What Killed The Kinect?

The Kinect was one of Microsoft and Xbox's biggest flops. What exactly went wrong? Falcon takes a look.

[BigDogDaddyD]

I really like the Kinect. More and more retirement homes and medical recovery units are using them for physical therapy. They're dirt cheap now compared to 10 years ago. Still lots of fun.

[yarekoog]

Kinect was very advanced for its time. I really enjoyed using them and so did my sister and my parents. It’s quite sad that general public didn’t show enough love when Xbox box one came bundled with it. People just wanted plain old console. When Microsoft started selling the Kinect separately, even lesser people bought them. A final nail to the coffin for Kinect. Long live Kinect!

[wavelogic]

I use Kinect for motion capture for film making. Use about 8 of them simultaneously. A mocap studio costs thousand$ per day to rent, the Kinect V1 and V2 can be purchased second hand for $20 bucks each and they work better than Hollywood studio-level Depth sensors.

[aLse]

What killed kinect?
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People are just to lazy to move

[drowsybrowser]

I worked for Kinect as a demo girl during the release and for a year after. I think the tech worked well enough at the time that if there had been lots of good games it would have been a massive hit. People who came into my store had the most fun just becoming an Xbox avatar and making it do dumb things. It failed for three reasons.

1: Lack of games, Kinect Sports sold separately.
2: Not taught how to setup and use it right, lots of parents put it on a table and it wasn’t reading kids heads or feet, got frustrated when it didn’t work. Needs to be calibrated to see your whole body in the top right hand shadow box or it doesn’t work.
3: Need to shove the coffee table out of the way to play EVERY TIME. Tired after work/school? Forget it.

[Wolfcam]

Not gonna lie, Dance Central 1 and 2 were my favourite games for the 360 Kinect back then. I now have Just Dance 2018 for my Switch and it doesn't feel the same anymore, Dance Central was so spot on with the Kinect for it's time I loved it and was super impressed by the technology at the time!

[TampaTec]

Just dance and Kinect sports is great on Kinect and 2nd gen works even better.

[pankarezas]

I will NEVER understand Americans wearing shoes inside the house, lying on the bed with them. How can they do it??

[ZenEmu]

You managed to miss out on the promises Microsoft made to disabled gamers with Kinect. Neither system btw could map your skeleton unless you were stood up and gesture control required both hands in the air at once.

[xanderrodgers]

The Kinect is actually good for exercise since it involves physical movement...anyone realized that?

[JJack]

When it was announced I remember everyone saying it always had to be on and it would record you and/or personal info.
People thought it was an FBI spy camera. Lmao.

[JoelCelaya]

I’m in shock for this. I don’t consider myself a hardcore gamer, but I enjoyed every single moment I spent playing with my friends’ Kinects, I wanted to buy my own so badly. I’m a very physical person (like a lot of people) and this was just wonderful! No pushing complicated sequences of buttons to make combos in a fighting game, only your body! That was phenomenal! And to this day I still believe it’s a really cool technology, with a lot of more uses beyond gaming and healthcare. The fact that they completely stop production makes no sense to me, makes me think that gamers just want more of the same: same titles with the same button-pushing experiences tied to a screen. On a side note, think about this product in 2020: it would be an awesome gaming experiences for people during quarantine, helping you stay fit while playing and doing something fun, all without going out. Man, Kinect got so much undeserved hate, maybe it was a product ahead of its time. In the mean time, I hope it returns, somehow, eventually, to our homes. 😃

[mokaza]

The kinect wasn't killed, it was MURDERED.

[notreally]

Having owned both version of Kinects day 1, I have to say we really enjoyed using it. Kinect v1 lasted the longest til the day we sold our 360 because of Kinect adventures and Just Dance. Young cousins and nephews enjoys the hell out of it each time they visit. Kinect v2 didn't last that long in our entertainment setup due to lack of game supports and maybe because we're older now and are no longer fond of getting sweaty. I would like to point out though that the Kinect isn't simply a "webcam". As said in the video, it is a depth sensor that relies on hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of infrared beams that are read by an IR camera. It also has an RGB camera or the "webcam" sensor is what overlays color to it to generate a 3D view when needed (more on custom software when used in a PC). So calling the Kinect as just a "webcam" is misleading and wrong since that is just 1/3rd of its sensors/features and it's the least used one at that.

[redneckgamer]

I honestly miss playing kinect games. it is really good exercise, especially with the dancing games and some of the sports games.

[Archontasil]

Back in college days, i used kinect for mapping people for various projects. It was so useful for our projects.

[HappyPasztet]

Wow, I didn't even know that kinect is dead. I'm still playing dance central on my Xbox 360

[augereyy]

The “I use the Kinect to talk to my friends” squad

[jacobboer]

Your first experience with kinect adventures clearly wasn't at 3 am at a drunk night with friends. Cause I can guarantee you that ll make you love it

[ststephen]

if only milo worked and came out maybe it could of went somewhere