Microsoft: Kinect Competitor Would Be "Super-Challenging" To Develop

[Veylon]

They'd better make sure there's money coming in before they start bragging about how great it is. Otherwise it'd be like Nintendo saying no one can match their red 3D eye-damaging goggle making skills.

 

[Sephiwind]

I'm sorry but if the Kinect is such a damn good piece of equipment then why was the "Live Demo" at the M$ event of E3 faked?

 

[Danzaivar]

Again, comparing Eye-toy to Kinect is comparing a skateboard to a Vespa.
Depth of field, people. Something that a single camera eye-toy is physically incapable of doing.
What difference does that make? You tell me. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spinning_Dancer]

Of course, what the MS guy is really talking about is the software inside the machine to make sense of all the data it's getting. Keeping different people separated when they cross in front of the camera, etc.

That all said, I tend to agree that the real question isn't "Can anybody copy this" but rather, "Does anybody want to?"

Thank you! Someone else is getting annoyed with the eye toy comparisons too. Was starting to feel a little 'only sane man left' in this thread. There's a world of difference between tracking a silhouette (Eyetoy) and what essentially amounts to digital motion capture (Kinect).

Of course, most people just see it has a camera and go LOLTHEREWASACAMERABEFORETHIS.

- - -

OT: They're setting themselves up to look like idiots at this rate. Or they've realised that it's going to bomb, and are just bigging it up so people will rush out to buy it before it being crap is common knowledge. Neither is particularly encouraging, Microsoft.

 

[lapan]

They should wait until Kinect is actually selling well before they start boasting about how awesome it apparently will be.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

Of course that would be super-challenging. Developing something that already EXISTS is pretty damn hard. Lawsuits, patents, etc.

Did they forget that they're competing with the Wii and Move? Don't think Kinect is in a different realm altogether, Microsoft. It's still only motion control.

BUt you know, I could be over simplfying it, I know I'm over sumplifying it, but if you take three cameras with motion tracking (because you know the game is going to ask for a T-stance to get your body's alignment), and you have then talk to one another and say where each part of your body is going where... You just might be able to pull it off...

Fuck that was super hard

 

[IbanezLaney]

Maybe just look at microsofts product history and expect the same results is best.

Microsoft have been making browsers for how long ?
Every non-microsoft browser that has come out since is better with less bugs in the final product. (Chrome/FireFox/Opera/etc)

Xbox's were de-soldering their own cpu's for years due to cost cutting at manufacture and are 3-4 generations behind a cheap PC of the same cost and require constant theft of your $$$$ just to play online.

Microsoft say GFWL is the best online gaming system and it's a lolfail joke to anybody who has used Steam.

I will give some credit - Microsoft do understand marketing/selling products better then most - Success of Xbox is proof of their marketing skill considering PS3 is much more powerful and way cheaper once 'live' subscription fees are taken into account - Microsoft's marketing dept know the spazzos don't seem to understand basic math. Microsoft know most people will only look at the consoles retail price and not think only one hour ahead of that to when they actually hook the console up and want to play online.

So a superior and cheaper version of kinect will likely appear in weeks (Chinese factory's don't keep secrets well - they make more profit selling the designs to competitors)- it just wont be marketed as well and therefore it will be less popular and 'not as good' in the fanboi's eyes.

 

[XerxesQados]

What he means to say is, "It's fairly easy for someone to make something as good as Kinect, which is why we've secured thousands of frivolous patents on it, so that we can be anti-competitive and sue the fuck out of them."

Because this is Microsoft we're talking about.