Microsoft finally kills the Kinect

[ravenshrike]

And lo, a significant part of the reason for the XBone's lagging in sales behind the PS4 is finally taken out back behind the woodshed and shot. MS has finally stopped manufacturing the Kinect, which no significant developer made games for anyway. Which means only the already made stock is available. Place your bets as to whether that stock will ever actually sell out.

 

 

https://www.fastcodesign.com/90147868/exclusive-microsoft-has-stopped-manufacturing-the-kinect

 

 

Quote

Manufacturing of the Kinect has shut down. Originally created for the Xbox 360, Microsoft’s watershed depth camera and voice recognition microphone sold ~35 million units since its debut in 2010, but Microsoft will no longer produce it when retailers sell off their existing stock. The company will continue to support Kinect for customers on Xbox, but ongoing developer tools remain unclear. Microsoft shared the news with Co.Design in exclusive interviews with Alex Kipman, creator of the Kinect, and Matthew Lapsen, GM of Xbox Devices Marketing.

 

[Crunchy Dragon]

*whistles*

 

What are they replacing it with? Or is it not getting a replacement?

[Syntaxvgm]

and nothing of value was lost. 

[phongle123]

Just now, Crunchy Dragon said:

*whistles*

 

What are they replacing it with? Or is it not getting a replacement?

They're focusing on their VR Glasses, haven't followed it in months though.

[RAM555789]

If its a hardware piece that nobody likes, just simply drop it an hope to draw in more customers with lower prices.

[Tech Enthusiast]

3 minutes ago, ravenshrike said:

https://www.fastcodesign.com/90147868/exclusive-microsoft-has-stopped-manufacturing-the-kinect

 

 

 

 

 

And lo, a significant part of the reason for the XBone's lagging in sales behind the PS4 is finally taken out back behind the woodshed and shot.

Why would an optional feature be responsible for less sales?

That would be pretty stupid from the consumer tbh.

 

Id say the poor performance is what made up the lagging sales.

People seem to understand how weak consoles are by now. And apart from people that just don't care at all and are fine to play at crappy graphics it is getting harder and harder to argue in favor of a console.

 

Truth be told,... the only console i bought in the past 10 years was a Xbox. And why? Because of kinect. When it released it was something that i could not get on my PC. And my wife loved it for workouts as well. So, without kinect we would not have considered a console at all. After all we can just stream all the games to our TV from our desktops, so why would be pay for weak hardware without any positive aspect at all? 

 

Kinect was not loved by the masses, but it was something unique that gave a reason to buy a console. Sad that it ended like this.

[ProjectBox153]

Am I the only one who's actually sad? I thought it was a really cool idea, and certainly had potential.

[79wjd]

5 minutes ago, Rattenmann said:

Why would an optional feature be responsible for less sales?

For the first year all XBONEs included a Kinect. It wasn't until a year later when Microsoft eventually added a kinect-less XBONE (for $100 less), but the initial damage was done. 

[Tech Enthusiast]

2 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

For the first year all XBONEs included a Kinect. It wasn't until a year later when Microsoft eventually added a kinect-less XBONE (for $100 less), but the initial damage was done. 

Ah ok, did not know that.

I already had a kinect from the first generation. Did not consider the "current" consoles at all, so did not follow their marketing i guess.

 

Just saw some tests showing how lackluster the consoles where, and that the xbox was even worse. So i figured the better sales for the PS came because of bang for the buck stuff.

[79wjd]

2 minutes ago, Rattenmann said:

So i figured the better sales for the PS came because of bang for the buck stuff.

Well, the PS4 launched at $400 and the XBONE launched at $500 w/ Kinect ($400 a year later without Kinect). Had the XBONE not had the Kinect it would have likely sold a lot better than it did. The PS4 was still more powerful, so it may very well have still sold more units, however, I'd imagine that a lot of people would have taken the slight performance loss to stick with Microsoft for exclusives or because that's what they were used to/etc... But at a $100 premium and less performance things look different. 

[ignaloidas]

So Microsoft is killing Just Dance?

[Tech Enthusiast]

2 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

 I'd imagine that a lot of people would have taken the slight performance loss to stick with Microsoft for exclusives or because that's what they were used to/etc... But at a $100 premium and less performance things look different. 

I see.

The whole exclusive crap is my second reason (next to prefering good graphics and performance) to avoid consoles.

 

If you need exclusive games to sell your stuff, maybe your stuff is bad. Try investing the money you save on exclusive deals for better hardware. May work wonders.

[Dabombinable]

Yay, The Eye of Sauron has been destroyed!

[Nowak]

The Kinect was a solution looking for a problem. I'm amazed it lasted as long as it did.

[Sauron]

8 minutes ago, Dabombinable said:

Yay, The Eye of Sauron has been destroyed!

Say whaaaat?

7 minutes ago, Daring said:

The Kinect was a solution looking for a problem. I'm amazed it lasted as long as it did.

It's actually really cool and cheap tool for making 3d scans, it's a lot more usefulfor researchers than it ever was for gamers. I wish they kept making a version for that.

[ravenshrike]

50 minutes ago, Rattenmann said:

Ah ok, did not know that.

I already had a kinect from the first generation. Did not consider the "current" consoles at all, so did not follow their marketing i guess.

 

Just saw some tests showing how lackluster the consoles where, and that the xbox was even worse. So i figured the better sales for the PS came because of bang for the buck stuff.

 

44 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Well, the PS4 launched at $400 and the XBONE launched at $500 w/ Kinect ($400 a year later without Kinect). Had the XBONE not had the Kinect it would have likely sold a lot better than it did. The PS4 was still more powerful, so it may very well have still sold more units, however, I'd imagine that a lot of people would have taken the slight performance loss to stick with Microsoft for exclusives or because that's what they were used to/etc... But at a $100 premium and less performance things look different. 

It didn't help that in addition to the performance difference between the Xbox One and the PS4, the Kinect also dropped another 10-15% performance hit in consumption of system resources even when it wasn't in use until a patch quite a few months later.

[JoeCoke]

1 hour ago, Rattenmann said:

Why would an optional feature be responsible for less sales?

That would be pretty stupid from the consumer tbh.

 

Id say the poor performance is what made up the lagging sales.

People seem to understand how weak consoles are by now. And apart from people that just don't care at all and are fine to play at crappy graphics it is getting harder and harder to argue in favor of a console.

 

Truth be told,... the only console i bought in the past 10 years was a Xbox. And why? Because of kinect. When it released it was something that i could not get on my PC. And my wife loved it for workouts as well. So, without kinect we would not have considered a console at all. After all we can just stream all the games to our TV from our desktops, so why would be pay for weak hardware without any positive aspect at all? 

 

Kinect was not loved by the masses, but it was something unique that gave a reason to buy a console. Sad that it ended like this.

Maybe you're not too familiar with the history of the Kinect and the XBO. At launch it wasn't optional and had to be connected at all times iirc. This was changed because of the backlash and it's still left a scar on the system.

[Brooksie359]

59 minutes ago, Rattenmann said:

I see.

The whole exclusive crap is my second reason (next to prefering good graphics and performance) to avoid consoles.

 

If you need exclusive games to sell your stuff, maybe your stuff is bad. Try investing the money you save on exclusive deals for better hardware. May work wonders.

Or maybe their exclusives are just really good? I have been tempted to buy a ps4 for the exclusives like uncharted and the last of us. Also have considered getting a 3ds for Pokemon games. I mean look at the Xbox and the halo franchise. I'm taking the original 3 games. They helped sell the console not because the console was bad but because the game was so good. I mean if an experience is enriched to the point where it's worth buying it really doesn't matter if it is the console or the game that is good because the experience is.

[LAwLz]

Does this apply to all Kinects or just some versions of it?

[GoodBytes]

I am sorry, but your entry does not meet the posting guidelines, and has been moved out until corrected:

> You need to explain the news in your own words as well as the rest.

[GoodBytes]

Well that is a real shame... I mean.. yes it sucked.. but on my previous job we were doing some R&D with Kinect (prototype for body tracking), and the moment you combined 2x XBox One (NOT 360.. that one was awful!), to track 1 body, basically combining the data of 2x Kinect from 2 different perspective, the tracking was SERIOUSLY impressive.

 

Basically, if Microsoft made the XBox One version day 1, with 2x cameras instead of 1 in the hardware (like your 2 eyes), I am most convinced that it would have worked 100x better, and rarely have any issues. But of course, it would require calibration, and it would drive up the cost a lot more, especially in the XBox 360 days (or you know.. wait), and it would be totally a different story. Maybe all the promised marketed material that never really materialized would have 100% possible.

[Teddy07]

3 hours ago, Syntaxvgm said:

and nothing of value was lost. 

I don't get all the hate.

 

Sure you might not like it but other people might have.

[Syntaxvgm]

Just now, Teddy07 said:

I don't get all the hate.

 

Sure you might not like it but other people might have.

my dislike went to hate when the forced people to buy it as part of the xbone originally. 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

3 hours ago, Jamiec1130 said:

Am I the only one who's actually sad? I thought it was a really cool idea, and certainly had potential.

Sort of the story of many Microsoft products as of late. Windows Phone, had potential and lots of cool concepts (I'm still enthused with Continuum), but it never really addressed core issues enough to buy into the hearts of the public, so it was ultimately placed off life support. 

[Teddy07]

2 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

my dislike went to hate when the forced people to buy it as part of the xbone originally. 

You have the option to buy it, nobody did force you. You dislike something, just don't buy it

 

Just my opinion.