RIP Kinect: 2010-2017(ish)

Discontinued USB adapter is the last nail in the coffin for influential tech.

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[EspHack]

Was Microsoft just never able to address some of the problems/limitations mentioned in the article? This seems like something they should have been able to continue R&D on and get to be a fantastic piece of hardware, beyond just a gaming peripheral.

I remember thinking that the Kinect could eventually give us something like Minority Report hand control of things. That clearly never happened, but I struggle to understand the limiting factors that prevented that.

seems to me they wanted/expected devs to pull that off, so the kinect was useless for a pc until a year or so ago when they made it into a functional webcam/mic, back in w8.1 days I expected to plug it in and use my htpc like a huge at-a-distance touchscreen, at the very least

 

[laz001]

When I think about MS, I get so mad.

Just a couple of years ago, they had everything to create an amazing, holistic consumer ecosystem.

A promising mobile phone platform
An awesome fitness device and backend health system
A motion/voice activated living room sensor
A superb music streaming platform
A brand new shared ‘store’ across all devices
A home entertainment device/games console

The vision was right there to become the no1 consumer ecosystem. I buy a song/film from the store on my phone, it’s there on my laptop, home games console, fitness band, share with my family etc - sooo close.

And typical MS, a lack of coherent vision, terrible marketing (again) and now they are dead in the consumer space.

I don’t trust my data with Google, I don’t want to switch to MacOS, in my mind there’s room for an MS ecosystem, obviously MS don’t see it.

In worst case, here’s what happens over the next few years.

Cortana is canned because Amazon beat them to market.
Films and TV is canned just like Groove
Hololens is canned like Kinect
The store is canned as nobody continues using it.
Young kids just follow iPhone and Galaxy and use the Apple/Google ecosystem so buy Macs or chrome books , and eventually Windows dies

MS removes itself from the consumer space completely and becomes Azure/backend services provider only.

It’s sad.

 

[Dark Jaguar]

It's like all MS knows how to do is 100% commitment to an idea or 0% kill it off. The kinect deserved a firm 15% commitment. There's a pack-in deluxe version of the system, a version without it, and there are a handful of games with reliance on 3rd parties to fully realize it. That's all they ever had to do with the thing.

With Nintendo, I was never upset they put motion controls in the Switch controller, I was upset they wedged in motion controls in games that didn't really need them in the first place.

 

[raxadian]

I'm glad that motion fad finally died out. PS move, Wii, Kinect are all great similar ideas in theory but really horrible experiences when it came to the execution. I've had/played with them all trying to ride the hype train and with the small selection of kids' or workout games and poor integration all sent them back packing. I tried hard with my wife to really get into jumping around the living room like an idiot while the thing rarely picked up our movements. I think introducing this as a supplemental physical activity device to justify screen time was genius, but when it fails to pick up movement, there's no competitive element left to enjoy. I'd rather buy a $10 billy blanks dvd, pull a muscle and be done with it.

Perhaps VR will be the next thing to suffer a slow death, as it did in the 90's when it originally came out in malls for $5/play, and let's not forget Virtual Boy that was a bit ahead of it's time and extremely overpriced at the time Nintendo was gaining ground. I'm not salty about it all because to be honest I called it a long time ago when I said why not just come out with a console with a controller and be done. Stop trying to develop all this high priced hardware accessories that are unplayable with 90% of the core gaming IP. Switch did a pretty good job at making Nintendo relevant again, I just wish Sega would get a rebirth now.

I know stores still trying to get rid of their Wii Fit units...

To sum it up while motion control can be fun, the main reason the Wii was a success was that it had games for any ages and it was cheap. Plus the fact it was compatible with Gamecube games.

When I saw the Wii U I basically saw Nintendo trying to make their own "Dreamcast". I mean the whole tablet deal is like they were ignoring the same could be done using a 3DS connected to the console only with a smaller screen.

Heck the tablet was basically taking the infamous Dreamcast memory card and updating it to more modern standards.

Worse is like they completely ignored how the Wii and the DS could connect to each other when making the Wi U.. Heck if anything the option to use the 3DS/2DS as mini tablet would have saved Nintendo money even if it mean not all games would be playable in that mode.

 

[Zig Justice]

Ars, I've been reading for years, and I love you, but this...

By the time Microsoft announced it was halting Kinect production a few months ago, both user demand and developer support for the unit had been rapidly congealing for years.

(Emphasis added.) This! Is the worst turn of phrase I have read on this site, ever.

First, something that is ongoing for a period of years is not something that lends itself to be described as "rapid", unless the timescales you're talking about are, say, geological, or something. Then, based on the context, it seems "evaporating", "dwindling", "attenuating", or something similar would make much more sense than "congealing" (verb: 1. become semi-solid, especially on cooling; 2. take shape or coalesce, especially to form a satisfying whole).

Bleah.

. o O (On topic, I'm not at all invested in Microsoft's console platform, but I'm no fanboy, so I will clearly say that this sucks. It's spitting in the face of not only their entire launch user base, but also their loyal customers planning to upgrade to newer hardware.)

Edit: Eliminated an extra redundancy by removing it.

Edit 2: I accidentally an apostrophe.

 

[johncuyle]

So, if I buy an Xbox one x, what do I use for an array mic and IR blaster with it?