Kinect: The Scary Future of Xbox and Technology

Brent writes: "Before we begin this little jaunt, I have to be honest and upfront with you. I hate Kinect. For those who know me, know that I loathe this peripheral with every fiber of my core being. I never owned one for the Xbox 360, and I never wanted one for the Xbox One, but now was force fed this NSA style intruder in order to play my console at launch. Thanks Microsoft, thanks a lot.

The reasons I hate Kinect though may surprise you. It’s not that I consider it to be a worthless piece of technology, but rather the biggest waste of potential that Microsoft has ever delivered upon their Xbox brand. I know some of you may think differently of it, and while you’re entitled to your own opinion, let me explain to you why I feel that Microsoft needs to abandon ship on Kinect and have it phase out of usefulness."

[SaveFerris]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't recall MS mentioning that Kinect is needed for Hololens, so could this mean Kinect is doomed?

[Pandamobile]

Why would Kinect be needed for Hololens when Hololens basically has Kinect's depth sensors built into the device?

[LostDjinn]

You beat me to it.

[kneon]

Hololens uses the technology to sense the environment, but is it's field of view sufficient to consistently detect your hand motions without having to look at your hands?

[Reddzfoxx]

Hololens is a stand alone product that MS has made no mention of it currently having any integration features with Xbox in any way shape or form currently.

They have not ruled out the possiblity for Hololens and the Xbox one to collaborate with each other over wifi connections but they are focusing on the Hololens as its own product not needing a PC or xbox.

[Dario_DC]

The one question I have is since MS came out saying Kinect was central to the Xbox experience and so on, why haven't they used it more? Or did MS just cancelled all kinect games when the sales went to sh**?

This is really strange because I'm sure there was a plan behind the Kinect, like games and so on...

[mcstorm]

A lot change when Dom left and Phil come in. When this happened Kinect took a back seat. For me I love the device for the voice commands it works really well and having them in games like FIFA, Forza Horizon 2 is a nice add on but it is best used for accessing the menu system and apps like Xbox bing football results or Xbox go to Netflix etc.

Phil has just come out and said we will see more done with Kinect soon but the gaming side is one that will take a back seat esp for core games as as it dose not fit with a lot of them.

[Dario_DC]

I get what you're saying but still I would like to know what was the "master plan" behind Kinect.
Guess it's all gone now.

[mcstorm]

Well Kinect is the device that makes things quicker to access. That's what I see it should be sold as. Saying Xbox record that, Xbox snap TV, watch skysports news ext.

Its not for everyone but for me it works well and I'm glad I got it with my Xbox one. For me Kinect 1 felt like a add on to the 360 and did not work as well as it should of where Kinect 2 fells like the console was built to work around it like the 360 was built around Xbox live.

I think now we are starting to get into he 2 year of the Xbox one we will start to see a push for the none gamers too and Kinect could be a big seller for the Xbox one with games like Kinect sports, dancing games as well as the TV/app sides as well as windows 10 on the way.

[SliceOfTruth888]

gamers hate innovation, but want something different from the same old. I love video games, but hate the community

[SilentNegotiator]

Kinect came and went in a flash for a reason and it's not because "gamers hate innovation".

[Khajiit86]

"gamers hate innovation"

Thats one of the dumbest things I have heard. If we hate innovation why do we buy new consoles? Upgrade PCs? Better TVs? Love great handhelds? etc...

I liked Kinect but I prefer to play a game without having to do all that waving, and jumping around.

[miyamoto]

Kinect was the same old EyeToy- a peripheral 3 years after the PS2's launch.

"Gamer's hate innovation" like how Xbox gamers hated Blu-Ray Disc technology on PS3 before the launch of the Xbox One which uses Blu-ray. Saying Digital Download is the future. Well that future is here now and Blu-ray is more relevant than ever.

Do you hate them or are you one of them?

[caffman]

I use my kinect on xbox one everyday. It switches on the tv when I switch on the xbox, which I normally do by saying "xbox on" and it signs me in. I know I could use the pad or remotes to do this but I prefer convenience to be honest

[Khajiit86]

And then you still have to pick up the remote.....

[caffman]

No as my xbox automatically goes onto the right channel

[Gilgamesh15]

Technology comes and goes, but MS should have made Kinect 2.0 optional from the start of not do it at all.

[iTechHeads]

Kinect is pretty much dead now that MS unbundled it

[WizzroSupreme]

Kinect was a good idea whose time just didn't come early enough.

[ThePresentIsAgift]

Yet in reality every single smartphone has more invasive trackers and spyware running 24/7. I don't see any one rioting in the streets about it.

I own a Sony branded phone Z3 and the iinstalled bloatware can perform such tasks as

"read entire device storage"

"access media and files"

"monitor calls"

"record audio"

"take pictures and video"

And so on, hell almost every application on any Google phone does that and more.

I'm not saying it's a good thing, it's pathetic really. How does one get around the issue though without using some ten year old pos handset?

[TheCommentator]

I'm glad you mentioned this... "NSA style intruder", lol.

[Malacath]

I personally find kinect useful. Wouldn't be able to Skype video chat without it.

Must admit have barely used it for games though. Mostly because there aren't many games that use it.