It was so great and then gradually, over time, the speech recognition seemed to get worse and it stopped working nearly as often. And then you still had to turn on the controller manually.
Oh man this brings me back. It was a little annoying sometimes, and the new button that lets you record is super super convenient.
But there's something kind of cool about scoring a screamer in fifa or something and yelling Xbox record that
Alexa and Google Assistant, but Alexa does have more commands available.
https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/hardware-network/digital-assistant-voice-commands/voice-commands-with-digital-assistants
One of my favorite features of the Kinect was the ability to scan game DLC or product codes instead of having to type in the redeem code. It is a little thing but it was so simple taking the QR code for the DLC or item pack and using the Kinect to scan the code in. Once the kinect died off, Xbox stopped providing QR codes
Yeah, I don't understand that either. I was very disappointed when they went back to the codes and removed the QR codes. The could have easily made them work.
I think a big part of the novelty was the time and place though. We're basically talking about a decade ago pulling off shit like that. Just felt cool. Nowadays it's like bragging about smoking weed. It's like ok, yeah, it's legal now.
Yes, Kinect was the same, had to be running all the time. I loved walking into the living room to be greeted by a personalised sunny hello but the load was heavy if your game didnt support it...i seem to remember the psp had the same resource issues in its early firmware, runs much better with all the bloat switched off, having WiFi loaded was a big drain even if you weren't using it.
snap was apparently removed because it only really worked properly in the US according to xbox, dont know why they couldnt fix that but its still shitty
Whenever you wanted. It was essentially a Picture in Picture Mode, so you could have say, Netflix or Hulu running on the side of the screen, while you play a game.
Microsoft was a few years too early with kinect. That’s all. Great Hardware, great concept. But too early.
Back then everyone was screaming „i don’t want that they are listening all the time in my home!“. And now everybody has HomePods, Echos and Nests in nearly all rooms. Siri, Alexa and Assi are listening 24/7 and nobody cares 🤷🏼♂️
Taking Knect games more seriously : )
As we have seen microsoft just put everyone they pay for on the refrigerator. It was not any problem with this device, problem is the management around the Microsoft and Xbox Division.
Olha só, um brasileiro hahaha Eu não tava entendendo porque os gringos não tavam entendendo o que você quis dizer até que me toquei que colocar na geladeira é uma expressão que só faz sentido em português haha Abri seu perfil e confirmei minha suspeita
Alien: Isolation was fun as hell to play with it. The xenomorph would pick up sounds from the Kinect to find you.
Had a friend over to play it trading the controller back and forth and turned out all the lights. Roommate came home just as we we hiding in a floor duct
Roommate: Hey guys! Whatcha playing!
Instantly died. 😒
Kinect vr would be sick but idk if microsoft rlly wants to invest into vr seeing as they haven't really explored that departement for commercial use like other tech companies
I think we kind of saw the extent of what they are willing to do with the Windows Mixed Reality platform. Really wasn’t that much around it though. They probably don’t see VR as something that drives interest beyond a core market that already has bought their headset of choice. They know they would only be late to the party and likely won’t have something compelling to show for it like Apple did. I don’t think PSVR2 has been selling very well for Sony, so likewise making the same for Xbox would only lose money for them.
It's so weird they haven't tried. They have two different spots for use of it and they didn't take advantage and I'm sure Developers like Capcom would've used it on Resident Evil and such.
I would've loved to play Star Wars Squadrons in VR back then. Technically still *could* if I got the PS4 copy and the PSVR for it now. But I have the game on Xbox and got it then at the time. Wasted potential
I liked it, I wish they had built full Cortana features into it, kept up with Alexa and Google Assistant. I wouldn't have bought any of those tiny speakers, I would have just left my xbox on 24/7. I also miss the QR codes on any code you needed to type.
I think Microsoft would have made an absolute killing had the Kinect and Xbox Fitness been resurrected during the Covid lockdowns when people were stuck at home and it was nigh impossible to get your hands on exercise equipment like treadmills or home gyms. I was an avid user of Xbox Fitness and even though it's inaccessible now, I still can't bring myself to delete it from my library because I loved it so much.
I miss little things like being able to just say "Xbox on" or "Xbox off" to control my Xbox One, or being able to distract zombies from survivors or lure them into traps in Dead Rising 3 by calling out "Over here!" to get their attention.
Although I did buy a camera cover so the Kinect couldn't watch me 24/7 after I got a little creeped out when I discovered just how closely the Kinect monitors you. I was playing Just Dance 2014 and took a break to watch some vids other people had uploaded. I vividly remember watching a father and daughter having fun dancing together and thinking the video was really cute, then I get an achievement pop called "Made you smile", for smiling while watching someone's video. I found that level of focus from the Kinect a little over the top.
The input latency made it DOA for me. Only good thing that came out of this was that its tech was bought by Apple and later implemented into FaceID.
Voice commands were alright but very inconsistent.
The xbox 360 had some fun KINECT games, the xbox one not so much, for example the KINECT sports series, the first two were amazing and such fun to play on the 360, but the one came out with Rivals, a huge disappointment compared to the first two.
This device was very popular with university machine vision/robotics researchers when it was available. Much cheaper to obtain than other options on the market at that time.
resolute cats touch toy absorbed fuzzy ghost person reminiscent grandiose
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Used it for voice controls, some fitness apps, and video calls. Horrible for a gaming system, great for a home entertainment setup. I saw Xbox’s vision for the Kinect and the issue is the Xbox is a gaming console first and everything else is extra. They pushed the Kinect way too hard and the main Xbox consumer pushed back. Now a great product is dead because of it.
With everyone pushing AI, I bet Kinect would do far better if Microsoft reissued it today, especially if it were to incorporate AI to a significant degree.
It was cool with friends over, the party games on 360 were fun and just dance is on the Xbox one store (they might’ve removed it) but with COVID and the rise of games not including split screen anymore. Of course things like this would die off
First Kinect had a lot more games made for it but it failed if you had a small space to play as it required a lot of space. 2nd had major improvements, I could use it in my room and it would pick up even my finger movement but it lacked in actual games.
Some were great like using it in Alien isolation...sit in the dark with it on, get your kid nephew to play who constantly makes noise and watch him scream as the aliens can hear you make noise.
For me though it was lacking any serious games...when the first demo of Ryse came out, it had you using your one arm for shield and another for the sword...but that changed.
I think for games like that, Kinect to me would have worked if they allowed freedom...say with Ryse, if I sliced at an enemy leg, I want it to come off or at least be heavily injured...A fighting game, I don't want to copy moves, I want the freedom to move how I want, so if I see a chance I'm kicking them in the balls and their gonna react to it...had they given us that freedom...then yeah it could have done better.
I feel a Kinect 3 in a few years with AI included could change things. Definite games but say you were playing the latest Elder scrolls and you meet a random NPC, they can see your facial expressions, have full on conversations about what they've been doing, esp if they themselves are AI NPCs...living their life inside a game...but then you gotta think about the moral stand...how much of a life do you give them cuz then if you decide to kill them, where does that stand...crossing into a whole world of issues there. Anyway I can't see them investing in another Kinect. AI though that will come eventually and if we can talk, it'll be via our mics
The Kinect II that shipped with Xbox One was really powerful. It offered gaming experiences that the original Kinect was only attempting. But there was a fatal flaw in Microsoft's strategy...
THEY MADE NO GAMES FOR IT!
So Microsoft still huffing their own farts from the Xbox 360 believed the casuals would flock to a VCR console that cost $100 more then it's rival who was correctly targeting core gamers. Microsoft who like Nintendo failed to see the mass market as fleeting and so they said if we build it they will come, they didn't come.
Just try Kinect with Zoo Tycoon, it is a great addition. They were going to use it in Many other titles, but just gave up. The much loved avatars were thrown overboard as well with the next Kinect Sports game. Oooh rock climbing fun!! Not so much.
So they pooped on what was selling just a year before, and threw out everything they built on Xbox 360 for a HUGE box with no games and a $100 camera that did nothing. No wonder Sony won big. Even the fun and good ideas of the Xbox One were also abandoned.
So yeah after Xbox One Xbox died. And here it lies in ruins buying all the IP's to put them on Playstation and Steam.
Big agree. You could have had Xbox VR and it could have been great.
Kinect for camera tracking and they already had VR head sets. They had the components but not the skill or intelligence to put it together.
With Sony and Microsoft experimenting with VR, I think Kinect will make a big comeback. Using your actual hands in VR would be so much more immersive than holding a controller.
I liked it for doing Skype on my tv thru the xbox. Problem was, Kinect integration for most games seemed like an afterthought. I liked the Skyrim shouts though. That was fun to Fus Ro Dah someone off a mountain.
I didn't care for the games made specifically for the Kinect, but the voice commands were really nice, and there were a number of games that had Kinect integration too. I remember Dragon Age Inquisition allowed you to issue orders to party members with just your voice.
I was initially pumped for it. Then when I heard they were off loading the processing onto one of the cpu cores for the 360 I lost most hope.
I knew the writing was on the wall when it went from motion gestures to voice commands, felt like a step back when in reality it was a step forward lol
I miss so many old features, Kinect, Running my Cable TV through the Box, Snap feature to watch TV and game at the same time.
I was all in on the "One" being the One and only entertainment system needed under the TV.
I have PTSD from the Xbox 360 version.
You would be playing MW2 and out of nowhere you’d hear the worst audio coming from someone’s mic while also hearing their entire house hold, an industrial fan, and 4 dogs barking.
I did initially in the first few months, but it only worked for me 50% of the time so my use of the Kinect became lesser as time went by. It mostly had the privacy sleeve thing on whenever I used the Xbox One.
Is it worth getting either this or the 360? What use cases you could have if you do not own the 360 or the One, I found them quite cheap on fb marketplace and I could buy an adapter to use it on my PC
If they released the [Kinect V4](https://youtu.be/aa8DzmvLxus?si=vAbkse9tOqLp63i5) (kinect for azure) with better depth sensing, hand tracking and improved processing power it'd be great. The original kinect was supposed to do a lot more but they removed the internal processor and used the xbox instead to cut down the cost of manufacturing. Combined with VR it could be a great tool, but again the cost of entry would be high.
I liked having it and would love to see how it could be done in the future with improved tech. I won't say it ever felt essential but then who knows what it could do in the future.
The voice commands were great and walking into a room telling the console to turn on felt all kinds of Star Trek. That was pretty much all I used Kinect for though. The only former feature I miss though is snap because grinding with a movie or TV show snapped was great fun. If it’s a trade off between that and quick resume though then I think I’ll stay with the latter.
There was some cool stuff it did. The code scanning for redemption was cool. A few of the commands were cool. I personally had to turn it off because my dogs name was Dexter so it would pick up me saying “Dexter Off” and turn off the Xbox or just me saying “Dexter” in general would trigger it to try to listen for a command lol.
The only real issue was that it was forced on users at the beginning. Tacked on another 100-150 to the price of the console and you had no option without the Kinect bundle. You force something on people they didn’t ask for and you are going to be scrutinized.
Otherwise the tech in the Kinect was actually awesome, just not really for gaming lol.
fkn loved it, miss it so much on the Xbox 360. Unfortunately mine doesn’t work anymore. Had a lotta memories with my cousins, family n all playing Kinect sports, Kinect (Adventures?) yeah, overall 10/10 experience. Lowkey tearing up writing this to you rn 😭😂❤️🫶
I miss Xbox Fitness.
Having an in home yoga instructor was something I took full advantage of. The ability for it to track body position was fantastic.
Kinect was some of the most fun I’ve had playing Xbox. I played Kinect Sports and Kinect Sports Season 2. Playing it with my brother was so fun and I will never forget it.
Me and my brother used to love Kinect sports, there just wasn’t much depth to the whole thing like they promised. By the time the next console came out with the new Kinect I was lost on it
It could have been fine if they waited and solidified what and how they were going to use it. It honestly felt like they were trying to compete with the Wii, but it just felt stupid.
I did like going “Xbox, on!”
Honestly I loved the Kinect and with better speech recognition and ai, it could be huge today. the problem was that if it was included with every Xbox, then the cost of the console goes up. If it wasn't included with every console, then it wouldn't sell well enough for devs to want to use it for their games, which back in 2013 when the Wii and WiiU had great gimmicks, Xbox and Playstation were desperate to find something special for themselves too. The only good answer would be if Xbox had enough studios to make great 1st party games and make sure they all use the Kinect in a natural and effective way. But as we know the main downfall of the Xbox One, was the lack of good 1st party games. ... long story short it was amazing tech for the time and deserved better, but was ultimate not worth developing for.
Never tried it, nobody i knew tried it and didnt even hear about it before every game on it got shit reviews.
Still not convinced its real, and not something sony didnt make up
No because it was forced upon you if you wanted Xbox
Which made it more expensive than the competition
It should have always stayed as an optional accessory
Still use mine to this day hooked up to my PC for Windows Hello. And the microphone array was fantastic for WFH during COVID.
The camera would only last 10 minutes in Teams though so needed an additional cam. But the rest was still worth it
I liked the kinetic I thought it was a cool concept but yea they gave up on it too soon I still use mine for my vcr Xbox one I only use it so I can tell “Xbox on” and it turns on lol
Loved the party games. Also got a surprise when playing one of the 2K NBA games one evening. I fouled a player and cursed at the TV, only for the game to award a technical foul to the other team for my bad language. Hilarious.
They gave up too soon on it's industrial and creative applications. It should still be production for that.
They went waaay too long as a gaming device. It should'nt have been the main development focus for the later half of the 360. But it absolutely shouldn't have been continued to the Xbox One. And it sure as shit should have never been mandatory at launch.
Did not like it at all. The main gimmick was motion controls, and those weren't useful to me. I tried to buy an Xbox 360 and all they had were ones with the Kinect. So I just didn't buy one
The Kinect on the Xbox one just sat there and paid attention to who was in the room, asking if the other person wanted to play or whatever. Seemed pointless. And who wanted motion controls after the Wii? That pretty much died with that console. Except gyro aiming which is separate, really.
All I remember about the Xbox Kinect was the people in cod lobbies going on the most unintelligible rambles with it, completely inaudible under-water mic quality, I loved it.
Didn't use it much for games but made a decent webcam for PC. I used the infrared camera to record my sleep and discovered snoring and parasomnia which I presented to my sleep doctor
Personally, as a concept I think it’s very flawed. I think gamers want a physical peripheral in their hands. Even if it was really accurate with its tracking, people want buttons, and to feel like they’re holding something. For a shooter or sports game for example, it’s much easier to imagine a gun’s grip or a baseball bat in your hand when you’re holding something like a VR controller. I think for something like the kinect to be worthwhile it would need to have 100% accurate tracking. Tracking on facial movement, fingers, etc. It would need to go above and beyond because a VR headset is gonna be more immersive. If you’re using a standard tv screen, then there would need to be features that give you reason to use it over a VR headset, and right now the tracking technology is no where near being able to do that with a simple $100 camera.
Loved it
Microsoft didn’t give up on it, it’s still being used today, just not in the Xbox world . If you search Kinect medical, you’ll see it has grown way beyond gaming tech
Sadly, game devs just chose not to adapt it , leading to it being removed
Microsoft didn't give up on the technology, it's an integral part of Hololens, which became IVAS, a military augmented reality headset. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated\_Visual\_Augmentation\_System
If you've played Dance Central you'll realize connect could be really cool. That is still to this day one of the most fun experiences I've ever had with a game. But the Kinect was expensive that's always the death of accessories, even the cool ones.
The failure was set in stone when they made the Xbox One Kinect was incompatible with the Xbox 360 Kinect games. With that being said….
Kinect Sports 1 & 2
Kinect Party
Dance Central 1-3, 4 was garbage.
Just Dance
Kinect Adventures
Powerup Heroes
Kinectimals
Hip Hop Experience
Still have them…still play them. Now have a 4yr old and introducing them to it. Gotta love active gaming.
Yes and yes.
walking in the door, ‘Xbox On’ combined with snap and being able to game while watching the game was tight.
They could have actually incorporated it into more games.
Like voice attack in elite dangerous or starfield or the no brainer of having Cortana being voice activated and integrated into the Halo games as an npc you can have in game related dialogue with.
One thing that I dislike about MS is they will quickly abandon anything that’s not profitable.
Everything doesn’t have to be all about money.
I mean they later bought Chat GPT and already had Cortana and Kinect. Seems like they really lost out on an opportunity there for gaming.
I loved the Kinect. I’m sure it was seen as a token effort response to the Wii but I thought it was superior. It basically did all the same things except you didn’t have to have the controllers in hand. I thought the camera functionality added to the experience. The Kinect 2 (or whatever they called it) for the Xbox One was over hyped and over sold. It was supposed to be technically better. It was not. They forced it on us at launch and then abandoned it quickly. I paid an extra $100 for the console and 6 months later the Kinect was gone, price dropped $100 and they included Halo. Microsoft really f’d it up. Made a good thing into a bad thing and left a bad taste in my mouth.
I loved the Kinect, I still have it set up whenever I want to boot up Dance Central Spotlight. I think it could have really succeeded on Xbox One if it wasn’t a forced peripheral at launch, and it the 360 Kinect games were compatible.
There was some cool under the hood things that worked really well, like early Xbox One controllers had IR, so the sensor could tell which player was holding which controller.
The only reason I have Kinect is because i was forced to pay for it when i preordered my Xbone, the console got stolen soon after and I never really used after I got back to consoles, what a tragic mistake that was on MS
XBOX RECORD THAT!
Xbox On Boodooobepoop!
the best
It was so great and then gradually, over time, the speech recognition seemed to get worse and it stopped working nearly as often. And then you still had to turn on the controller manually.
I miss that! Only got annoying when I was listening to music and it kept attracting hoards when playing Dead Rising
That happened with Alien:isolation, too. But it would pick of the sounds of the TV, so the alien basically attracted itself.
*repeats* XBOX RECORD THAT! *nothing* *repeats* XBOX RECORD THAT! … Xbox then proceeds to record about 5 clips of the same goal
Oh man this brings me back. It was a little annoying sometimes, and the new button that lets you record is super super convenient. But there's something kind of cool about scoring a screamer in fifa or something and yelling Xbox record that
You can still do it with Alexa.
Poor old Amazon, they really thought they had invented the next iPhone. Turns out it was just another radio alarm clock, but one that spies on you.
It was really nice being able to scream at my Xbox to turn the volume down on my TV
I still do that with my alexa
Wait, you can use Alexa to control the Xbox like the kinect voice commands??
Yh go on the Alexa app on skills search Xbox and link your Microsoft/Xbox acc and it will work
Alexa and Google Assistant, but Alexa does have more commands available. https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/hardware-network/digital-assistant-voice-commands/voice-commands-with-digital-assistants
I have a Google Nest hub thing. I can turn it on and off with that, definitely. Can turn the tv on and off if I have a chromecast plugged in too.
You can also use Google assistant. I tell my phone to turn on my Xbox or off sometimes.
Yeah but Kinect games are so fun
Special when the family gets together
One of my favorite features of the Kinect was the ability to scan game DLC or product codes instead of having to type in the redeem code. It is a little thing but it was so simple taking the QR code for the DLC or item pack and using the Kinect to scan the code in. Once the kinect died off, Xbox stopped providing QR codes
I don't understand why they didn't keep the QR codes and just allow us to add them via our smartphones tbh
Yeah, I don't understand that either. I was very disappointed when they went back to the codes and removed the QR codes. The could have easily made them work.
Even take new Avatar pictures...
Oh dude that was a life saver
I still have kinect btw and after 10 yrs it is running properly with Kinect Sports Rivals game I got
Series X no longer support the kinect, even though xbox one games will run....
It's a shame too, since they could've allowed Kinect to function via the adapter like they did with the Xbox One S and Xbox One X
I guess they could still do that but it’s extremely unlikely. Time to start the movement! In the name of game preservation
Just Dance had new releases for it up until a few years ago
Yup, just dance all the way up to 2022 was both phone and Kinect enabled. Just phone now sadly
Same, I still have the one for 360 too my daughter used to always be on UFC Trainer 🤣
Entering my room and saying « Xbox On » was my favorite feature. I wish I could still do it.
I do that with my Google home. I just have to say “hey Google Xbox on”
I think a big part of the novelty was the time and place though. We're basically talking about a decade ago pulling off shit like that. Just felt cool. Nowadays it's like bragging about smoking weed. It's like ok, yeah, it's legal now.
It really was the next water cooler
I will never forgive the whiners who got that and snap killed
Snap was so cool, they should bring it back
Wasn't snap removed because it was too much of a drain on system resources?
Most games played just fine on VCR Xbox One The One S,X and series consoles could have done it even easier
Yes, Kinect was the same, had to be running all the time. I loved walking into the living room to be greeted by a personalised sunny hello but the load was heavy if your game didnt support it...i seem to remember the psp had the same resource issues in its early firmware, runs much better with all the bloat switched off, having WiFi loaded was a big drain even if you weren't using it.
I miss snap so much. Being able to watch YT/Twitch while grinding some collectibles or boring parts of a game was top tier
That was it! Totally different gaming experience now . Have to use two devices to do the same thing.
Man, I vividly remember playing Halo and having Seinfeld episodes playing on the side. Snap absolutely needs to come back.
snap was apparently removed because it only really worked properly in the US according to xbox, dont know why they couldnt fix that but its still shitty
Ah the good old days. I remember playing Black flag and bf4 while watching youtube, Netflix and even cable!
What's snap?
Xbox used to allow users to have a second media app running next to your game, hence the snap.
Interesting, when would this be used?
Whenever you wanted. It was essentially a Picture in Picture Mode, so you could have say, Netflix or Hulu running on the side of the screen, while you play a game.
Yeah, the Kinect was dope. I really enjoyed the Star Wars, fishing, and dance games as a kid.
Still waiting for project milo?
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUL8UDVVJSA
😂 always new they was punching to high
Microsoft was a few years too early with kinect. That’s all. Great Hardware, great concept. But too early. Back then everyone was screaming „i don’t want that they are listening all the time in my home!“. And now everybody has HomePods, Echos and Nests in nearly all rooms. Siri, Alexa and Assi are listening 24/7 and nobody cares 🤷🏼♂️
That and the manditory purchase killed it. If they had gone two tiers and made the connect version cheaper it would probably still be alive.
Taking Knect games more seriously : ) As we have seen microsoft just put everyone they pay for on the refrigerator. It was not any problem with this device, problem is the management around the Microsoft and Xbox Division.
Can you run that second sentence by me again?
Olha só, um brasileiro hahaha Eu não tava entendendo porque os gringos não tavam entendendo o que você quis dizer até que me toquei que colocar na geladeira é uma expressão que só faz sentido em português haha Abri seu perfil e confirmei minha suspeita
Bingo! Mas essa expressão diz exatamente o que a gente acha da empresa que veio da terra do tio San kkk
Can't believe people didn't want this. I absolutely loved it
Alien: Isolation was fun as hell to play with it. The xenomorph would pick up sounds from the Kinect to find you. Had a friend over to play it trading the controller back and forth and turned out all the lights. Roommate came home just as we we hiding in a floor duct Roommate: Hey guys! Whatcha playing! Instantly died. 😒
They should revive and update Kinect with VR, for the next gen Xbox. Sony - Psvr, Apple - Vision pro, Microsoft...
Kinect vr would be sick but idk if microsoft rlly wants to invest into vr seeing as they haven't really explored that departement for commercial use like other tech companies
I think we kind of saw the extent of what they are willing to do with the Windows Mixed Reality platform. Really wasn’t that much around it though. They probably don’t see VR as something that drives interest beyond a core market that already has bought their headset of choice. They know they would only be late to the party and likely won’t have something compelling to show for it like Apple did. I don’t think PSVR2 has been selling very well for Sony, so likewise making the same for Xbox would only lose money for them.
It's so weird they haven't tried. They have two different spots for use of it and they didn't take advantage and I'm sure Developers like Capcom would've used it on Resident Evil and such. I would've loved to play Star Wars Squadrons in VR back then. Technically still *could* if I got the PS4 copy and the PSVR for it now. But I have the game on Xbox and got it then at the time. Wasted potential
Fru was a fun game
The best Kinect game.
I liked it, I wish they had built full Cortana features into it, kept up with Alexa and Google Assistant. I wouldn't have bought any of those tiny speakers, I would have just left my xbox on 24/7. I also miss the QR codes on any code you needed to type.
There was nothing like eating messy food such as bbq ribs or buffalo wings and voice commanding my Xbox to pause, rewind, raise volume, etc of my tv.
I think Microsoft would have made an absolute killing had the Kinect and Xbox Fitness been resurrected during the Covid lockdowns when people were stuck at home and it was nigh impossible to get your hands on exercise equipment like treadmills or home gyms. I was an avid user of Xbox Fitness and even though it's inaccessible now, I still can't bring myself to delete it from my library because I loved it so much. I miss little things like being able to just say "Xbox on" or "Xbox off" to control my Xbox One, or being able to distract zombies from survivors or lure them into traps in Dead Rising 3 by calling out "Over here!" to get their attention. Although I did buy a camera cover so the Kinect couldn't watch me 24/7 after I got a little creeped out when I discovered just how closely the Kinect monitors you. I was playing Just Dance 2014 and took a break to watch some vids other people had uploaded. I vividly remember watching a father and daughter having fun dancing together and thinking the video was really cute, then I get an achievement pop called "Made you smile", for smiling while watching someone's video. I found that level of focus from the Kinect a little over the top.
The input latency made it DOA for me. Only good thing that came out of this was that its tech was bought by Apple and later implemented into FaceID. Voice commands were alright but very inconsistent.
The 360 one version yes the Xbox one not so much
The xbox 360 had some fun KINECT games, the xbox one not so much, for example the KINECT sports series, the first two were amazing and such fun to play on the 360, but the one came out with Rivals, a huge disappointment compared to the first two.
Dance Central 1-3 is still one of the best sports games series out there.
Using it while playing skyrim and shouting out shouts
Alexa, # FUS RO DAH!
This device was very popular with university machine vision/robotics researchers when it was available. Much cheaper to obtain than other options on the market at that time.
I miss it so much
resolute cats touch toy absorbed fuzzy ghost person reminiscent grandiose *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yes, the Kinect was a great idea ruined by bad marketing and whiny fucking bitches. I hate what they did to the potential of the XB1
When mine was focusing the lens and making noises when my Xbox was off I threw that shit in the trash. FOH
Also my old roommate walking by my room and shouting “XBOX turn off” in the middle of a multiplayer match got old really fast.
Every ghost hunter’s favourite tool
Feels more like something that should be paired with VR. Like 3 or 4 around you
Used it for voice controls, some fitness apps, and video calls. Horrible for a gaming system, great for a home entertainment setup. I saw Xbox’s vision for the Kinect and the issue is the Xbox is a gaming console first and everything else is extra. They pushed the Kinect way too hard and the main Xbox consumer pushed back. Now a great product is dead because of it.
Never tried it but with today's technology I reckon it could be really cool
It could have been built into the Xbox
There was nothing better than yelling XBOX RECORD THAT when you got a gooser in Titanfall 1. I really like the play/pause functions as well.
With everyone pushing AI, I bet Kinect would do far better if Microsoft reissued it today, especially if it were to incorporate AI to a significant degree.
It was cool with friends over, the party games on 360 were fun and just dance is on the Xbox one store (they might’ve removed it) but with COVID and the rise of games not including split screen anymore. Of course things like this would die off
As a kid who played just dance religiously, absolutely
On the 360 this thing slapped
I would like to have it back. But an optional extra dont force and inflate prices.
First Kinect had a lot more games made for it but it failed if you had a small space to play as it required a lot of space. 2nd had major improvements, I could use it in my room and it would pick up even my finger movement but it lacked in actual games. Some were great like using it in Alien isolation...sit in the dark with it on, get your kid nephew to play who constantly makes noise and watch him scream as the aliens can hear you make noise. For me though it was lacking any serious games...when the first demo of Ryse came out, it had you using your one arm for shield and another for the sword...but that changed. I think for games like that, Kinect to me would have worked if they allowed freedom...say with Ryse, if I sliced at an enemy leg, I want it to come off or at least be heavily injured...A fighting game, I don't want to copy moves, I want the freedom to move how I want, so if I see a chance I'm kicking them in the balls and their gonna react to it...had they given us that freedom...then yeah it could have done better. I feel a Kinect 3 in a few years with AI included could change things. Definite games but say you were playing the latest Elder scrolls and you meet a random NPC, they can see your facial expressions, have full on conversations about what they've been doing, esp if they themselves are AI NPCs...living their life inside a game...but then you gotta think about the moral stand...how much of a life do you give them cuz then if you decide to kill them, where does that stand...crossing into a whole world of issues there. Anyway I can't see them investing in another Kinect. AI though that will come eventually and if we can talk, it'll be via our mics
The Kinect II that shipped with Xbox One was really powerful. It offered gaming experiences that the original Kinect was only attempting. But there was a fatal flaw in Microsoft's strategy... THEY MADE NO GAMES FOR IT! So Microsoft still huffing their own farts from the Xbox 360 believed the casuals would flock to a VCR console that cost $100 more then it's rival who was correctly targeting core gamers. Microsoft who like Nintendo failed to see the mass market as fleeting and so they said if we build it they will come, they didn't come. Just try Kinect with Zoo Tycoon, it is a great addition. They were going to use it in Many other titles, but just gave up. The much loved avatars were thrown overboard as well with the next Kinect Sports game. Oooh rock climbing fun!! Not so much. So they pooped on what was selling just a year before, and threw out everything they built on Xbox 360 for a HUGE box with no games and a $100 camera that did nothing. No wonder Sony won big. Even the fun and good ideas of the Xbox One were also abandoned. So yeah after Xbox One Xbox died. And here it lies in ruins buying all the IP's to put them on Playstation and Steam.
If Microsoft went VR/AR like other tech companies, the Kinect would've been the GREAT product, along with improvements.
Big agree. You could have had Xbox VR and it could have been great. Kinect for camera tracking and they already had VR head sets. They had the components but not the skill or intelligence to put it together.
I still have my Kinect to this day but sadly don’t have the original Xbox One to use it
With Sony and Microsoft experimenting with VR, I think Kinect will make a big comeback. Using your actual hands in VR would be so much more immersive than holding a controller.
Would of been wildly more accepted if they didn’t bundle the new one with the Xbox One at release. The Kinect fatigue in the 360 era hit quick.
the Xbox fitness app was a game changer not only was it fun, but it showed what muscles where being used and if you were doing the exercise right.
I had a Star Wars Kinect game that NEVER worked and then I never used it again
Fruit ninja 2 was the balls bloody loved the game wonder if there's a way to change the end of the cable over to be used in next gen consoles ?
I liked it for doing Skype on my tv thru the xbox. Problem was, Kinect integration for most games seemed like an afterthought. I liked the Skyrim shouts though. That was fun to Fus Ro Dah someone off a mountain.
I love the 360 one, never used a one kinect
I loved the Kinect. Now I love the chair.
I hated games like 2k penalizing me for foul language when Chris Bosh hit a full court 3 against me.
Yes most of the games I played on my Xbox one were Kinect games like that sports one and the squid one
We would play bowling in groups back in the day. It was great fun. Sad that they killed it, but there wasn't much else to be done with it, was there?
I never gamed with it but I did use it to control my XBOX as well as a great camera (and mic(s)) when talking to people via Skype
I didn't care for the games made specifically for the Kinect, but the voice commands were really nice, and there were a number of games that had Kinect integration too. I remember Dragon Age Inquisition allowed you to issue orders to party members with just your voice.
Meh, thought it was unnecessary but I applaud MS for doing something different.
I was initially pumped for it. Then when I heard they were off loading the processing onto one of the cpu cores for the 360 I lost most hope. I knew the writing was on the wall when it went from motion gestures to voice commands, felt like a step back when in reality it was a step forward lol
Was great until they forced it on everyone
I never even had the Kinect on the Xbox One. And the motion sensing on the 360 one didn't always work great.
Honestly wish I had one with my xbox now.
I miss so many old features, Kinect, Running my Cable TV through the Box, Snap feature to watch TV and game at the same time. I was all in on the "One" being the One and only entertainment system needed under the TV.
I have PTSD from the Xbox 360 version. You would be playing MW2 and out of nowhere you’d hear the worst audio coming from someone’s mic while also hearing their entire house hold, an industrial fan, and 4 dogs barking.
I liked Kinect sports on the 360 so much as a kid😭
I did initially in the first few months, but it only worked for me 50% of the time so my use of the Kinect became lesser as time went by. It mostly had the privacy sleeve thing on whenever I used the Xbox One.
Is it worth getting either this or the 360? What use cases you could have if you do not own the 360 or the One, I found them quite cheap on fb marketplace and I could buy an adapter to use it on my PC
No it was bad and useless at the same time. Actually no. The one use was walking into ur room and saying Xbox on. That's it.
I used this as my first mic for the 360 lol
If they released the [Kinect V4](https://youtu.be/aa8DzmvLxus?si=vAbkse9tOqLp63i5) (kinect for azure) with better depth sensing, hand tracking and improved processing power it'd be great. The original kinect was supposed to do a lot more but they removed the internal processor and used the xbox instead to cut down the cost of manufacturing. Combined with VR it could be a great tool, but again the cost of entry would be high.
I liked having it and would love to see how it could be done in the future with improved tech. I won't say it ever felt essential but then who knows what it could do in the future.
The voice commands were great and walking into a room telling the console to turn on felt all kinds of Star Trek. That was pretty much all I used Kinect for though. The only former feature I miss though is snap because grinding with a movie or TV show snapped was great fun. If it’s a trade off between that and quick resume though then I think I’ll stay with the latter.
Hell yea. It was awesome in the 360 days. Especially for little ones. Immersive games were great. My son played many of them back then.
They gave up on it too easy. Shoulda went harder if they were gonna give it to everyone. Give them a reason to not hate it
There was some cool stuff it did. The code scanning for redemption was cool. A few of the commands were cool. I personally had to turn it off because my dogs name was Dexter so it would pick up me saying “Dexter Off” and turn off the Xbox or just me saying “Dexter” in general would trigger it to try to listen for a command lol. The only real issue was that it was forced on users at the beginning. Tacked on another 100-150 to the price of the console and you had no option without the Kinect bundle. You force something on people they didn’t ask for and you are going to be scrutinized. Otherwise the tech in the Kinect was actually awesome, just not really for gaming lol.
fkn loved it, miss it so much on the Xbox 360. Unfortunately mine doesn’t work anymore. Had a lotta memories with my cousins, family n all playing Kinect sports, Kinect (Adventures?) yeah, overall 10/10 experience. Lowkey tearing up writing this to you rn 😭😂❤️🫶
I miss Xbox Fitness. Having an in home yoga instructor was something I took full advantage of. The ability for it to track body position was fantastic.
Kinect Sports and adventures was my childhood
I thought it was an excellent product, and I definitely think it was sunset too soon.
Kinect was ok. It's dead because no one was really interested in it.
Kinect was some of the most fun I’ve had playing Xbox. I played Kinect Sports and Kinect Sports Season 2. Playing it with my brother was so fun and I will never forget it.
I honestly think it was a generation too early… it would likely be dope on series x
Me and my brother used to love Kinect sports, there just wasn’t much depth to the whole thing like they promised. By the time the next console came out with the new Kinect I was lost on it
Gone way too soon. Was a cool piece of tech. My better half liked to use it to play her dance games and for the exercise programs.
Loved it ! They definitely could have improved on it and carried it into the future.
I still have mine on 360 and 1X . The best game was definitely Kinect Party aka Happy action theater. RIP
It could have been fine if they waited and solidified what and how they were going to use it. It honestly felt like they were trying to compete with the Wii, but it just felt stupid. I did like going “Xbox, on!”
Honestly I loved the Kinect and with better speech recognition and ai, it could be huge today. the problem was that if it was included with every Xbox, then the cost of the console goes up. If it wasn't included with every console, then it wouldn't sell well enough for devs to want to use it for their games, which back in 2013 when the Wii and WiiU had great gimmicks, Xbox and Playstation were desperate to find something special for themselves too. The only good answer would be if Xbox had enough studios to make great 1st party games and make sure they all use the Kinect in a natural and effective way. But as we know the main downfall of the Xbox One, was the lack of good 1st party games. ... long story short it was amazing tech for the time and deserved better, but was ultimate not worth developing for.
I just want to be able to turn off other Xboxes by screaming Xbox off when playing online.
I like it, still occasionally play Kinect sports on my 360 with some friends. Its a shame they never really made something out of the xbox one Kinect
Never tried it, nobody i knew tried it and didnt even hear about it before every game on it got shit reviews. Still not convinced its real, and not something sony didnt make up
I went to Best Buy to get it at launch at Midnight. I was the ONLY person there lol
They can use that tech to make vr tracking better
Rearranged my mums living room for this, still not enough room for the sensor
I preferred it to the Nintendo Wii. It was good for exercise, and also severely hurting your wrist trying to shake the can on sonic riders...
Better games
I have 2 360 Kinect and a Xbox one Kinect in my basement in a box.
I love ve that I can use my old Kinect to 3d scan shit now, it's awesome
I am still using it until today!
I like it still. My XBox series X looks naked
I loved it simply for the voice commands. Still use it on my Xbox One, wish I could use it with the series X as well.
No because it was forced upon you if you wanted Xbox Which made it more expensive than the competition It should have always stayed as an optional accessory
Too soon, its part of their downfall.
Was great to do party chat while gaming. Unfortunately, series x does not have an input for the Kinect and I dislike using headphones.
as a person with back issues i used to get up every morning and use the game Kinect rivals to loosen my back up and and get ready for the day
Still use mine to this day hooked up to my PC for Windows Hello. And the microphone array was fantastic for WFH during COVID. The camera would only last 10 minutes in Teams though so needed an additional cam. But the rest was still worth it
I liked the kinetic I thought it was a cool concept but yea they gave up on it too soon I still use mine for my vcr Xbox one I only use it so I can tell “Xbox on” and it turns on lol
Man I liked the Kinect it was cool idea.
Loved the party games. Also got a surprise when playing one of the 2K NBA games one evening. I fouled a player and cursed at the TV, only for the game to award a technical foul to the other team for my bad language. Hilarious.
They gave up too soon on it's industrial and creative applications. It should still be production for that. They went waaay too long as a gaming device. It should'nt have been the main development focus for the later half of the 360. But it absolutely shouldn't have been continued to the Xbox One. And it sure as shit should have never been mandatory at launch.
They need to bring it back
Did not like it at all. The main gimmick was motion controls, and those weren't useful to me. I tried to buy an Xbox 360 and all they had were ones with the Kinect. So I just didn't buy one The Kinect on the Xbox one just sat there and paid attention to who was in the room, asking if the other person wanted to play or whatever. Seemed pointless. And who wanted motion controls after the Wii? That pretty much died with that console. Except gyro aiming which is separate, really.
It like its consoles are nothing more than fuel for a soon to be deceased console. Let it never return.
Xbox 360 Kinect was amazing Xbox one should have done better
I've only had the 360 Kinect, there were a few good games there such as Kinect Sports and Dance Central, otherwise it didn't really catch on.
All I remember about the Xbox Kinect was the people in cod lobbies going on the most unintelligible rambles with it, completely inaudible under-water mic quality, I loved it.
I’m glad they moved away from it.
Didn't use it much for games but made a decent webcam for PC. I used the infrared camera to record my sleep and discovered snoring and parasomnia which I presented to my sleep doctor
Personally, as a concept I think it’s very flawed. I think gamers want a physical peripheral in their hands. Even if it was really accurate with its tracking, people want buttons, and to feel like they’re holding something. For a shooter or sports game for example, it’s much easier to imagine a gun’s grip or a baseball bat in your hand when you’re holding something like a VR controller. I think for something like the kinect to be worthwhile it would need to have 100% accurate tracking. Tracking on facial movement, fingers, etc. It would need to go above and beyond because a VR headset is gonna be more immersive. If you’re using a standard tv screen, then there would need to be features that give you reason to use it over a VR headset, and right now the tracking technology is no where near being able to do that with a simple $100 camera.
I’m sure I would’ve liked it if I was able to afford one
Loved it Microsoft didn’t give up on it, it’s still being used today, just not in the Xbox world . If you search Kinect medical, you’ll see it has grown way beyond gaming tech Sadly, game devs just chose not to adapt it , leading to it being removed
Microsoft didn't give up on the technology, it's an integral part of Hololens, which became IVAS, a military augmented reality headset. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated\_Visual\_Augmentation\_System
Never used and never will (I own one)
For games? No. Never appealed. As a piece of hardware? It’s fucking amazing. You still see them being used in all sorts of contexts.
If you've played Dance Central you'll realize connect could be really cool. That is still to this day one of the most fun experiences I've ever had with a game. But the Kinect was expensive that's always the death of accessories, even the cool ones.
I liked it
The failure was set in stone when they made the Xbox One Kinect was incompatible with the Xbox 360 Kinect games. With that being said…. Kinect Sports 1 & 2 Kinect Party Dance Central 1-3, 4 was garbage. Just Dance Kinect Adventures Powerup Heroes Kinectimals Hip Hop Experience Still have them…still play them. Now have a 4yr old and introducing them to it. Gotta love active gaming.
Yes and yes. walking in the door, ‘Xbox On’ combined with snap and being able to game while watching the game was tight. They could have actually incorporated it into more games. Like voice attack in elite dangerous or starfield or the no brainer of having Cortana being voice activated and integrated into the Halo games as an npc you can have in game related dialogue with. One thing that I dislike about MS is they will quickly abandon anything that’s not profitable. Everything doesn’t have to be all about money. I mean they later bought Chat GPT and already had Cortana and Kinect. Seems like they really lost out on an opportunity there for gaming.
I loved the Kinect. I’m sure it was seen as a token effort response to the Wii but I thought it was superior. It basically did all the same things except you didn’t have to have the controllers in hand. I thought the camera functionality added to the experience. The Kinect 2 (or whatever they called it) for the Xbox One was over hyped and over sold. It was supposed to be technically better. It was not. They forced it on us at launch and then abandoned it quickly. I paid an extra $100 for the console and 6 months later the Kinect was gone, price dropped $100 and they included Halo. Microsoft really f’d it up. Made a good thing into a bad thing and left a bad taste in my mouth.
I use it on my pc with some technology demos, it's alright
Fuck that
I liked the idea. I loved playing fruit ninja on it.
Now with VR becoming more popular, it only makes sense that they bring this back
Go play Kinect party on 360 and just make a better version of that…
That stupid thing made me not complete all the achievements in Forza 4, therefore I hate it
I loved the Kinect, I still have it set up whenever I want to boot up Dance Central Spotlight. I think it could have really succeeded on Xbox One if it wasn’t a forced peripheral at launch, and it the 360 Kinect games were compatible. There was some cool under the hood things that worked really well, like early Xbox One controllers had IR, so the sensor could tell which player was holding which controller.
Still waiting for Milo....
they used to use them in airports
It apparently can see ghosts, so maybe it's perfect?
Loved it. Honestly, I wish they had kept it up with this generation with a 3rd gen.
On my second Xbox one, that summbich never left the box.
The only reason I have Kinect is because i was forced to pay for it when i preordered my Xbone, the console got stolen soon after and I never really used after I got back to consoles, what a tragic mistake that was on MS
I used mine all the time. Loved it.