One of Microsoft's biggest product failures may not have been its fault

Kinect, the accessory that pairs with an Xbox and allows for input via physical movements, is one of Microsoft's biggest product failures as a company but it was the fault of Rare, a company Microsoft acquired, not management.

[DarkOcelet]

Kinect might be a failure but that failure lead to the Hololens. I think Hololens could be something really big in the future.

I hope MS really nail Hololens because the concept is really awesome and hopefully it has a reasonable price.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

Hololens will have a bigger appeal since it is not gaming first device. It will support Xbox One as they've stated, but I bet most will buy it for other purposes. It has more chances to succeed

[DarkOcelet]

I will definitely buy one because the concept is amazing.

[Lennoxb63]

I'm buying one so I can game on a big screen on the ceiling/wall.

[dcbronco]

This article and others like it are why business reporters should stay away from technology stories. First I believe Microsoft was making Kinect regardless of what Rare said. Rare may have pushed a gaming aspect but that was probably it. Then for this reporter to miss the very significant point Dark made, Kinect is the father of Hololens. Microsoft has said that and the Kinect sensors are actually built into Hololens. Kinect didn't lose a lot of money. It was sold at a profit and it still sold a ton of devices. The R & D money wasn't a loss because Microsoft spends 10-12 billion a year on R & D and I'd bet most never leads to a product. Look at the Microsoft Research YouTube channel. Its full of stuff.

Microsoft has been getting into CPU design since 2004, Kinect gave them chips besides Xbox to work on. Hololens took it further. And I believe eventually that will lead to phones, Surface and Surface Book all having Microsoft built chips.

Kinect and the other devices like it were the start of a new direction. Evolution takes time. I would also place a lot of the blame on developers for not using Kinect properly. Most of the ideas were a waste. There are better ways of using it in gaming.

As for Hololens only being for developers is that notion stupid or trolling? Ok, common sense. If you have developers who are they developing for. If not for the public then wouldn't they just be testers. Developers make things to sell, Microsoft has their own testers.

Oh, they're selling to each other. I get it.

[frostypants]

Trying to focus on things other than gaming is what damn near doomed Xbox One. These are game consoles. Consumers buy them as game consoles.

[TheCommentator]

Well Said Dc Bronco. This article is taken entirely out of context. The quotes in this article are actually reflective of Rare's commitment to games for the accessory. MS was making the Kinect with or without Rare's support but it was Rare who chose to go all in on the software for it.

[bouzebbal]

Hololens reveal videos look so sick, and beyond imagination. But again, Project Natal comes to my mind every time and i am more than sceptical for the final result.
Maybe i'm wrong, but i highly doubt it.

[theDivision]

Can someone tell me why you and everyone else is getting so many disagrees? The hololens is a great concept and I think it's gaming applications are just a small portion of it's ability and as such I agree and think it does have a great chance to become successful.

[CartBlanche]

What other purposes would the public buy it for? It is a niche product, so the "masses" won't have a need to buy it, just to have it on their shelves.
Now if you said this is the next best thing in scientific research, also a niche area, then I'd be 100% behind you. Mass market product, no way. See Kinect/Move to learn from history.

[ULTp0ltergeist]

Probably will be in retail by 2020, by then Microsoft should already have many applications and uses. Probably a more stylized version?

@CartBlanche

Actually I think it's the next big gadget device like the iPhone has been the past near decade. Once it get too retail Microsoft will have many uses by then and they will need to strike the right price.

[UnholyLight]

@dcbronco well said buddy. Spot on. I really do think that even though Kinect was a failure for the consumer...like it was cool for a while, I enjoyed Kinect sports for the time being but it faded out real quick..they still sold a lot and can look at it as a stepping stone to the next project.

I am not sure why people want these type of devices to fail so hard, as the future WILL bring new experiences to gaming. Gaming will not and in my opinion, must NOT remain static in order to create said new experiences. I think the future is very bright not just for Microsoft but Sony as well, as they both seem to be following a vision for the future of gaming that will only bring the consumer more cool experiences (VR,AR etc).

This type of conversation subverts the fanboy aspects of gaming for me, like why would I want to see Kinect fail or Move fail as an Xbox fan or Sony fan? Just makes no sense!

[CartBlanche]

@Murk I have to respectfully disagree. The moment you add another peripheral that needs wearing as well as having a controller it will not last. If it involves standing up or any upright position, it will not last.
Let History be your guide...
0. PS Eye - Camera peripheral. Lots of standing and arm waving. Kids loved it, then got tired of jumping around to enjoy themselves. First time i saw this tech, I believed it would change gaming forever.....I was very very wrong. FAIL!
1. Wii - hand held peripheral. Fad. Massive initial sales, then nada. Standing and arm movements. Like the exercise bike your dad bought, they are both in the shed/attic. FAIL!
2. Move - accurate hand held/Camera peripheral. Worked great but I had to hold my hand up to point at stuff in Killzone. My arms got tired. Some standing, but raised arm movements. FAIL!
3. Kinect - Camera and mic peripheral, better tech than PS Eye. Lots of standing and waving of arms. People said gamers wanted a Minority Report interface, not realising just how tiring it is to wave your arms about . Everyone loved the voice recognition, because we can do that sitting on our arses. Ultimately FAIL!
4. 3D TV/Movies - glasses peripheral. if this had taken off, then YES PS-VR and Hololens would be the next best thing. 3D failed because you had to put something on to enjoy it and the technology didn't work flawlessly for everyone. If it had, it would have had a better chance of succeeding.

If you and your friends watch 3D movies every weekend, in your homes, then PS-VR and Hololens is for you. But I bet that all the people who say they love PS-VR or Hololens don't watch 3D movies regularly. It would be the natural progression to VR/AR. So VR/AR fans ask yourself why you don't watch 3D films regularly and you will have the answer as to why VR/AR is not ready for mainstream yet.
Sure you'll rush out and buy it, but 6 months from now you will still be using your game controller while you VR/AR headset will be gathering dust.

Now perfect voice recognition, that would be a game changer, if it could be incorporated well. Why? Because you can sit down , with your controller in hand and just speak. So major addons. Everyone already uses a head set for in-game chat. Imagine Uncharted 4 with the ability to tell the NPCs. where to go, in real time. "Sully flank left, I'll go right" or "Sully protect the girl". Something so small would change the immersion factor much more right now, than VR/AR, IMO.

[Kribwalker]

I wouldn't call the Kinect a commercial failure as the 360 version sold more then 12 million. That's 1 outa every 7 360 had Kinect. With 80+ million that's a pretty good ratio.

Now did it do what they said it would, no it didn't

[_-EDMIX-_]

Just no. 24 million sold, is not a damn failure.

http://www.gamespot.com/art...

I don't care what anyone states, they did a great job with it. I don't even get what Hololens has to do with this, its not made solely for gaming. It will be years before we see that tech jump off.

[jivah]

Sold or rather bundled with a system and people had no choice?

[Volkama]

Not really seeing how Kinect directly leads to Hololens? The two technologies could pair together well, but I wouldn't say Kinect is the basis, inspiration, or enabler for Hololens.

[vegasgamerdawg]

Don't know what the disagrees are about but you're right. AR has a chance at a much bigger audience than VR. People don't want to be cut of from the world for very long, we all have smartphones for proof. YOu can walk around and play without hurting yourself, and the many other applications it has adds value.
Once the price comes down I see AR taking over the VR space.
AR is Kinect inverted, it's the same technology. I think the fanBOY has been hitting the disagree button, sheep decide what to post on this site, not intelligent people. No truth allowed on this site, you must cater to he Sony fanBOY, no adult conversation allowed on N4G.
Hate having all these bubbles I feel like a sheep that got caught up in a Sony fanBOY meeting. I hope the new site doesn't have the same system of letting the sheep decide who gets to talk. The majority is an ignorant mob fed by ignorance.

[CartBlanche]

Hololens AR has as much chance of succeeding as a mass market product as the AR Sony released for the PS3? Remember EyePet - https://www.youtube.com/wat... It was niche and never succeeded. Now everyone thinks that by putting something on your head it will somehow mean instant success for AR or even VR.
I'm afraid it won't work that way. The barrier to entry into AR, both from a peripheral perspective and from the value for money perspective, will be too high.

Will Hard Core gamers like you and me buy it and try it out. YES!
Will the Casual gamer and masses buy into it. No. There again proving it is a niche product.
Will it have longevity? No.

As mentioned several times, the moment you have to put something on your head, that isn't already there, to enjoy it, the barrier to entry is too high.

[3-4-5]

uhh the hololens is for business purposes so people can demonstrate things around and interact together without having to be in the same room.

How haven't you figured that out yet ?

[MaxCompiler]

Hololens are a lie...

[tinynuggins]

Personally, I love my kinect and I hope they make another one for the next xbox. Maybe just don't make it mandatory.

[XanderZane]

I don't think Kinect was a failure. At least not last gen. It literally sold millions of units and had a decent amount of games for it. It easily made a profit. This gen it did bomb however. Microsoft including it bundled with the XB1 and not having hardly any game software to really support it, pretty much doomed it. Not sure what they were thinking. I guess they thought ever gamer was going to use it with their cable box and love it. That wasn't the case. Having only about 4-6 game titles the first year didn't help it either. Its only saving grace now is that it will be used with the Hololens and hopefully the games for that will be incredible.

[Godmars290]

So someone finally gets round to admitting that Kinect failed to deliver, yet puts the blame on Rare rather than MS?

It was announced and shown off too early, by some counts the first version was shortchanged to save on costs, choices one might equate with upper management, yet Rare needs to catch all of the blame.

What about Perter Molyneux, Lionheart and Milo? If anything was proof of concept for Kinect it was that. And I doubt Rare had anything to do with that.

[sinspirit]

Exactly. Why do so many people not hold MS accountable? Especially, when it is their employees, divisions, and companies that they own. Rare owns XBox? No. Rare owns Kinect? No. Did they have the idea? Perhaps. But, what parent company decided to abandon almost all AAA development for 1-2 years and prioritize Kinect with casual titles and never delivering on the talks of integrated Kinect features with big AAA exclusives? Oh, yeah. Xbox.

Yeah. It was never XBox. It was Don Mattrick, Rare, Adam Orth, or Major Nelson? Is it odd that employees that screw up like this resurface from MS a lot? Take responsibility. I'm tired of neglect and not owning up to failures. If Kinect screwed up on 360 who's decision was it to also make it mandatory on the X1? Yeah, it has some potential. But, if XBox is a truly gaming oriented company then they know who their primary consumers are and not to ditch them for it. To debut the XBox not as a XBox but a TV Box or media center? Holy cow. We get it. People like XBox games but to pretend like they've always had their core audience in mind is ridiculous. They've really screwed up and they have been handed chance after chance. If they don't deliver on their new IP's next year and don't have more planned after that then it would have all been for nothing. A lot of fans think supporting whatever they do is how they will come out better. It's not. Next year is their proof of whether or not they can stay standing the rest of this generation and potentially the next. They've sold very well thus far. People compare its sales to PS4, but don't understand that it sells good despite the comparison. Microsoft has royally screwed up many things. I will be distraught if they don't turn it around.

It's just one of those times where, with no experience, you really 100% feel like you could lead a multi-billion dollar company better than their seasoned members. I guess I'm just ticked off primarily over Halo and Fable every time I think of XBox. Do it right and do well because of it.

[rainslacker]

Even if Rare is to blame, they are owned by MS, so it's still MS fault. Pretty sure MS would be held culpable for Rare's actions in most places....

Other than that, this article is rather reaching trying to blame a developer who was tasked to make games for a device MS made, and saying they were at fault for it's failure.

That's like saying Sony Worldwide studios are at fault for Vita's lack of sales.

[Godmars290]

How are you getting that I'm blaming Rare? By all real counts by the example of the Milo demo, his short stint as head of development, much of the burden falls on Molyneux. Rare never come off as more as secondary. Tasked with making titles that never pushed much. Sports and family games. To say now that they were supposedly leading the charge is insulting.

[rainslacker]

I wasn't implying that you were saying that. Just adding to what you said.

[XanderZane]

Yeah, it's definitely Microsoft's fault that the Kinect didn't take off this gen. No where near enough games for it at launch of after launch. What was released wasn't always great. Only 2-3 titles worth purchasing really. They should have released the XB1 without the Kinect as a separate SKU. Not it seems the Kinect is an afterthought for MS. They haven't announced any new Kinect games or anything else related to Kinect in a long time. Rare didn't kill the Kinect.

[InTheLab]

It's like the author of this article forgot all about Don Matrick who pushed Kinect to the point of making it mandatory on the X1. Rare going all in on Kinect is a product of poor leadership from Matrick, Kudo, mehdi, Phil...yes even Phil, and Molyneux.

Good old revisionist history... at least wait another gen to start changing the story..

[Eonjay]

Kinect should have been used for VR.

[TheCommentator]

The basics of the Kinects' visual tech is in Hololens.

[GrubsterBeater]

Also, Hololens is AR, not VR, so what's your point?

[TheCommentator]

My point is that it is a head mounted display that uses the technology from the Kinect. VR devices could also have used this tech if they chose to, but it would have raised the cost of those devices beyond the point of commercial feasability for gaming. VR is going to be expensive enough for gamers as it is right now.

What was your point?

[kenwonobi]

I would love the Kinect...... If it were paired with virtual reality. It's a exciting controller for a virtual world which I feel is it's true use. Even a augmented world on a larger scale could pair with Kinect. I'm hoping Xbox continue into looking into this augmented reality because I want Virtual and augmented realities to compete fiercely until we have a new era and way of gaming from one or both. In this case the competition between the two is healthy. As for Kinect? It could improve greatly one of those experiences.

[jmc8888]

Dumb article.

Microsoft is the one that decided to go with kinect. Microsoft is the one who promised the moon. Microsoft is the one who decided not to check the quality of the product to see if it reached the moon. Microsoft is the one who decided to make a second one and screw that up the same way as the previous two points. Microsoft is the one who decided to pack it in with the console instead of putting that money into more powerful hardware. This list goes on and on.

It's not the fault of the engineer/tech guys at Rare. It's their job to think big. It's up to Microsoft to see if it's feasible, if it works, how to implement it, etc, etc.

Also... what were they to do since Microsoft wasn't having them focus on AAA games. Hmm... whose decision was that?? Microsoft's management.

It was ENTIRELY Microsoft's fault. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a moron, trying to pass the buck, and doesn't understand business whatsoever.

[kenshiro100]

Well said.

That summed up everything nicely.

[BlackPanther]

Kinect isn't one of MS biggest failures by a long shot. It sold extremely well.

[Godmars290]

But it didn't work.

Its the ED-209 of game controllers.

[ps4thewin]

Worked fine actually. I think people were expecting something more. My gf still enjoys dance central 3 on xb360 and dance central spotlight,shape up and Xbox fitness. There mistake was maybe giving the perception you won't need a controller but you always will but kinect movement games were always spot on for us. For $150 there is a lot of tech in that thing. We have to pc Logitech cams that were $90-109 each and it basically just shoots in 1080p.

[Godmars290]

"I think people were expecting something more."

What? Just because MS showed it being able to scan real world objects like a skateboard and import such into games? That there wasn't one public demo where it didn't display some kind of lag or inability to track movements?

It. Didn't. work. That people like yourself settled on what little it could with some competence is besides the point. What's even the point of bringing up that it cost more than regular 1080P web cams or had "a lot of tech" when said tech was never utilized properly?

[dcbronco]

The ability to scan in things has been used in games before Kinect. To think Kinect couldn't do that is wrong, it can. Rainbow 6 had the ability to scan in your face. So I'm sure Kinect could do that with object and on PC it does do it. Developers just didn't use it on Xbox. I think the real problem with that was a screw up, but the tech wasn't the screw up. I think it was a license issue.

The same Kinect does it on PC, but PC is a open platform. Xbox is a licensed platform, any real product used in a game could become a licensing issue. I don't think anyone considered that before hand.

[Godmars290]

"Xbox is a licensed platform, any real product used in a game could become a licensing issue."

Nevertheless. They showed such a function then they failed to develop it. As well as many others. They failed to present any significant example of what the tech could do.

[Soldierone]

The first thing that popped into my head when I read "microsoft failure" was Zune haha! That failed because they region locked it and wouldn't sell it worldwide with confidence.

[BlackPanther]

Also the iPod. After the iPod no MP3 player had a chance at being very successful.

[rainslacker]

I wouldn't say that. Zune was actually really good, and better than iPod at the time. MS just didn't really get where the market was going though, and tried to control it.

Rather ironic that Apple made it more open considering Windows and Macintosh were founded on completely opposite principals as their respective companies MP3 approach.

Nowadays though, I'd just rather purchase a cheap phone and use it as an MP3 player, or use my regular cheap cell phone I already have. It's sufficient enough and I can't tell a difference in sound quality anymore.

[Godmars290]

"MS just didn't really get where the market was going though, and tried to control it."

You mean like they tried to do with the X1's DRM?

Discounting when they first tried moving XBL Gold onto PC only to drop the paid subs requirement, there's a pattern.

[ps4thewin]

My gf at the time had her zune stolen 2x. Got her a zunehd and she loved that thing. Then smart phone came with expandable storage and it was game over.

[rainslacker]

@God

Perhaps. Can't speak for PC XBL, but that was never going to fly with a sub model unless MS made the sub for something beyond what was offered free everywhere else.

As far as the X1 though, yeah, it was similar, although Zune was not as anti-consumer since it offered a bit of control over your account. iTunes didn't have much of that at the time, and I believe MS felt their service was more acceptable thus, people would adopt a more restrictive model in their purchases.

I guess it's typical for companies to try and control a market such as games, movies, or music, but most seem to have come to the realization that people not only have choice, but also want convenience with those purchases they don't own.

I feel the problem with MS X1 model...beyond the stripping of consumer expectations...was more that they weren't really bring much convenience to the retail space, and in fact were making it more difficult for people to simply trade their games. The requiring online mandate made sense with their original ideas, however, since the core issue was more who owned the actual disc software, the online part was simply superflous to everything.

[mochachino]

The thing had the functionality of d-pad. How is that Rare's fault.

[XeyedGamer]

Wow! Did MS just throw Rare under the bus

[BlackPanther]

No. If you read the article you would see that.

[BitbyDeath]

No, MS have just advised that it was RARE who was driving the bus. MS are not to blame.

[tinynuggins]

You didn't read the article either I see.

[TheColbertinator]

BAM! Now it dies.

[The93Sting]

it died the day it came out bro

[RiseofScorpio]

Kinect 2.0 failed.

The original was the biggest consumer device launch ever but I'm not sure if they still have the record.

[TeamLeaptrade]

I think this was just a case of released way too soon. I had a feeling it wasn't going to do great when it first came out. I wouldn't blame Rare either when Microsoft should have been paying close attention to what they were doing, and stepping in if what they were making turned out to be awful. It's an equal blame if anything.

[ginganinja]

I believe, whoever wrote the article is misunderstanding the quotes from Rare.
They were actually refering to why Rare haven't been making 'proper' games and focusing on Kinect stuff, and not that Rare had single handedly strong-armed Microsoft into forcing the Kinect onto systems.

I doubt there was a boardroom scene at Microsoft where some top exec said, 'so, we've crunched the numbers, done the market research on Kinect and it seems to be a bit iffy, but, those guys at Rare said 'yes', so I guess we're going to have to go all in on it.'

[Tsunade]

Kinect was a scam. It was market with the idea that it works and after the hype and people spend their money, the hard truth came... It doesn't work as advertised. Then they made kinect 2.0 for x1 pretending that people would fall for that trick too. What a mistake. This is Microsoft's fault, nor Rare.

Also, it comes to no surprise that the VR haters are here praising hololens, a product clearly not targeted as a gaming device, it will cost 5 time more than VR and as of now, it doesn’t have any support, plans, release date or any other company involved (VR has big companies supporting it)

[DigitalRaptor]

I wouldn't call it a scam.

It was just another way of Microsoft's unrelenting desire to "own the living room". By having a camera in people's homes to use for data mining as a form of marketing (as admitted by Yusuf Mehdi), and for such things as counting how many people are in a room so they could charge individually for each of those people to watch a film they downloaded from Xbox Live. Pretty scummy really.

Of course they masked it with future speak like "you are the controller", "future of games", "better with Kinect" etc. and did all that Oprah Winfrey moneyhatting malarkey. In reality, that on the 360 should have been a red flag for what was to be the original focus of the Xbox One and what were Microsoft's intentions before it even was a thing. They wanted that non-gaming Apple audience before us gamers, before we were even aware of it, but we thankfully rejected their trojan horse at the gates this generation.

And it's hilarious that many of us knew it would end up being more of a non-gaming device than gaming many years ago, and the supporters didn't listen. The fanboys on here who are now very quiet about it were embarrassingly staunch about how game-changing Kinect was before the gen began, especially when it was "fundamental" to the Xbox One vision (yep... that non-gaming vision everybody loved). I even remember a dude called Edonus on here who was a remarkable shill for Kinect as much as blaming the consumers for the device failing to work as advertised, rather than Microsoft and the devs. Those were the days.

[Kratos420z]

How the heck is Kinect "1 of MS biggest product failures" ??? It helped the xbox 360 to sold hundred millions of games, literally. No kidding, just look it up.

[Kratos420z]

One of their biggest failure should be the Window Phone.

[nitus10]

If you look at the phone market Android is at 82.8% while Apple is at 13.9% which leave a paltry 3.3% for the rest of the players, Microsoft (2.6%) included.

I think the above is a massive failure on behalf of Microsoft, however due to litigation brought on by Microsoft some manufacturers of Android devices pay a patent royalty to Microsoft or where appropriate cross patent licensing. This case is still on-going for some manufacturers.

[Kratos420z]

Yeah, i heard about this before, but not all Android makers have to pay for Microsoft it patent fees. Tho, the company STILL make tons of money with it.

[elarcadia]

I still love both my 360 and XB1 Kinects. People can hate them all they want, but Kung Fu: High Impact was one of the most fun games of the last generation. So good.

[kotaku77]

The fault is from Rare? really?

[raggy-rocket]

Kinect 2 is great and works well for me, but I think Kinect 3 should be a streamlined, even more refined voice and head tracking navigational device sold for about $80. Kinect 3 should work great and take up less of the OS space and if the voice commands work 95% of the time and face recognition is perfect, it could be the final and best version of the Kinect sold at an affordable price. That's where I want them to take the product anyway.

Kinect games are bad, but some games use Kinect in rly good way (e.g noise detection in horror games or head tracking for leaning around corners in games). Voice navigation is also really useful, so I'd love to see Microsoft streamline its functionality to those 3 key things, because that's where, imo, the device excels.

[Tzuno]

It all started with Nintendo and now culminates with a lot of disagrees from Sony fans toward X1 articles.

[iNFAMOUZ1]

I have always been a pro xbox supporter for the most part, but honestly im like unbiased now after so many screw ups from ms, i cant forgive them for messing up my favorite franchise halo with that locke thing, gross, and giving up on my kinect, and now holo lens? seriously?! who gives flying duck about something coming into your living room, VR is where the future is at, i dont want a few things that look un normal in my world, i hate my world! its depressing, and pathetic, and sad, why would i want to be reminded of my pathetic existance?!, with VR, i get to immerse myself in a WHOLE DIFFERENT WORLD!!!

[mastershredder]

R and D should always be handled by "some other guy, just not us". Get f-ing real. Own up to your own faults MS. Sounds like a captain/s does not want to go down with the ship they built.

[Imortus_san]

LOL, it sold more then 10 million, as more games then Move + Buzz + Sing Star, and they call it a Failure, right.

[cyber_daemonx]

So nothing to do with no-one wanting kinect then or making it mandatory for xbone then? Could've fooled me. Kinect enforcement along with drm and no used games were the main reasons I didn't get an xbone. The fact that MS reversed those policies helped go a long way to turn the xbones fortunes around somewhat tbh.

[sk8ofmnd]

Agreed. I had completely written ms off after the rrod consoles i had... Then after the launch of xb1 hate turned into lmao and hypocrisy... Ms supporters are loyal if not anything else ill give them that.

[pyroxxx]

Don't think it was a failure commercially,.. It is a failure of reason by people who bought the pos that does not even work,.. Maybe very neat for maybe as a tool for medical purposes (like rehabilitation training after injury),.. for gaming it is just ridiculous to have a device with such lag,..

[DivineAssault]

They shouldve had other devs support it too then.. The blame is on them, not rare

[sk8ofmnd]

Reguardless, i hope they dont force kinnect 3.0 down consumers throats with xb2 is there is another kinnect. All companies try things to differentiate themselves from the competition. Sony last gen had move this gen touchpad, nintendo waggle then the gamepad, ms kinnect 1.0 this gen kinnect 2.0

[sk8ofmnd]

Reguadless what you say, i had 4 rrods 360s. Ms did not replace every one of those! The facts are it should have never broken down in the first place! To say ohh its okay because they replaced it... Is hillarious at best! No one wanted to have their system fail then send it in a "casket" wait a x ammount of days then get it back... Mostly to have it break 90 days orr less later lmao They then counted those numbers to inflate "sales" it even took them MONTHS to accept it was a real problem. Its you sir that are the fanboy. At least i can say ive owned every game console except the xb1

[BillytheBarbarian]

At least they did replace my 360. Sony wanted me to pay them $120 to fix my PS2 when it stopped reading discs. I only had it for two weeks and I just wanted to play Contra Shattered Soldier. It was a common problem with the fat models not reading CD-R/blue bottom discs. It would have been nice if Sony would have offered some kind of deal like MS did. And I won't even talk about how faulty the PSone was with nearly everyone you know ended up playing the console upside down just so it would read discs. I worked for a used game store in Pittsburgh and we had PSones piled up in the back. Such a piece of crap.

A lot of companies release faulty hardware. Not just MS.

[Null]

THe hundredth comment!

[lastking95]

How is kinect a failure?

[DVAcme]

So this guy's blaming RARE for Kinect failing?? How about blaming Microsoft for Rare failing instead, considering they took a powerful studio with dozens of award winning games to their name and turned them into a parody of their former selves?

Kinect failed cause controller-less/motion-control led gaming was a fad that only Nintendo was able to capitalize on. Hololens I think will do better, precisely because of not being gaming-exclusive, but I don't see it being as successful a gaming peripheral as Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR will be.

[Picnic]

I think that headline has taken its article out of context.

Even if Rare showed the most enthusiasm, that doesn't mean they're to blame that some other studios and some gamers didn't show as much enthusiasm.

[BillytheBarbarian]

Kinect works for some things but not for everything. There were some missed opportunities too. I mean damn, how does a movie come out called Real Steel and a Kinect or even a Wii version of the game doesn't materialize? There was a crappy XBLA title and that was it. Could have been a great tie-in fun boxing title with Robots for Kinect. Games that worked were really fun like Hi Impact Kung Fu. If you haven't played it you missed out on a decent experience. Problem is the fun was very slim.

Devs were trying to hard to give you a way to move/explore in a 3-D space and it wasn't made for that. It was set up for basically boxing, working out, and those standard sports games like bowling and fruit ninja. Star Wars Kinect had some nice ideas but again it was hard to navigate. They should have focused on lightsaber duels or something of that nature where you wouldn't need to walk around in a 3-D world. It was fun for what it was. My kids still play Kinectimals from time to time.

[bligmerk]

What, Milo isn't working for you all? He is just like a little boy living in my screen, so curious, so cheerful, so uplifting. Wait a second, haven't turned on my Kinect for a couple years. Let me just check in on him...Holy Mother of Mercy!...oh, the humanity, he decayed into a skeleton, rotting beside the pond, with very photo realistic flies and maggots. There is a decaying note he was trying to write, "Peter Fuc...".