Kinect is not required to be plugged into the xbox one

[eastmen]

from ign today

Since Kinect must be plugged in for the Xbox One to function, what happens if your Kinect breaks? Like if it falls off the top of your TV onto a hardwood floor or something? Will the console cease to function?

WHITTEN: Xbox One is designed to work with Kinect plugged in. It makes gaming better in many ways – from the ability to say “Xbox On” and get right to your personalized homescreen, to the ability to control your TV through voice, Smartglass and more. Kinect allows you to search for your content, instantly move between games and your personalized dash and more with just your voice. Kinect helps you pick up and play by automatically knowing which controller you have in your hands. No more need to interrupt your friends game or navigate through multiple UI screens to sign in and tell the system which controller you are holding. It will even bind the controller to the console if its currently unbound – no searching for special buttons! Of course – these are just a few of the system wide benefits of having Kinect. Games use Kinect in a variety of amazing ways from adding voice to control your squad mates to adding lean and other simple controls beyond the controller to full immersive gameplay. That said, like online, the console will still function if Kinect isn’t plugged in, although you won’t be able to use any feature or experience that explicitly uses the sensor

and from gaf

Albert Penello

We still believe in Kinect. We aren’t interested in splitting the development base. The more demos I’ve seen, the more I’ve used it – the more impressed I am. The team feels strongly about Kinect, and I hope we’re able to prove that when you use it.

We also have a ton of privacy settings to allow people to turn off the camera, or microphones, or put it in a state just for “Xbox On” and IR blasting – there will be a lot of user control for that.

The thing we all understood, and hence this change, is that there are some scenarios where people just may not be comfortable. We wanted people to be 100% comfortable, so we allow the sensor to be unplugged. And clearly the “it dropped” scenario is possible.

The most obvious thing is watching a DVD/BD, or streaming a movie, or HDMI pass-through, your experience isn’t impacted (except you miss voice and IR blasting)

There is no “gotcha”, but obviously, if there is a game that REQUIRES Kinect (like Rivals), or something where Kinect IS the experience (like Skype), those won’t work.

That said, for people who have privacy concerns there are user control settings, which we believe are great.

 

[Bagel seed]

Now all that remains is apps paywall and price

 

[MrFox]

Another sudden outbreak of common sense?

Now they can sell it separately for $99, and the basic console SKU at $399.

 

[Tap In]

Another sudden outbreak of common sense?

Now they can sell it separately for $99, and the basic console SKU at $399.

please no. I hope they keep it at full market saturation (even if some tin foils disconnect it now )

 

[MrFox]

please no. I hope they keep it at full market saturation (even if some tin foils disconnect it now )

Why? Don't you think it would increase sales?

 

[BRiT]

Another sudden outbreak of common sense?

Now they can sell it separately for $99, and the basic console SKU at $399.

Oh god no. I don't want kinect on Xbox one to be relegated to second rate citizen that would happen if it falls to be a completely optional accessory.

 

[DrJay24]

Better than second rate and costing an extra $100 in the box.

 

[Tap In]

Why? Don't you think it would increase sales?

short term (first year) it would help but...


...long term it is a better strategy to let everyone see the reason they invested in Kinect so deeply and spent so much to improve it and integrate it to a level which most people will not appreciate until they get to actually use it.

More interested in seeing what can be done with 100% marketplace presence and developer (and MS software OS) ingenuity.


OTHO, in countries where they know they have little to no chance of integrating some of the experiences I can see a watered down version for those regions if they can not ever get the features from it (language or media restriction, licensing issues)

 

[Scott_Arm]

More and more the next-gen consoles are becoming shitty pcs. Without Kinect there is basically no reason to buy an Xbox One. Will Kinect get real support now? Hopefully. If they drop Kinect from the package, next-gen is basically dead to me. In that case, I'll just sell my Xbox One and put the money towards a PC for gaming occassionally. Looking at Xbox One and PS4, I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be excited about.

 

[AzBat]

I don't think today's news is all that different. It was already going to support the ability turn off the sensor via software & it was also going to have all kinds of privacy settings. As long as they don't remove the sensor from the current & future SKUs I think it will continue to work like MS & the developers want. I think it was necessary for MS to save a little face & keep those that didn't like the sensor from completely writing it off.

BTW, I'm saying this even though I would probably buy it at $400, but only if Kinect is included. I don't see that happening for about a year. By then I should be ready to move next-gen.

Tommy McClain

 

[Jay]

Wonder how much Kinect for pc will cost?

 

[Jay]

The funny thing is, that a lot of the people who don't want the Kinect, and say it shouldn't be bundled and dropped by $100, would then say, why would they buy XB1, same price as PS4, but less powerful etc.

So I don't think in the end removing it would have a massive sales boost overall.
Sure it would sell a few more, but compared to the loss of developer confidence of every console having one would be much worse IMO.

 

[Nisaaru]

More and more the next-gen consoles are becoming shitty pcs. Without Kinect there is basically no reason to buy an Xbox One. Will Kinect get real support now? Hopefully. If they drop Kinect from the package, next-gen is basically dead to me. In that case, I'll just sell my Xbox One and put the money towards a PC for gaming occassionally. Looking at Xbox One and PS4, I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be excited about.

With 24M Kinect1 sales according to MS and around 80 for 360 with a lot repair and multiple units per user the attachment rate was quite high. Does anybody seriously think that market size prevented the game companies to deliver the killer Kinect game everybody waited for it? I don't think so.

 

[AzBat]

Wonder how much Kinect for pc will cost?

It was announced June 26 that it would cost $399. It's a PC dev kit. Applications are now closed though.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindowsdev/newdevkit.aspx

Tommy McClain

 

[AzBat]

The funny thing is, that a lot of the people who don't want the Kinect, and say it shouldn't be bundled and dropped by $100, would then say, why would they buy XB1, same price as PS4, but less powerful etc.

So I don't think in the end removing it would have a massive sales boost overall.
Sure it would sell a few more, but compared to the loss of developer confidence of every console having one would be much worse IMO.

Totally agree. People complaining now will just find something else to complain about like the extra $10/month to spend on Xbox Live Gold. Sooner or later MS has to stand their ground on their vision.

Tommy McClain

 

[Jay]

Thanks.
I've not re-read link, but I thought that was basically a Kinect, then you get a Kinect 2 later on.

I was wondering about retail pricing.

 

[Scott_Arm]

With 24M Kinect1 sales according to MS and around 80 for 360 with a lot repair and multiple units per user the attachment rate was quite high. Does anybody seriously think that market size prevented the game companies to deliver the killer Kinect game everybody waited for it? I don't think so.

I do. People bought it to play Kinect Sports. The game devs didn't seriously consider it as an attachment for twitch ("hardcore") games partly because of the demographics and partly because the technology wasn't fit for those games.

Kinect 2 is by reports far more accurate and noticeably less laggy. Plus it was bundled with every single system and previously required to be plugged in. There was far more incentive for devs to make use of it.

The people that don't want Kinect 2 because Kinect 1 "sucked" are basically complaining that they didn't like Laserdisc, so DVD must be terrible. They see no potential in it because they seemingly do not understand that technology can advance year by year. The people that don't want it because of "privacy" issues ... well ... Microsoft logically assumed that consumers that buy laptops, tablets and smartphones with GPS and user-facing cameras would be ok with that. Hell, those consumers would never even consider buying a smartphone without a user-facing camera. Do you remember the backlash when Sony included a user-facing camera on the PS Vita, because Sony or the government might spy on you in your livingroom, bedroom, basement, washroom? I don't. Unfortunately consumers are not logical at all. Either that or consumers sequester their phones, tablets, portables and laptops in camera-safe rooms at home, where there is no potential for abuse by the watching eyes of Big Brother.

This backtrack makes next-gen potentially less attractive for me. PS4 is a shitty pc. Xbox One is a shitty PC with Kinect. The games will be good, but those games will mostly be available on PC as well, and I'm likely to get a new laptop within the next console generation that will be more than capable of playing those same games even better.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

With 24M Kinect1 sales according to MS and around 80 for 360 with a lot repair and multiple units per user the attachment rate was quite high. Does anybody seriously think that market size prevented the game companies to deliver the killer Kinect game everybody waited for it? I don't think so.

Yes, that is absolutely the case. If it had been optional for Xbox One, Kinect would die a slow death and eventually be just as relevant to gaming as the PS Eye, Move controllers, or Light Guns.

Why would a developer devote time to a feature that over half of the potential user base would never use because they don't have the capability to use it, unless it was in the publisher's interest (for example Sony Published titles pushing 3D, but 3rd party?).

How many titles have tried to integrate something related to Kinect in addition to standard controller based controls? I can only think of one 3rd party developed game off hand (ME3), but I'm sure there might be a handful of others.

I think quite a few titles on Xbox One will have some things that can be done with Kinect or controller (like ME3) now that it is standard with every single console.

More publishers will be tempted to experiment with Kinect only or Kinect enhanced gameplay when 100% of the console's userbase has Kinect, than they would if less than half of the userbase has Kinect.

Regards,
SB

 

[Nisaaru]

Did you actually process the numbers here? That's close to 50% per xbox household with all the multiple units sold. Just for exclusivity sake the killer Kinect game would have generated sales you couldn't with normal 360 games because the market competition is a lot fiercer for normal 360 games.
So, I really don't buy into this spin.

 

[Cyan]

Yes, that is absolutely the case. If it had been optional for Xbox One, Kinect would die a slow death and eventually be just as relevant to gaming as the PS Eye, Move controllers, or Light Guns.

Why would a developer devote time to a feature that over half of the potential user base would never use because they don't have the capability to use it, unless it was in the publisher's interest (for example Sony Published titles pushing 3D, but 3rd party?).

How many titles have tried to integrate something related to Kinect in addition to standard controller based controls? I can only think of one 3rd party developed game off hand (ME3), but I'm sure there might be a handful of others.

I think quite a few titles on Xbox One will have some things that can be done with Kinect or controller (like ME3) now that it is standard with every single console.

More publishers will be tempted to experiment with Kinect only or Kinect enhanced gameplay when 100% of the console's userbase has Kinect, than they would if less than half of the userbase has Kinect.

Regards,
SB

Yes, same here. I don't mind the news at all, I couldn't use the Xbox 360 without Kinect anymore. It's there, it doesn't disturb my gaming and it can be really useful sometimes, so I wanted it to be part of every Xbox One.

That's the whole point. There is a good thing about this news, and it's that the console will still function properly even if your Kinect 2 stop working for some reason, so you can replace it but you can also play on the console while you wait for a replacement.