TGC writes: When I first saw the early previews of Microsoft’s ‘Project Natal’ (later to become Kinect) I was a little surprised – technology like that was something I’d not been expecting to see, or indeed experience, for another few years at least. Think back to 2009 – you couldn’t mistake your Macbook Air for a piece of paper, the iPad was a twinkle on the horizon, and we had what is often argued to be one of the best years in gaming for the current generation – I for one played the hell out of Modern Warfare 2 and Assassin’s Creed II. Kinect seemed too good to be true, and the general reception on the net was that that was indeed the case. I didn’t get to play a Kinect myself, properly, until early 2011. Sure, I worked in a videogame store, but our store was too small to fit in a display – besides which, I had better stuff to spend my money on gaming wise.
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!
Understatement. I had genuine excitement when it was first revealed. I bought into the hype and bull big time. Was sorely disappointed by the end product and games.
It could have been great but in the end microsoft wanted more profit
My cynicism saved me from Kinect, but I understand how people feel. When I was a younger, more innocent lad, I was excited for the Wii because they made a big deal about all sorts of things they could do with core/hardcore games. The thought of really AIMING my gun was such an awesome idea. But then it released a couple of crap hard/core games and it was mostly all casual titles from then on.
Fanboys drum up the "Kinect is simply not for you!" mantra to all criticism, but Kinect was ABSOLUTELY marketed as something that would have great hard/core titles. And now most of those games have released and have disappointed. Kinect Star Wars, Nightmare, Steel Battalion....you can't blame failed expectations when essentially all of the reviews cite things like bad controls, poor balance, lack of content, etc. They are BAD games, not "not for you!" games.
Absolutely, anyone who doesn't have one is missing the opportunity to play some of the best and most original titles of the past few years.
Not sure how it can be considered a missed opportunity, it successfully extended the life of the Xbox 360, it drew in a whole new audience to the Xbox brand. It went down in the record books and its made Microsoft a lot of money, I'm sure Microsoft will expand on that with the Xbox 720.
If the leaked picture was anything to go on, Kinect 2.0 will be able to read you down to your fingertips. If they come out with 1:1 motion control with Kinect 2, I think it'll be huge.
Also, if you expected anything spectacular with the current Kinect, I'd have to call your bluff, I mean I own one and enjoy it for what it is, but I'm not giving up my controller full time or anything, and I never will. I'd say some of the features were a bit beyond my expectations, I do use it to control Netflix, Hule, Zune, Crackle and everything else on the dash.