New XBox One SKU without Kinect

[Brad]

Well now we know why MS had all those copies of E.T. excavated; making room to dump all the kinects.

[gambit6613]

Not sure it will make that much of a difference, this news will fuel the gaming scene for months I would imagine. But yeah in an ideal world a line needs to be drawn under the last 12 months of 180's, resolutlongate and mass hysteria that's surrounded this, and maybe you know concentrate on the games instead, which is why we are all here.

Personally I wont be able to stand another E3 if its like last year, if it turns out like that again I will probably give up on the internet for gaming news / discussion completely as the last 12 months have been rather silly it has to be said.

I think this years E3 should be much more improved over last year. Big reason being MS have Phil Spencer instead of that utter prick Don Mattrick running the show. At least I assume he will be doing the presentation, Phil is much more charismatic.

[MarioMark]

Is anyone surprised by this news? It was always coming. I've not used the kinect in months, it's just pushed to the back of my TV cabinet, ugly looking thing lol.

One good thing is if ms stop selling it with the console and sell it separate we can all stick them on eBay.

[ETC]

It will have pissed off a couple of devs though that's for sure, I'm sure harmonix will be thrilled now with that fantasia thing and swery with D4 probably has some serious FK in his coffee this morning on the news

[Neon Ignition]

My mind immediately went to D4 at the news, I'm assuming that's going to be delayed now

Harmonix have apparently already sjown some displeasure at the news, they should have known better than to invest in it anyway, it's veen a steady wind down for it.

[nonny]

I love my Kinect and whilst this is a good, and arguably correct business decision something will be lost in the transition. It's not just an automatic win to remove it and drop the price.

I've used my Kinect every day. Whether it just be the voice controls for searching or asking the console to record 30s clips in the heat of battle, or something more substantial like doing a Skype conference in crystal clear audio between several sets of my family overseas. Say what you will about it... There is functionality it gives the console that I want.

Where I do see an issue is gaming implementations. It's just lacking games. We've had Kinect Sports and..... Well yeah that's about it besides some novel little things like head tracking in some main titles.

The vital thing MS needs to do with this move is still make the Kinect attractive to buy. For me Skype usage alone is worth the $100. Seriously it is the most capable Skype platform I've seen.

On the other hand knowing I can now buy a new console without it means I might get a second for my study where a Kinect would be pointless.

[Uli]

Kinect in it's current state isn't doing anything for me. nonetheless i think this is the wrong decision, another one in the list of Microsoft failures. because the device has a lot of potential if integrated wisely into games that make use of it in a way that seems natural and intuitive. now it's very unlikely that we will ever see such a game as no dev will put much effort in such a project anymore.

[Brad]

No one used the original kinect in that way and that sold 24 million. Is the real problem not that it basically doesn't work in a reliable enough way? By it's very nature any kinect mapped function will be triggered by a gesture that can be misinterpreted and hence fail. The same can be said of all gesture based systems, even those with peripherals to hold like wii and ps move. Heavy Rain was broken when it tried to use ps move gestures for some scenes. The advantage wii and move had over kinect though is there is also a way to use those systems in a very precise manner e.g. Metroid prime, resistance 3 and tumble. Kinect has no precise mode, only vague.

[Neon Ignition]

I don't even think it's necessarily down to the sensors accuracy, more just motion gaming literally being a fad no matter how well executed. Gaming is a passive experience and after school, work etc it's what people want, they don't want to spend hours stood up, jumping around, waving their arms etc. Kinect 1.0 rode the tail end of that Wii-era by providing an evolution of that type of gaming and despite its initial sales tailed off almost in sync with motion gamings demise. By banking on Kinect 2.0 MS was effectively betting on a horse that had already lost the race and been put down, the really sad part is everyone from consumer to dev to competitor knew this yet MS allowed themselves to launch at a price disadvantage due to it.

In fact, you can almost swap Kinect for Morpheus/Oculus Rift in that and you have the future right there too

[charlesr]

Well now we know why MS had all those copies of E.T. excavated; making room to dump all the kinects.

Heheh. Good for a giggle. Made me smile this morning.

[charlesr]

I tried skype via kinect - it's fantastic on your own (I mean really fantastic), but with more than one person it gets confused and zooms in on the wrong person so you can't even see the person that is talking. I haven't yet checked to see if has a zoom-disable option though.

[MisterBubbles]

So where's the XBots now? EvilBoris, Family_Fry & OBB, you all said there wouldn't never be a kinect-less XBone, just wanted to tell you i was right.

[fishbowlhead]

I think for the people who already have one and use it, the device will be continued to be used as it obviously has some advantages. For the people who haven't used it the device won't be missed, if they use one and like it they could end up buying it anyway, so could work out win win for MS.

[Team Andromeda]

Its always been a pile crap and waste of everyone time and MS money . Such a shame that MS didn't spend the money they urinated down the drain on the Kinect project (for both the 360 and XBox One) on games instead .

[MisterBubbles]

Oh and XBots how does the humble pie taste?