Wednesday, October 25th 2017
Microsoft Kills Off Kinect for Xbox
Microsoft has discontinued Kinect, the gesture-tracking accessory for Xbox which was all the rage a couple of years ago. The company has stopped manufacturing Kinect, and at its last count, sold over 35 million units of it (including standalone units and bundled with Xbox consoles). Gesture and voice recognition flourished as Kinect formed Microsoft's answer to Nintendo Wii and its WiiMotion controller, that enabled sports games in the living room. Kinect added another dimension to it, by taking input from not just your hands' 3D spatial orientation, but also that of your entire body. The accessory also doubled up as a web-camera for your living room. Microsoft plans Windows Mixed Reality headsets to succeed Kinect, as they combine several of its functions with VR and AR.
Source:
Co.Design
18 Comments on Microsoft Kills Off Kinect for Xbox
Kinect really hurt everything MS had attained with the 360, as the Kinect hardware being bundled by default on XboxOne caused them to make sacrifices in console power in order to meet an already too expensive price point. Sony just walked all over MS this round.
Microsoft does have an opportunity to gain back some ground on Sony with an excellent VR/AR implementation. I have Sony's PSVR and it's great, and it has a decent sized library already, so Sony has a bery big head-start. But it is a bit bulky and "1.0" feeling with all of the connections and size. Coming in this much later, Microsoft has a chance to bring a 2.0-type VR/AR experience that is smoother with less bulk. Whichever company has the first real must-have VR big hit will do well. RE7 was close, but I still haven't seen a must-have console VR game yet. They need an Uncharted/Zelda/(good)Halo/Last of Us tier kind of VR game that is a great game on it's own merits, and not just leaning on the VR tech to impress in a short demo. Until then the install base will be small, and it's a catch-22 since game devs aren't going to bet a lot of resources on a great VR game for a small customer base.
As for launch price, I bet MS could have matched Sony's $399 without the Kinect bundle and possibly even added things like GDDR5 to close the performance deficit. Kinect was an expensive pack-in item. Sold separately I believe it was over $100.
I saw on a show called Ghost Adventures a few times.
Hopefully they stocked up on them just in case.
There once was a farfetched
rumorconspiracy theory that the NSA/USGmadeforced m$ make these as spy tools. :shadedshu:Same goes for all of these companies pushing for VR. Few people even asked for it... and therefore it will fail.
Gets thrown around now and then
other than that seems to be 15 year olds wet dream...
has been around for years... although now available in 4k...
VR dosn't have that killer app or standardization