[Polygon] The Kinect is (pretty much) dead

[CtW]

Source: http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/15/8785505/the-kinect-is-dead

 

Please take into account that this is an opinion piece on the website and that the conclusion in the article is being reached by the author themself. Microsoft has not officially killed the Kinect. The have stopped acknowledging its existence though...

Microsoft had an incredibly strong showing at its E3 press conference, keeping the focus on games even when announcing things like backward compatibility. Mod support for Fallout 4 is a great addition to Xbox One in general and we hope it comes to more games, and again it's going to make the act of playing games more enjoyable.

 

The real story though, or at least the lack of story, is that the Kinect is well and truly dead.

 

I reached out to Microsoft when the price drop and new bundles were officially announced to see if we could expect a price drop on the systems with the Kinect, or if any new bundles with the hardware were expected.

 

"All non-Kinect 500GB consoles will be available at $349. Consoles bundled with Kinect will retail for $499," I was told. "We are always exploring ways to connect with our fans, and are committed to offering fantastic value to all of our customers. We’ll continue to explore bundles in the future, and look forward to revealing more soon."

 

In other words, don't hold your breath. The least expensive Xbox One bundle that included the Kinect I could find on Amazon was $425, on sale from $499.99.

 

There were no games announced as supporting the technology. No mention of its name. No sense that Microsoft still considered it a going concern. If you have and like the Kinect you'll still be able to enjoy the voice-command functionality and the games that already exist; but it's unlikely that any new, big-name games will be released in the near future, if at all.

 

Even Rare is now hard at work on Sea of Thieves, a great-looking multiplayer pirate game. Taking that studio away from a focus on Kinect games and giving them something that looks a bit meatier was a great move; Rare had a great show at the press conference looking toward the future while celebrating the past.

 

Microsoft is having one of its best E3s in years, and the fact that Kinect had no place in it certainly helped. The Kinect is dead. Long live the Xbox One.

 

I saw this coming from a mile away and I'm pretty sure you all did too. The kinect has and aways will be a gimmick that has half worked. i remember using the first gen Kinect and thinking that it was pretty cool, but had pretty bad tracking accuracy with voice commands that mostly worked and you needed a room the size of a small theater to use it properly. That has been the whole story with the connect so far: It almost works well, but not well enough to revolutionize gaming the way Microsoft wants it to. It does have its uses as a 3D scanner and I know that many people do still use the voice commands out of sheer convenience, but in regards to it being used with games, it's as good as dead to most people.

[Misanthrope]

Please do not post news items from polygon as the sole source, they don't deserve the traffic.

[LukaP]

Polygon is pretty much dead. 

 

Though i agree the kinect is a useless gizmo, as is PS Move and the Wii stuff (mostly, nintendo makes great 1st party games that use it)

[Kilerbomb]

This is an opinion piece, not news. Either way I'm pretty sure everyone already knew that the Kinect has been dead for some time now.

[Thorium19]

The kinect is a gimmick for most console gaming, and most gaming in general, however the technology in it is certainly worth having. Getting hold of a cheap kinect for use in an automated drone/vehicle is something that a lot of people do when working on projects such as at university, due to all the sensors in it. For gaming however, until VR gets a place in the living room the kinect is worse off than the Wii.

[Lazmarr]

This is an opinion piece, not news. Either way I'm pretty sure everyone already knew that the Kinect has been dead for some time now.

I don't think the kinect is dead it still works we have functionality in every aspect not just gaming ....in that aspect it's up to the devs to do some cool things with it But Microsoft may have a plan for Kinect that we haven't seen yet

[Snadzies]

Kinect was dead the day it launched, they were just Weekend at Burnies-ing it.

[Warcony]

I disagree. The kinnect is not dead...it is just becoming an optional accessory. People either use their kinnect (like myself) or don't at all. Personally I would buy one to go with my console simply for the voice commands. I'm looking forward to Cortana coming.

[pk-man]

Please don't post Polygon articles. They are the tabloids of the gaming jounalists, and that's considered a compliment.

[ttam]

The kinect happens to get A LOT of drunken use from myself and friends

[M156]

Kinect has a lot of potential for development and stuff like that, but for gaming its a wash. HoloLens is where its at for MS going forward 

[EChondo]

Kinect has been dead for games for years now. I've been saying this since its launch, Microsoft created something for science purposes NOT gaming.

 

The people wanting a Kinect are not gamers, they are scientists that are using it for scientific and medical purposes.

[JAKEBAB]

I don't think kinect was ever targeted at "gamers" tbh i always saw it as a family/kid thing and in saying that i think it still has a place, if you look at the games that use kinect it will show you what i mean. Microsoft trying to be more family and kid friendly isn't a bad thing it's just widening there customer base, why does everyone on here only see things useful if it's only applicable to them .

[Root]

I don't think the Kinect is dead. Gaming wise, yes. However, there are still childish games for Xbox One that use the Kinect. I don't think Microsoft was targeting the Kinect to gamers. Also, it's really nice that you can say "Xbox, on" and it turns on. Or say "Xbox, record that" when you're playing an intense game and can't double-tap the guide button and press X. There are a lot of situations that the Kinect is perfect for, but I do agree that the Kinect is dead as a product for gamers.

 

As for the non-Kinect option for $349, that's a no brainier. They want to sell consoles and beat the PS4 in sales, so they have to remove extra costs (Kinect) and make it optional accessory.

[GoldSrc]

Well, people on PC use it as a cheap 3D scanner, on console yeah almost nobody uses it.

[niofalpha]

Isn't it's target audience like 10 year olds, and people trying to get active or something?

It's a great piece of hardware, that has some awesome games for it. When I was younger I loved mine, and I would still probably have used it if I had space in my room to use it.