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Does anyone look back at the Kinect fondly?

Ambient

Ambient

Member
Dec 23, 2017
7,136
Been cleaning up around my house and came across the Kinect for 360 and the one for Xbox One. Apart from a couple games the week of release I never really used them. Even voice commands and menu gestures seemed more cumbersome than just using a controller.

Does anyone look back at the Kinect years fondly? Do you wish it was still a part of Xbox in any way?
 
Renna Hazel

Renna Hazel

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,613
Nope, Kinect is when I went from a huge Xbox 360 fan to greatly disliking Xbox. I feel like they still haven't recovered from it which makes me pretty sad. Obviously there have been other issues since Kinect, but I feel like the downward trend started with it.
 
Tobor

Tobor

Member
Oct 25, 2017
28,566
Richmond, VA
Considering it destroyed Microsoft first party efforts at the end of the 360 generation, and helped lead to the Xbox One debacle, no.
 
Colasante

Colasante

Member
Nov 5, 2017
301
Absolutely not, although I do look back fondly at Giant Bomb's Kinect quick looks, for whatever that's worth.
 
sedael

sedael

Member
Oct 16, 2020
863
wreckateer was a whole lot of fun imo. granted it was basically replaced and exceeded by angry birds vr, but at the time it was a really cool and unique thing and pretty interesting. but yeah beyond that, as a gaming tool, it was pretty thoroughly meh
 
jobrro

jobrro

The Fallen
Nov 19, 2017
1,626
Dance Central was good but most other things I tried were pretty awkward.
 
whatsarobot

whatsarobot

Member
Nov 17, 2017
756
Some of you must have been kids at the time, which must make it the equivalent of
54b1f597307c5c6e65a2ace6aa0a7893.png
 
Hoggle

Hoggle

Member
Mar 25, 2021
6,116
Renna Hazel said:
Nope, Kinect is when I went from a huge Xbox 360 fan to greatly disliking Xbox. I feel like they still haven't recovered from it which makes me pretty sad. Obviously there have been other issues since Kinect, but I feel like the downward trend started with it.
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This. The Kinect sucked all the wind out of the Xbox brands sail, and they've been playing catch up since. Not only did they try and use it to extended the 360 era life cycle instead of investing in new IP's like Sony did with The Last of Us, but it carried over the the over the priced and under powered Xbox One.
 
Shift Breaker

Shift Breaker

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,497
It gave us Kinect Star Wars. Regardless of the overall quality of the Kinect and its games, it gave us a good laugh to this day. And that's something.
 
hikarutilmitt

hikarutilmitt

Member
Dec 16, 2017
11,447
It was the worst implementation, worst doubled-down upon and worst feeling motion control system of the era. For all its warts, Move was a better implementation than the Wii Remote thanks to having more time in the oven with the concept and Nintendo got it done better, eventually, with the Joycons, but the Kinect was the definition of dud. The fact they actually based part of their nww system architecture and plans around it on the Xbox One launch was a bold and foolhardy move.
 
Shola Akinnuso

Shola Akinnuso

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,496
Henderson, NV
Kinect had a lot of potential and I wish MS continued with it instead of making that Xbox and PS4 twins. I would love to see what that alternate timeline looked like where MS did everything they said in that presser: always digital, Kinect didn't die, and eventually VR. Who knows what gaming would look like now? Yes, I know that opinion is in the minority, but I really appreciate companies that have a long term focused roadmap and see it through. The Switch couldn't live without the sacrifice of the Wii U. Sheesh, look at how PS made repurposed MOVE and Eye Toy into PSVR1.

Microsoft can be far too reactive, I think.
 
HibbySloth

HibbySloth

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,178
To me, the old Rare died with the Kinect. They're more successful than ever thanks to Sea of Thieves, but the Rare I fell in love with died with that peripheral.

My answer is no.
 
Zuly

Zuly

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,185
Puerto Rico
Just Dance without the Kinect freaking sucks. Holding a phone or a joycon while dancing to only have your right arm judged is not fun. I liked that the Kinect took your entire body's movement into account for scoring.
 
GlitchyDegree

GlitchyDegree

Prophet of Truth
The Fallen
Dec 4, 2017
5,499
Yeah actually. I love gimmicky stuff like the that, and had a blast whenever I used my friends 360 Kinect. I always wanted to get one for the Xbox One, but never could find it, and the adapter for a decent price. Talking purely about games though, not the larger effect it had on the Xbox brand.
 
Clive

Clive

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,101
It straight up didn't work for me. Tried a few games like Sonic Riders, Star Wars Kinect and something else and it misinterpreted my movement all the time. Maybe it was due to the lighting but I tried to fix it but was unsuccessful. I kind of want to bring it out again and try that Sega Horror game and maybe buy Fable the Journey (which supposedly is bad) but I had a miserable time with mine the times I used it.
 
SpoonyBob

SpoonyBob

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,493
Arkansas
The last half of the 360's lifespan, I think I'd gotten rid of my console already. Main thing I remember about the Kinect is that kid that got too close to his dad when playing and got accidentally elbowed...
 
djplaeskool

djplaeskool

Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,792
The only thing that it was good for was Dance games (Dance Central, Just Dance, Dance Evolution)
 
Red Light Camera

Red Light Camera

Member
Apr 12, 2021
602
I only really used it with the Xbox 360 because I was apart of the preview program and I had the room to jump around in front of the TV.

With the Xbox One, its main use was with with Dead Rising 3, along with SmartGlass.
 
Hella

Hella

Member
Oct 27, 2017
23,412
It was a really good era of entertaining videos dunking on how completely non-functional Kinect is, so I guess in that respect I do miss it.

Giant Bomb Kinect Quick Looks are a treasure that couldn't have happened without Microsoft's undying devotion to Kinect.
 
Fuchsia

Fuchsia

Member
Oct 28, 2017
6,657
No. I seriously don't miss the whole motion control era the Wii ushered in. So many games were worse because of shoehorned motion control gimmicks.

Kinect was probably the worst part of all of that. For me it was the beginning of me not being a Xbox fan anymore.
 
Kinsei

Kinsei

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
20,558
I loved the Dance Central games. They were really the only games that used the device well though so I can;t say I look back on the Kinect itself fondly.
 
Diarrhea Day-Lewis

Diarrhea Day-Lewis

Member
Oct 27, 2017
20,767
Yes even if I never owned it I had a blast playing some games in it with my nieces and nephews when they were much younger and I will always have enjoyed that
 
backpropaganda

backpropaganda

Member
Dec 13, 2018
1,522
Kinect was the brainchild of Alex Kipman, known creepy dude that got put in charge of metaverse and hololens , basically fucked up xbox division and wasted billions for Microsoft in the long term by giving a moron a massive career and budget at MS
 
KamenSenshi

KamenSenshi

Member
Nov 27, 2017
1,870
Yes. Dance Central was great. Some implementations were really good like in Forza. Xbox Fitness worked really well as did Nike Fitness. A lot of good could have come from the Kinect but forcing it with every One in addition to all the other stuff at that time painted it in an even worse light than some had before. If they had created a studio or two specifically for Kinect that would have been great.

Threw the baby out with the bathwater by getting rid of it considering it's like the only thing that hasn't come back and been embraced from the One launch and I wish they hadn't.
 
Modest_Modsoul

Modest_Modsoul

Living the Dreams
Member
Oct 29, 2017
23,721
I remember the memes back then especially that particular video of guy posing doing nothing in front of Kinect & TV while the game he's playing automatically wins.
 
BassForever

BassForever

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
29,957
CT
Powerofthecloud said:
No, remember this stupid shit. And we all fell for it.

youtu.be

E3 2009: Project Natal Milo demo

Get Kinect for Xbox 360: http://amzn.to/1KOdZ5zGet Kinect for Xbox One: http://amzn.to/1IVXd43Peter Molyneaux gives us a look at Milo, which uses Project Nat...
youtu.be youtu.be
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What's this "we" shit? Most people sniffed out another Molyneux lie the moment Milo was shown off.

Also I will defend Kinect for Just Dance and that full body break out game. Those were the only two uses of the tech that ever really made sense/worked well. I kind of want to get a cheap Kinect or Kinect 2 just to have access to JD (only played at a friends).
 
Judau

Judau

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,807
I remember having a decent time with Kinect Adventures, but that was about it. It's definitely not the sort of thing I would run back to if it was ever brought back for whatever reason.
 
prodyg

prodyg

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,204
I loved fruit ninja and Xbox Fitness. They really helped to get me in shape.
 
pete_clarf

pete_clarf

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,722
Dance Central was fun. I still have my 360 Kinect and Rise of Nightmares (still sealed). Someday maybe I'll play it (I bet I won't).
 
KillstealWolf

KillstealWolf

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
16,119
I had to do a university project using the kinect. The voice command stuff worked fine, but the motion tracking was abysmal. Add to that how disabled people not be able to use it, it was deemed that voice control would probably be the main standout point of the system.

So it wasn't all that surprising when a few years later down the line you saw Amazon Alexa came out.
 
LordHuffnPuff

LordHuffnPuff

Doctor Videogames at Allfather Productions
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
2,325
webernet
Thousands of people do, and those people are academic researchers who used many, many kinects for work because they were cheap and reasonable quality mocap+voice recognition-capable cameras.
 
akilshohen

akilshohen

Member
Dec 8, 2017
1,310
I enjoyed it and the PS Move.

But I used Kinect for Dance Central mostly, while the move was for rail shooters.
 
Smoolio

Smoolio

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
2,848
For only one thing, being able to shut the Xbox down with voice commands while my little sister was playing CoD
 
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