Kinect and it's effects on the WORLD.

[Timstuff]

I love how patents always look like they're drawn by third graders.

 

[Fading]

Glad that cleares things up, that was bugging me (the conflicting stories). I mean I wish sign language was recognized by it, as I think that was be an awesome feature that could help a lot of ppl. However ppl have been saying Kinect couldn't recognize fingers. I was curious how sign language was going to be used if it couldn't detect what you use to make sign language in the first place. Hopefully it can still be added down the road tho.



One thing I wonder tho, like the article mentions above, it seems like a lot of features were meant to be in it that won't be with the launch devices. So is this going to be a PS3 situation where they will be implemented down the line via firmware updates, or is this going to be a thing where multiple versions of Kinect are made and you have to buy newer ones to get the features. The reason I ask is because it slightly sounds like hardwares being left out to make it cheaper, but it could simply just be time constraints as much as anything and be fixable with updates.

 

[Timstuff]

Kinect Downgraded To Save Money, Can't Read Sign Language

http://kotaku.com/5609840/kinect-dumbed-down-to-save-money-cant-read-sign-language

 

[KALEL114]

Deja vu!!!

 

[Timstuff]

One thing that could have helped make Kinect worthwhile would have been hand gestures, because without buttons that would be pretty much the only form of input signal. In its current form, Kinect is like having no hands or feet, where games are played by just batting at things with your stumpy forearms.

 

[Soapy]

Jeff and Brad Play YooStar2

 

[hippie_hunter]

That actually looks kinda fun in a stupid kind of way.

 

[Soapy]

Dance Central Interview

 

[jacobed]

I'm lookin forward to playing some Harry Potter with a friend on the Kinect.

 

[Cth]

http://www.destructoid.com/watch-peter-molyneux-s-milo-demo-from-ted-181831.phtml#ext

Milo apparently uses cloud based AI and works sitting down.

 

[Benstamania]

Kinect is SO weird with me....I want it, and yet I don't. I want it because I think the tech behind it is insanely interesting... And I don't want it because of the price and I'm worried Microsoft won't support it if it's not an INSTANT success.

Edit: I also have ZERO interest in Milo. It's not enough of a game for my interest.

 

[Soapy]

I agree, the tech is awesome.

My current plans for Kinect are to wait until a year or so after release when it's inevitably a miserable failure and pick one up for a song and play around with it.

 

[jacobed]

I think Microsoft will support the hell out of it because this is like their big thing. If they don't support it and it isn't a success than they'll need to hurry up with the successor to the 360 and they don't wanna do that if the ps3 is still out there.

 

[Soapy]

I really don't think they're going to go out of their way to support it if it fails.

I think they're just using Kinect as a kind market research to see what they should focus on with their next console. If it really takes off, they'll probably focus a lot on motion controls. If no one buys the thing, maybe not so much.

 

[KALEL114]

Kinect for Xbox 360 drops voice controls, video chat for launch

Part of Microsoft's push for Kinect included the ability to use voice commands to control and navigate the Xbox 360 dashboard and interact with games. This feature was demoed frequently since Kinect was first introduced as Project Natal. Now comes the disappointing news from Microsoft that the voice commands will not be enabled at launch.
Speaking with MCV at GamesCom marketing manager for Xbox Live EMEA Robin Burrowes said, “we will be announcing when voice control will be turned on in due course.”
The removal of voice commands for Kinect also means the removal of "Video Kinect", a video chat service that Microsoft demonstrated during their E3 press conference.
While users won't be able to navigate around the Xbox 360 dashboard using their voice, games like Kinectimals and Michael Jackson: The Experience will still be voice-enabled.
Kinect launches on November 4 in the United States.

http://www.examiner.com/video-game-...60-drops-voice-controls-video-chat-for-launch

 

[Rocker22]

UPDATE:
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/111/1115555p1.html

 

[KALEL114]

That's cool. It would have been a disaster if it wasn't part of the launch. It was a big draw for some people I know.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

Kinect will be the biggest failure in recent video game history.
It´s sad because i see it being a great peripheral, but the thing is, it will be released just like the 360 was, a half-baked product.


First it was said that Kinect would understand sign language and read lips, then it was said that it can´t.
Now, the rumors stated that it wouldn´t have voice recognition at launch, now Microsoft said it was a misunderstanding and it will have it.
In my understanding, Kinect will be nothing more than a glorified paperweight when it gets launched in November.
The all voice recogniton rumors only show that it will only understand english, which will make it a failure outside the US, UK and Australia (there are many people outside those countries that speak english very well, me included, but the majority don´t).
Even so, it might only understand simple commands like Yes and No, you say Maybe and it will explode.
And then there are the accents....

Last January, it was announced that Microsoft dropped the internal chip for Kinect, one of the reason being because a software solution should enable Microsoft to update the system more quickly and regularly than a hardware one.
The thing, we should have read between the lines.
At launch, Kinect will not be able to do 80% of what it was announced, then, after some updates, maybe......just maybe, it will be something acceptable.
In other words, it will be worth the money by fall 2011, at best.

By then, will anyone care?

Want more proff?
Just look at the crappy Kinect Dashboard

Not only it is very Wii like (with windows), it´s very simplistic, which gives the idea that kinect can´t recognize many movements, so, up / down left and right are out.

This would be a lot better

Because it would mean that you would need to move your hand and wrist like turning the pages of a book, it would be a much better experience in motion control

 

[hippie_hunter]

Kinect just sounds worse and worse every day

 

[Havok83]

I think MS has failed to sell Kinect to consumers. Theres really no titles on there that look appealing. I can commend them trying to be innovative and doing something different but they went too left field on this one. I cant see how they ever hought it was a good idea. Gaming with no controls? The technology will probably have some use in a few years but I cant see this enhancing gaming. Has MS even put together a trailer for Kinect and what it has to offer?. I saw the GDC one that Sony did for Move and it was rather impressive. MS really should be pushing its games, but Im really not seeing the software justifying a purchase for this

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

I think MS has failed to sell Kinect to consumers. Theres really no titles on there that look appealing. I can commend them trying to be innovative and doing something different but they went too left field on this one. I cant see how they ever hought it was a good idea. Gaming with no controls? The technology will probably have some use in a few years but I cant see this enhancing gaming. Has MS even put together a trailer for Kinect and what it has to offer?. I saw the GDC one that Sony did for Move and it was rather impressive. MS really should be pushing its games, but Im really not seeing the software justifying a purchase for this

I can´t really agree with you on this one, Kinect can very well be the next best thing to ever happen to gaming, the problem is, it won´t be, not in the next few years, and not because it´s Microsoft.
But i do agree that they failed to sell Kinect to consumers, they failed hard on E3, they missed on the WOW factor.

The thing is, IMO, Kinect is indeed the future of gaming, but the weird part is, Microsoft has still to realize that.
Kinect was done because MS wanted to get into the all motion control craze, but didn´t want to make a Wii 2.0, they wanted something completly diferent, something that could crush the Wii on their own game.

What is the pinnacle of video games?
Answer this, and you will understand the importance of Kinect and why it is the future.




























Ok, the pinnacle of gaming is the Star Trek Holodeck, the X-Men Danger Room, the Matrix.
The point is not if it is possible to be made (i doubt it, as it involves the holograms to have mass and "exist"), but that Kinect is the starting point of that notion to happen, to be you and the game, with nothing in between (nothing meaning controllers).

 

[Fading]

Kinect will have it's own dashboard? I thought it'd use the normal menu's. I dunno, I try not to bother with it anymore since I've been pretty down on it in the past. I hope those who buy it enjoy it. At the same time it does bother me that the $150 price includes the cut out motherboard, you'd think it nearly being the same price as a Wii wouldn't mean cutting out important hardware to price reduce.

As corny as this sounds, my Grandma always said when cooking that you can add too, but never take away (like any salt you add to the dish is part of that dish now period). I see Kinect the same way. Where with the Wii and PS3 Move, the Wii and PS3 themselves are the platforms, and the Wii motion controls and PS3 move are interchangeable peripherals that can have more functionality added with small extra gadgets (Wii-Mote, vitality sensor, Playstation navigation), or firmware updates, Kinect on the other hand is the platform in a sense. What hardware it ships with is what limits what can be made on it. Short of releasing an entirely different Kinect, and thus alienating all previous purcharsers, basically Kinect is stuck with how it launches. If by removing hardware to drive down the cost they end up making it where Kinect will never be able to read things as fine as fingers (not saying that's the case, just an example), Kinect is hurting it's future line up.

I guess another thing that gets me is that for being such a high tech device, it's really lacking features. Where Move will be able to recognize how tight you grip, twitches of your wrist, and ignoring multiplayer costs, you get a camera, and the controller for under $100, Kinect will be $150 and not recognize fingers, require you to change clothes to play if you're wearing baggy clothes or a dress, and so on. I think, and this is just my opinion, that if Kinect really does launch with all of the problems that are commented on not being fixed, that sales might be heavily front loaded. That while 2 million may buy at launch, that they may not pass on good word of mouth once they find out things promised early on (like the launch videos of scanning in skate boards, or talking and walking with Milo) aren't in the final product (even if they get added in a year later via firmware if that's possible), and Kinect sales may suffer for it. Since Microsoft is putting so much faith in Kinect to be a mid life bump for the 360 they really shouldn't have rushed things again, and not launched until the hardware supported what they wanted it to do, and they had good enough titles to launch with it.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

Any body willing to bet me that Kinect wont dominate the holiday market, specifically the Move?

Im serious, if Kinect fails to outsell the Move, ill wire the winnings to a pay pal account. 100 bux says Kinect and MS dominate Sony and the Move this holiday.

I know im only one employee at one Gamestop, but the talk for Kinect has far, far outweighed any talk on the Move.

 

[Fading]

I wouldn't bet it, because I think you're right. Kinect has a lot of pre-orders and probably will beat Move this holdiay. However like I said above, how much is going to be front loaded? Will Kinect walk away with good word of mouth? Will it appeal to the core 360 base without hardcore games to back it up? Will it actually pull in the Wii crowd? Or is it mainly going to be early adopting tech junkies, and family men who are getting a present for the family and themselves at the same time lol.

This is just my guess, and I'm not good with numbers, but I think it'll go somewhat like this -

Kinect will sell a **** load off the bat. Probably close to 2 million, maybe 3-4 million by the end of the year. Where Move will sell probably 1-1.5 million move bundles, and another million or so single Moves (some ppl already have an eye, others will want a second controller or two), and probably half a million navigations. Maybe a million or so more by the end of the year, but overall Kinect will have sold more complete units.

However as ppl mention when they get a headshot online that Move is really accurate and brag, or ppl start seeing games like Killzone 3 near launch and see Move hyped for it, I think the word of mouth will pick up. We'll see Move sales stay more stable. Kinect on the other hand I think will be front loaded, and kick ass during the holiday, but slow down in sales dramatically after. If Kinect really is having all of the problems out of the box that everyone is saying it will have, bad word of mouth from Kinect owners telling their 360 owning friends to just wait for better games to come out could lead to Kinect sales slowing until better games start coming out a year down the road.

Again, guess work. I'm basically talking out my ass and making up numbers, and am probably wrong. However that's how my current impressions say it'll go. That during the Holiday that Microsoft and it's media assault force will trounce the Move and give Sony a verbal beating in twitter like usual, but that given time down the road Move will probably surpass Kinect sales.

Then again there's always the factor of price, and lack of appealing games, and maybe it will bomb. Maybe it'll sell like crazy and sales stay stable. Personally I don't care which wins out personally, and just hope they both sell well enough to keep those who manufacture them with jobs, and that those who buy them enjoy them. My beef with Kinect is more on Microsoft's marketing of lying about features, removing hardware while keeping the price up to usual 360 peripheral sky high standards, and ignoring pretty much everyone who owns a 360 with their launch titles to chase after the Wii. This is less fanboy, and more (to me) common sense. If Move's lineup was Hanna Montanna, and Move Animals with no hardcore, and the press on it was saying the tilt roation was a lie, that it wasn't accurate, that Move was buggy and glitchy to hell...I'd be on Sony as well.






Edit - Guess I shouldn't have mentioned pre-orders. Last time I checked Amazon Kinect was almost first and Move barely in the top 200. Not that Amazon is a reliable source, but I guess with Move being a month out it's pre-orders sky rockected. Seeing Move bundle at 49, a single Move at 54, and Kinect at 68. So seems like the pre-orders are fluctuating.

 

[Havok83]

Any body willing to bet me that Kinect wont dominate the holiday market, specifically the Move?

Im serious, if Kinect fails to outsell the Move, ill wire the winnings to a pay pal account. 100 bux says Kinect and MS dominate Sony and the Move this holiday.

I know im only one employee at one Gamestop, but the talk for Kinect has far, far outweighed any talk on the Move.

It depends on what the basis for sales are. Units moved? Total profits made? If its profits, 1 Kinect is equal to 3 Moves. If its units, well Kinect will only be sold as one package, whereas Move has a variety of configurations. There's the standalone Move, the Move/camera/game bundle and the PS3/Move bundle. How would sales be determined. The Sports Champions bundle will most likely be counted with the game sales, the standalone with the accesories and the PS3 bundle would be lumped in with PS3 sales with no indication of what percentage accounts for that. With all these factors in play, Move sales may be underrerpesented. On the flip side, since each comes with 1 controller, people may be buying multiples and that could skew the numbers in the other direction. Basically Im not sure if the numbers will be directly comparable between the 2 as theres several things to consider.

Where Move will be able to recognize how tight you grip, twitches of your wrist,

really? I did not know that