New XBox One SKU without Kinect

[originalbadboy]

Not so sure about that one. Its a nice feature just need a update so even the XBox One is on stand by you can view SKY/Digital Box. That's the biggest pain with that feature

It makes sense that at some point in the future there will be different SKU's, and if removing the pass through gets them a cheaper option, then for the consumer (and Microsoft) that is no bad thing. There will almost certainly always be an SKU with that feature though.

Same thing goes for a version without a disc drive, it will happen at some point. Microsoft were talking about it before the One was even announced.

Its a shame that the people making the decisions on SKU's etc were a little more flexible in their approach, I will admit Microsoft's handling from this point of view has been horrible.

Within the lifetime of the One I can see the following SKU's:

• Full One (Kinect, Pass through, Drive)
• Kinectless
• Kinectless & Passthrough removed
• 1TB HDD model with drive
• 1TB HDD model without drive

[charlesr]

Why I can't think of one game that makes any good use of it on either the 360 or XBox One ( and I remember voice commands being in games like Rainbow Six on the old XBox ) . It Just a waste of everyone time and money . All Kinect done is to kill off the likes of *Rare , ruin franchises like Steel Battalion, Fable and seen MS wasted millions down the train instead of green lighting sequels to real games like Kameo, Blue Dragoon , Alan Wake , PGR 4 and so on .

With luck this will mean the of bullcrap motion controls and tools like Kudo Tsunoda having a say on MS games




*Comments may be slightly exaggerated

Not sure if you read the rest of my post beyond the bit you quoted, but I said yes, ditch the video bit but keep the voice stuff which is great.

[Team Andromeda]

Not sure if you read the rest of my post beyond the bit you quoted, but I said yes, ditch the video bit but keep the voice stuff which is great.

Yes but MS really should have had a Mic but-in to the Joypad it's self rather than the console or Kinect . Or to me to save us all a lot of money just use the headset ?

[charlesr]

I'm only using the passthrough because an electricity surge during a powercut killed the video passthrough in my amp, so I have the skybox plugged into the xbone. Not that I've turned on the skybox more than a couple of times since January. Otherwise, I don't see the point in the passthrough at all (and it introduces lag?)

[charlesr]

Yes but MS really should have had a Mic but-in to the Joypad it's self rather than the console or Kinect . Or to me to save us all a lot of money just use the headset ?

But if it's in the pad, you have to turn the pad on to use the voice commands (or turn the xbox on if you use the standby mode). The whole point of the voice stuff is so that you don't have to use the pad.

[Team Andromeda]

But if it's in the pad, you have to turn the pad on to use the voice commands (or turn the xbox on if you use the standby mode). The whole point of the voice stuff is so that you don't have to use the pad.

Well to me, the voice stuff is only of any real use in games anyway so I would just put in the pad .

[QualityChimp]

*sigh*

It makes me sad as I love my 360 and its online experience and would've loved to have jumped in with the One, but somebody in Microsoft thought all the ideas in the original E3 presentation were great ones.

Did they do absolutely zero market research? Heck, they could've asked Chad and Zack in the mailroom next door to the board room whilst coming up with these eureka moments what their thoughts were, as they're big gamers.

Don Mattrick pokes his head around the door of the mailroom:
"Hey guys, we're brainstorming some ideas for the new XBox One. What do you think of enforced Kinect, apps only available to Gold subscribers (including ones you already pay for), no lending of games, enforced internet connection, 24 hour checks, no pre-owned games allowed and no headset in the box?"
Chad and Zack look at each other:
"Sucks."
Don: "Shoot. Back to the drawing board!"

If everything they'd u-turned on was in the original E3 announcement, or taken as read that you'd not have to be online all the time etc., I'd have a One sat under my telly now.

Correction, if they had 360 backwards compatibility too, I would. Then I really would have "one" device under the telly as they envisaged. Why would anybody buy a Blu-Ray player that doesn't play DVDs, for example.

Right from the start Microsoft should've asked "what do the people want?" not said "THIS is what the people want!".

[charlesr]

Well to me, the voice stuff is only of any real use in games anyway so I would just put in the pad .

I guess we have different usage patterns. During the day mine is a media center for Netflix and "play to" DLNA. So the kids turn on all my stuff with a harmony remote and then say "xbox sign in as charles", "xbox go to netflix" "select 1" etc. "xbox pause". The pad never gets touched. Annoyingly the youtube app doesn't support voice comms Devs = Monkeys!!!

When I'm playing games, the only thing I use it for is "xbox record that" but a button on the pad like the PS4 would be better.

[Neon Ignition]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-05-14-microsoft-and-publishers-mulling-kinect-less-xbox-one-performance-boost

Apparently MS is looking into freeing up that 10%. I'm assuming a connected Kinect is always in operation so as to respond on demand so updating the system or having most games use this 10% would effectively kill the peripheral completely no?

[Lebowski]

I guess we have different usage patterns. During the day mine is a media center for Netflix and "play to" DLNA. So the kids turn on all my stuff with a harmony remote and then say "xbox sign in as charles", "xbox go to netflix" "select 1" etc. "xbox pause". The pad never gets touched. Annoyingly the youtube app doesn't support voice comms Devs = Monkeys!!!

When I'm playing games, the only thing I use it for is "xbox record that" but a button on the pad like the PS4 would be better.

my kinect usage goese something like this load up Titanfall while its loading i think oh it would be usefull if i could see whos online pressing the xbox button on the 360 would bring up the mini menu over loading screens and you could check that way, but now you have to go into the app, as for some reason i cant snap friends on to the side of my screen to see whos on.

"xbox..... xbox...... xbox...... snap friends"
i get the message "xbox cant do that"

then i say
"****ing thing"

and it opens up bing and im forced to sit though it loading up bing,

Next i try the command
"xbox close bing........ xbox close bing........ xbox close bing" it closes bing I pick up pad browse to friends list see there all watching netflix and not playing games lol.

[CMcK]

Presumably this is 10% of the CPU, which is already faster than the PS4 so little point IMO.

It's 10% of the GPU. They use it for the Kinect Skeletal tracking.

[Digfox]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...formance-boost

Apparently MS is looking into freeing up that 10%. I'm assuming a connected Kinect is always in operation so as to respond on demand so updating the system or having most games use this 10% would effectively kill the peripheral completely no?

I think the minute they decided to create the new bundle without the Kinect they have killed any chance of the peripheral being essential in the same way as something like the Wiimote. Microsoft can continue to push 1st-party games and apps but there's a huge risk the peripheral gets ignored further. I assume that third-party developers just aren't developing for Kinect in any meaningful way. I.e. they will simply plan cross-platform development with as efficiently assigned resources as possible, meaning there's no time to develop for a device that's sold to a limited section of your audience.

I think it's a logical move in that developers, like IW, who bemoaned losing some of the system performance can now choose to bring out their XBO version and squeeze a bit more juice out of the system.

[charlesr]

The lag and inaccuracy of the kinect controller killed any change of the peripheral being essential (for games), way before this announcement I reckon. Fighter Within - unplayable. Kinect Sport Rivals - unplayable

[Team Andromeda]

During the day mine is a media center for Netflix and "play to" DLNA. So the kids turn on all my stuff with a harmony remote and then say "xbox sign in as charles", "xbox go to netflix" "select 1" etc. "xbox pause".

Find all that easier and faster with pad . Not that I use the XBox 1 much for media given both the XBox 1 and PS4 are so far behind the likes of the PS3 on that score

[dataDave]

Surely they could put a cheap mic into the pad for the voice command stuff that (some) people like?