Xbox One No Longer Requires Kinect to Function

[Zeren]

It still costs too much. Both the xbone and ps4 do. Why would I ever want to shell out $400 or $500 when I could just use that money to buy a much needed upgrade for my PC that will last me another 6 or so years?

 

[Genocidicles]

How is it immersion breaking? Making callouts and saying orders would probably make people more immersed since they're controlling the game with their voice.

But surely that could be done with a microphone instead of a $100 peripheral?

 

[tippy2k2]

They need to either embrace the stupid thing fully or they need to cut the loss and abandon it.

Why? How is it any different from any other gaming peripheral? Making it so that the x-bone can function without it will only put more consoles in more people's houses, and that opens up more possibilities for people to buy the Kinect. It's rather hard for the Kinect to be successful when people are so turned off by the thing they're avoiding the console altogether. But if they can get more Kinects in more homes, and if they offer competitive pricing for the x-bone/Kinect combo pack (make it only like $20 more than a PS4 rather than $100 more), then they'll only win over more.

In theory making it to where you must by the Kinect with the x-bone was clever marketing--that way every home has a Kinect and it makes a good investment for devs and publishers. But, people were so turned off by the idea of not being able to turn it off or put it away that it was completely blinding them from any other benefit. The requirement wasn't helpful or beneficial, it was sabotaging their marketing. In theory this works, and it might have if they hadn't given people so many reasons to see their console as Big Brother rather than a machine built for fun and user-friendliness.

This isn't a failure of technology, or even of the idea. This is a failure of marketing. This generation, Microsoft has been totally deaf and blind to how their changes and decisions were received by the public, and that is what's let them down. And it's really quite incredible really, with all the tools they had at their disposal for testing this thing and all the professionals they could have consulted about how these decisions would be received.

That's why I like that they make it non-mandatory but feel like it still should come with the system

Microsoft doesn't want the Kinect to be a peripheral, they want it to become a system. Peripheral's always have a shelf life; they survive as long as the first game that created them is popular and then it falls off the map, never to be seen again.

The "Track and Field" mat for the NES; the Bazooka for the SNES; the light gun from Time Crisis for the PS1; Rock Band equipment for this generation; hell, if I was a snarky person, one could argue the Wii

That's not what Microsoft wants. While I have a bigger and better sounding argument in my brain, CrystalShadow [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.825143-Xbox-One-No-Longer-Requires-Kinect-to-Function?page=2#20010945] already nailed down my full argument while I was sleeping.

Now to be clear, I 100% agree that this is a total failure of marketing by Microsoft. I own a Kinect and when the little bastard works, it's kind of cool and I can see potential games in my minds eye that would be bad-ass (am I the only one who would LOVE a NFL First Person Quarterback game?) but Microsoft failed miserably to convince people it was worth it. By forcing it into your system, they're skipping the marketing middle-man and praying that developers will latch onto it if they know everyone has it.

It's a gamble but I honestly believe that they need to choose to embrace it or ditch it. If they create a Kinect-free version, they might as well put a bullet in the Kinect now and save us having to watch the poor thing die a slow and drawn-out death.

 

[Evonisia]

I wonder how it will function now, but yes, the Kinect was pretty much the last major thing keeping me from showing some form of kindness to the Xbox One because really, who liked the Kinect when it was on the 360?

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I'm relatively certain I'm going to be the only one thinking this but here it goes...

I like this. HOWEVER, shipping out a Kinect-free version would be a terrible mistake.

At this point, Microsoft has a lot of eggs in the Kinect basket. They need to either embrace the stupid thing fully or they need to cut the loss and abandon it.

I completely agree. Unless a kinect is guaranteed to be in every living room that has an xbox, it will be relegated to accessory and not the integral feature it was meant to be. As an integral feature, developers will utilise it, as an accessory it will only attract niche titles.

But then in the age we're in of cross platform development being the norm, and the PS4 lacking an equivalent, it may well get little love anyway.

 

[Amaury_games]

What I take from this is that Microsoft's business strategy was/is: Advertise a crappy console with unnecessary restrictions that will take more money from your public than it should and will probably enrage them. If there's a backlash, then proceed to remove the unnecessary functions one by one until the public believes Microsoft actually listened to them and made these changes to make them happy.
Either that or this funny situation: Microsoft's idea of the next gen console is extremely obnoxious. Sony then, proceed to make the point that they aren't like Microsoft. And now, Microsoft is starting to make the point that they're like Sony. Oh, the hilarity! XD

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Yay?

I never understood the gripe about the Kinect(other than the spying stuff. I do understand that). Do people fear standing up when they play games?

10 bucks says that 90% of games with Kinect are just going to use it for voice commands mid-combat. I don't think you'll be forced to dodge incoming attacks with tactical rolls or anything.

It's not a matter of fear, it's a matter of wanting to relax when playing games, as opposed to acting like a monkey to get the console to register your movements, and even then it's usually sketchy.

I suppose I can understand that, but from what I understand many games with Kinect just use it as a voice recognizer like Mass Effect 3 did with squadmate powers and things of that nature.

People are always saying that Kinect-only games hardly work, but I've played one of the Dance Central games at a friends house and it worked fine.

But if it's only for the voice, a built in mic would do just fine, there's no need for a motion/everything sensor. And even then, voice recognition is hardly an exact science. It just makes no sense.

 

[TwoSidesOneCoin]

http://kotaku.com/xbox-one-wont-actually-need-kinect-plugged-in-microso-1113142909

Sorry, no Kinect free bundle for anyone.

Until there is one, I'm not getting it. As long as the Kinect comes in the box, there's the possibility that they'll eventually put out a mandatory software update to make you use it again. I wouldn't trust them not to try that.

That right there is the reason I don't trust them. What is to prevent them from changing their hardware to work just as they originally planned? They were adamant that it would be hard to change and then next thing you know they changed almost everything. So what's to stop them from changing it back to how it was?

Customer backlash? "We already have your money, we don't care if you don't want the system to work like this."

Let's hope they don't do it, but judging from how they handled this whole issue, it seems that long term thinking isn't their strong suit.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

Wow...Crazy how all our ranting is actually being listened to.
At this rate, the Xbone might have a chance sales wise, but the PR damage has already been done.

 

[Flames66]

I'm relatively certain I'm going to be the only one thinking this but here it goes...

I like this. HOWEVER, shipping out a Kinect-free version would be a terrible mistake.

At this point, Microsoft has a lot of eggs in the Kinect basket. They need to either embrace the stupid thing fully or they need to cut the loss and abandon it. If they release a version of the system without the Kinect, they're going to end up with the original Kinect's problem; No one designing anything for it because it's an optional piece of equipment that no one bought.

Personally, I'd prefer them to just abandon it but I doubt that's going to happen.

You're probably right there. I personally would prefer it if the kinect gets ignored by most developers as I don't trust m$ with an always on camera/mic that can detect someones position, bodily functions and emotional state and would refuse to talk around one. Also it would make porting things to other consoles and PCs much simpler.

 

[loc978]

Spoiler: snip

This almost got interesting. Inferior hardware for the same price would make for a much closer race than inferior hardware for more money. Maybe Microsoft is just biding their time with all of these Xbone about-faces. Perhaps each was planned as a fallback point from the beginning...

Or maybe they've planned to make a package that drops the Kinect and $150 off the price, that might actually make it competitive.

As someone who is essentially sitting this generation out, I'm interested to see if one side screwing up and slowly correcting themselves garners more praise than the other side having a reasonable(ish) plan from the beginning and sticking to it.

To be honest, and I'm speaking as someone who is pretty pleased with the change, if only for peace of mind, the string of policy changes seem less some preplanned series of fallback points, And more a gradual toeing of the line. Rather than simply make all of the changes at once, they're seeing how many changes it would actually take to get sales up to whatever projections they have or, possibly, to reach a parity with the PS4. When the DRM and used game reversal were made, There was a responding surge in preorders, but the Xbox One looked to be behind the PS4. So they loosened indie restrictions by allowing self-publishing, which, at least on Amazon, made absolutely no difference. When that wasn't enough, they included a headset, same lack of difference. When that wasn't enough, they made the Kinect no longer quite as critical to the system's operation.

I base this mostly off the fact that the loosening of indie policies, and the inclusion of a headset both have likely cost Microsoft a fair bit of income and control. With self-publishing, presumably they cannot seek terms of timed exclusivity on indie games like they could with the Xbox 360's indie publishing policies, Meaning that any indie exclusives are likely ones they would have to fund outright, or purchase, instead of making it a requirement to publish through Microsoft Studios. Combine that with the fact that they previously released statements insisting they would not be changing their minds on either policy, and the suggestion is that something has motivated them to do it after all.

What really leaves me curious is what might happen if this newest announcement doesn't tip the numbers in their favor either. Will they give up and just let things rest as they are? Or are more changes on the horizon?

Perhaps this is just me being incredibly cynical about advertising and corporate PR in general... and Microsoft's PR specifically... but I tend to assume such statements of intent are simply lies (in fact, I'll be amazed if Sony's PS4 used game policy is as simple in practice as it is in their advertising). There's very little to be gained by honesty in advertising these days, and very little to be lost through a lack thereof.

Mind you, I do agree that they absolutely intended to get away with all of their schemes to begin with... if possible. Turns out that a large portion of their customer base is smart enough not to fall for that (insert meme about faith in humanity featuring Freddy Mercury here).

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

This just goes to show how much confidence they had on their own product: not much.

They had confidence in it, just none of the gamers did. An its not like MS actually sold the Kinect2 to the gamers to make us want it. Oh well, it wont be missed.

 

[tardcore]

Well well, this just gets better and better. So this means that every thing they said was set in stone and unchangeable about the Xbone was utter utter bullshit. Props to them actually listening (well caving under) the criticism, but considering this whole fiasco I think Microsoft could benefit from culling some of the higher up morons that helped to cause it.

 

[Roxas1359]

And thus nothing of value was lost.
Honestly these 180s are actually really starting to show how out of touch Microsoft is with the rest of its consumer base. I mean they spent millions on PR hyping this thing up, defending all of their bad decisions, and then one by one they start doing a 180 on all their decisions.

Really at this point it's not the Xbox One, it's basically the Xbox 720 now since they've reversed so many decisions. Hell if they keep it up this way I may eventually just pick one up years down the road. In the mean time I'll be playing my PS3, Wii U, 360, and eventually a PS4 to tide me over. :3

Edit: Oh, and while I know Mattrick isn't there anymore I feel the need to post this picture. XD

 

[VG_Addict]

How anyone can trust Microsoft anymore is beyond me. First, it was the Windows 8 fiasco. Then, it was the XBOX One DRM. Then, we learn that they've been helping the NSA.

And this changes nothing. It's still expensive despite being less powerful, you can't do shit without a Gold membership, and most of the good games for it at launch are multiplat.

 

[CriticalMiss]

This means little if they are still going to bundle it in with the console rather than give people a choice to not buy it. I wonder if it will affect the price much too, people have said it is the sole reason the Xbone is $100 more than the PS4 and if they do actually drop the Kinect they might stand a chance.

 

[Tenkage]

ok, if they make it so I don't need cloud save and they release a kinectless version of the console, then I might consider buying it

 

[HellbirdIV]

Just removing the things that make people reject the Xbone isn't enough, not for me anyway.

Considering all the money they must have poured into it by now I'm surprised there hasn't been a single thing about the Xbone that made me consider purchasing it, and that's before you get to the shady proposals, blatant lies in PR and pathetic attempts to squeeze whatever extra money out of the consumer that they can.

 

[Terminate421]

Now probably isn't the best time to place faith in Microsoft to "do what's right". They're only removing this stuff now due to enourmous backlash from the public, and it's obvious they aren't happy about it.

Not saying it's gonna happen or it ain't, just that it seems wrong to dismiss the possibility completely. If I did plan on buyin one, I'd at least wait a little while first to see how everything pans out. There's no harm in waiting.

I haven't put faith into them. I just know by absolute human reason they seriously would not do something completely inhumanly stupid like that. The enforcement of requiring Kinect to use a console after the user has purchased it when for some period of time it didn't require it would be fucking suicidal. On top of that, they would be intentionally bricking everyone's console if they did not have access to a kinect until those users went out and bought themselves a kinect. In other words, it would be a forced 75-100$ update that holds their console hostage and renders it useless until the user purchases what is required. No business in history would even consider or has pulled a move like that. Even if they were run by the fucking Cobra Commander they wouldn't do it, they'd lose money faster than water flows down Niagra Falls.

Them Backtracking hasn't ruined my support for them permanently but I am glaringly aiming every weapon I have at them while they remove their bullshit policies bit by bit. I loved my 360 more than anythin' and currently I am seeing more and more reason to buy an Xbox One, but I won't forget their retarded decision to cut their own leg off on May 21st. The only thing I need is 399$ for a console or less and I'll buy one.

 

[soren7550]

Yay?

I never understood the gripe about the Kinect(other than the spying stuff. I do understand that). Do people fear standing up when they play games?

Other than the spying stuff, people's gripes on the Kinect typically are:

- They don't have enough space for it to work (from what I remember, you need ten feet of space between you and the Kinect, and for a lot of people, they'd have to redo their entire rooms just to get the stupid thing to work, and for some it's just downright impossible for them to do thanks to small living quarters).
- It kills immersion. Yahtzee said it best (can't remember which review he said it in) when he pointed out that immersive gaming isn't going to happen with motion controls since you're always aware that you're playing a game since you're moving like a spaz, and often the motion controls don't represent what you're doing in the game and/or don't properly work.
- Longer play sessions will be exhausting (that's if the game implements motion controls), and baring that, yelling at your TV is goofy. Which reminds me...
- Kinect often stops what you're doing because it hears the audio from what you're playing/watching and interprets it as a command to stop.

OT: Well, the XBone just became a more attractive product.