Why the Kinect was Fundamentally Broken 

Something I do wanna note here in the comments that I didn't mention in the video (it was already getting really long): speaking purely about the hardware, it really isn't that bad of a device. And in fact there are companies in the fields of robotics and motion tracking and such that *still* have kinects in their offices in use to this day. Because ultimately it is still a super cheap and accessible Depth-sensing camera which has tons of applications in those kinds of fields. Especially if they're willing to write custom drivers and software to better utilize the technology. Hell some people have even managed to rig it up to use it for Full-Body Tracking in combination with modern VR tech without having to strap controllers to their feet. The problem of course being that that still doesn't really solve the issue of how the Kinect was used by Microsoft in the gaming space. And on top of that, Microsoft kind of screwed even this aspect of the Kinect up because the Kinect 2 had its cable changed to have a proprietary port instead of a normal USB port, which means that you can't just plug it into a PC with a custom driver right out of the box and you need to buy a special adaptor for it which is of course now increasingly difficult to find ever since they discontinued it. So most of those companies using the Kinect for other applications are actually still using the original 360 Kinect instead of the updated Xbox One's Kinect 2, which is somehow even funnier to me lol

Also don't forget that Microsoft was really thinking AMERICAN LIVING ROOMS. So bigger, with space for the television. Many people in smaller houses don't HAVE much space before a television to start with. For instance Japan! Even in Europe we tend to like to put a TABLE in that area...

My favorite memory of using the kinect was trolling my sister when she played Skyrim. The Xbox 360 version had kinect voice commands, so I would randomly sneak up and shout "Fus Ro Dah" to make her blast away NPCs and get attacked by the guards, then run away cackling while she screamed in rage at me.

You might be one of the first people on RU-vid that I've ever heard mention the word abstraction in relation to games. Its something that I think people fail to grasp the importance of or even understand that everything in a game is an abstraction.

Interesting topic. Microsoft was in such a hurry to market the Kinect but forgot to actually build the functionality

I got the Kinect, played it for maybe ... A few weeks total including bringing it to family gatherings but then just forgot it existed for lack of good games using this thing, same for the PS Move.

Let’s never forget Microsoft and Peter Molyneux’s complete bs with Project Milo

even though it failed in gaming it became a very useful sensor for motion tracking and interactive works of art and installations.and the funny thing is not only microsoft didnt thought of these kind of uses for it , finally when they realized there is a market for such thing they released Kinect AZure which is way harder to work with than the kinect 2 ! so i guess Microsoft is just simply dumb !

I personally don't like to move that much while playing games. So motion control is already nothing for me. Party games with friends were kinda fun using the Kinect, but that's all

Funny to me how people complained about privacy only for a few year later the same consumers bought ring cameras for their homes connected to the internet, Amazon Alexa in almost every room. Having a app track their entire family on their phones for any hacker to get access to your kids location at any moment

It was a fun thing to play at summer camp at the wellness center my parents went to, but that’s all it was to me a hobby. Most of us kids at the camp would just play on our DS and chat about games.

I've never used the PS move controller, but I have experience with the Kinect and Wii. The Wii always felt easy to use, since the IR aiming combined with the accelerometer and physical buttons makes a lot of tasks simple to do, even for non gamers. The Kinect, in theory, works fine. I used to play Kinect Sports/Adventure and the Just Dance games, all of which work fine, but not as easy as the Wii. I did play other games on Kinect, but I don't remember how those felt to play. So while I find myself going back to play Wii games somewhat often, I haven't turned on my Kinect in years.

When you boil it down, the concept behind Kinect is playing videogames by miming.

If Microsoft had only chosen to market the kinect as an accessory to be able to play dance games or party games, the kinect would have probably lived on as just this...Aka a Side accessory. Similiar to buzzer,Singstar mic or dance mat. But unfortunately Microsoft wanted to hype up kinect as the accessory that would replace the main accessory..Controller. Which gave them a huge sale, however follow by a massive crash.

The closest we'll get to perfect tracking is mocap tech, but even then, they still go over the capture data to fine tune movements.

I don't mind different accessories for Consoles, with their own style of gameplay. however I hate when these accessories come to dominate the core experience, especially if it takes over the entire e3 press conference.

Man, you hit pretty hard ! I mostly agree your analysis about the Kinect not being suitable for a satisfying gaming experience. But still, I remember buying an Xbox 360 because of the Kinect, eager to live a new gaming experience. I faced it's limitations pretty quickly but I still had fun with my family in short intense gaming sessions. So, I agree Kinect it's a clunky and limited piece of technology in the gaming field, but it was exciting to experience something new, something involving your body. As for the lack of 1st person perspective, I've always been a first person view hater so it never bothered me. But it sure can be a problem for this type of games. To conclude, I agree Kinect had many limitations but it was something new and intriguing. I miss this kind of crazy innovations nowadays.

I had a Kinect. Thing was trash. I had a addon to “improve the functions” and still didn’t work well. Only exception with the Kinect was Kinect sports series and dancing games that’ll usually work

They could've at least added a dummy controller solely for button input but they didn't even do that.

Interesting points!

the FPS actor looking behind him 😂😂

I bought a Kinect in 2011 or so, and still haven't gotten around to trying it.

I was very hype for the kinect when it was first announced and I thought the whole kinect wave was quite interesting to take part in. however i really hate when microsoft chose to let the kinect dominate 3 e3 years in a row.

Abstraction? My dad works at Nintendo and so I got an unreleased version of DMC for kinetict. There is now a hole in my roof.

My mom got me an xbox elite that had the kinect bundled.. I had fun using it while playing skyrim with the thu'um lol

I never understood why they were so pushy with the Kinect, it wasn't new or unique tech. I had an Eyetoy for the PS2 I enjoyed back in the day, but they never pushed that on the consumers.

Feedback is not required for boxing with shadow. Punch Out makes it accessible game. Full body tracking would have helped with dodge, duck. I agree that designing games with body position only controls is unnecessary limitation.

Funny. I’ve been saying the same thing you said in this video since 2010. I always thought it was a bad idea. Games need buttons. That’s it.

What was that TANK game again the FORCED you to use those commands. In a high action, time is ticking, situation. Where one wrong move would mean you lost that level. Good times, good times...

While many of the points in this video are valid my problem is when people say how limited it is for games. It's kind of the wrong mindset of what you perceive as a gaming experience. As the Kinect in my opinion is just a different kind of experience to gaming that you can't get with just a controller. For example fitness games like ( Xbox fitness ) where you would workout and it tracks you but it also has a heart monitor sensor in it which can tell you heart rate which if your into that sort of thing that's a really good experience. Or something like ( child of Eden ) which is an on rail shooter / rhythm game where you can use the kinect motion controls or just a controller again same game but two different kinds of experiences. And there are some games like Crimson dragon and Lara Croft Tomb Raider where you can use a controller and Kinect at the same time. But my biggest critique about videos like this is the Kinect is not in a vacuum. unlike something like VR headsets or the Wii motion controls if you don't want to stand up and use motion controls you don't have a choice where you don't have to use the Kinect for every game on this console unlike VR headsets and the Nintendo Wii again giving you more unique kind of experiences for one platform. The sheer lack of software for this is what made it feel broken not the limitations of the device itself

Maybe if the kinect used xrays instead of infrared it might be able to track skeletal joints a lot better. Although that might cause other problems... 🤔

Ultimately Kinect ended up being Siri for XBox menus, and (except perhaps the newest update for ios 18) Siri is still useless.

I'm playing asgards wrath 2 and after 1 battle I'm exhausted lol

The Kinect is a "Just Dance" game peripheral. That is what it woks well for, and it's mediocre at a few more games. Playing a golf game with the Kinect is a nightmare, because it can't track a swing once your hands are behind you. Although the Wii motion controls worked well, the only games that were fun with it were the few games specifically designed for the controls. It's almost as if nobody at Microsoft bothered playing the Wii, they just heard the hype and assumed motion controls were the future.

You do know that Dan Central was a much better game than just dance and that the Xbox Xbox one shipping controller was designed for use with connect. It had three infrared bulbs that could identify up to eight separate controllers and track them individually. The gunstringer was also. adelight i'll give you a clue, just like PVR too, connect to was not about games they were only a side thing

I feel like the Kinect was a shittier version of the PlayStation EyeToy, but I don't remember if it was better than the Kinect because it's been too ling since.

I believe the original version was planned to be way better but Microsoft cheaped out

Kinect ≠ VR And it wasn't trying to be It is simply an alternative input method

The Xbox series x and the PS5 will be the last consoles I buy, the games have stopped being fun mid way thru last gen. Gonna stick with PC and emulate. Will focuse on retro collection.

If we have patience for all the nonsense associated with VR We should have had patience for the kinect. A couple of iterations and it would have been no more clunky than VR is currently. Haptic feedback gloves.

I played a motion controlled guitar hero like game for drums and it raped my arms, I got horrible cramps because I wasn't hitting anything so my arms didn't bounce back instead I had to go all the way down, stop myself and lift again