360, found it laughable that Microsoft had put so much time and effort into the online portion of their console.

Sony spent years catching up.

Whatever you think of Kinect or of any of the things Microsoft are doing, there's a precedent already set, and you can totally see why they'd rather work towards their own goals than just do what's already done.

Whether it works out a second time is, I suppose, the real question.

[malokevi]

Right on.

I'd rather have a console that was online-focused, multi-input 8gb RAM from the getgo, rather than a console that picked up an extra 4GB of ram at the last second, and picked up a game streaming service to tout as their "cloud" (also at the last second).

MS is always ahead of the curve, they are in Online Console gaming, and now they are in multi-input controls (with smartglass and Kinect)

Sony will try and maintain the status-quo, as always, and at the end of the day will find themselves playing catchup.

[cyber_daemonx]

After m$ launch/e3 debacle, it looks like they are3 playing catch-up.

[malokevi]

Playing catchup... to what? lol.

To popular sentiment? Because you know... the consoles aren't even out yet... and you can't play videogames on sentiment alone. It takes hardware and software, not to mention services.

[givemeshelter]

The burden is the extra $100 price tag. Otherwise This updated version of Kinect is actually quite good and the possibilities are quite excellent.
If they can drop the price of the Xbox One then they might have a winner with it. The price will cause this issues.

[gamer2013]

I don't think that the extra $100 will really be an issue. The PS3 sold for $599 at launch with half the features of the XB1 and people still bought it, even without games.

I think that the XB1 strongest selling points will be it's decent line-up of games along with XBL. Online gaming will continue to be superior with XBL with the addition of the Azure cloud and it's 300,000 dedicated servers.

In my opinion, all the cool Kinect 2.0 functionality will just be the icing on the cake.

[givemeshelter]

"I don't think that the extra $100 will really be an issue. The PS3 sold for $599 at launch with half the features of the XB1 and people still bought it, even without games."

However there was no XB1 out then to compare relative features. Moreover, the PS3 had more features out of the box then the Xbox360 and the Xbox360 sold more especially in North America...
Price was a HUGE factor regardless that the PS3 had a Blu-Ray drive and built in HDMI ports just to name a few...

Kinect 2.0 is icing on the cake... However when consumers see a PS4 sitting besides the Xbox One on store shelves and the price difference is $100... And Sony advertises the PS4 as the "more powerful gaming console", Xbox One will indeed sell... It's just not going to sell as well as the PS4... Because of that price.

[gamer2013]

So much insecurity over Kinect 2.0 and all it's cool features with XB1. Haters gonna hate!

[Lvl_up_gamer]

just another delusional anti ms article written by a 12 year old.

Nothing new here on N4G.

[gamer2013]

@ givemeshelter

We know that the XB1 has more features than the PS3. So, what does the XB1 not being around at that time to compare features have to do with anything?

The PS3 was also released a year later and that worked to Microsoft's advantage. Yet slowly but surely the PS3 caught up to the 360 in world wide sales.

Seriously, more functionality, better games and better online>>> a few more pixels.

[sync90]

The 360 didn't have better games.

[super_cuddles]

I'm all about the kinect 2.0

[Evil_Ryu]

the future of gaming is being burdened by people like you

[grayfoxx881]

Possible price drop summer 2014. Bundles with no Kinect 2.0.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[reaperofsouls]

interesting