Should Microsoft kill Kinect or not?

Nah, they shouldn't kill it. There are some people that like it. But they should offer a SKU of Xbox One without it.

But i think if they offer Kinect without Xbox One then most people would buy cheaper SKU without Kinect and then when game developers make Kinect games then it flops because nobody dident buy Kinect. All Xbox One comes with Kinect = more game developers, features and games. I mean PS4 got Eye but it´s so useless and dead already. Microsoft said that they won´t drop Kinect ever

Kinect is an interesting device. It remains to be seen whether it will get any better for games. They shouldn't have forced it into the box though.

Nope...

Look I am no fan of Xbox or MS but I have to say that Kinect should stay. Not because it's a nice gaming device , but because it's a nice piece of technology. Thanks to gaming industry technology is evolving, so while Kinect might remain a gimmick within gaming sphere, it can possible help elevating technology in other fields. Smart houses, cars, TVs... anything...

So my point is... Kinect is a good thing and it should not be abandoned.

Well, if most people were to opt for the version without Kinect then wouldn't that mean that Kinect is not the be all / end all anyway? Let's face it, most gamers don't want it. Forcing them to have it is not a good idea. Shoving it down their throats isn't going to cause them to suddenly like it. Probably they'll just end up disliking it even more.

No I actually like it but most people don't like it.

Nah, just a large chunk are cheap

Those people don't even own all the consoles yet they'll talk about all of them

If that's the way you want to look at it. But that ain't the way it is for me. It ain't the $499 price of Xbox that bothers me. It's that approximately $100 of that is going towards Kinect, something I don't even want. Now if they were to lose Kinect and double the power of the GPU instead I'd gladly pay $499 for it.

Saying "Xbox pause" is the best feature. Other than that it's a waste of time and developers know that, that's why there are only stupid little kinect features in games that you don't need and never use, such as calling zombies over and head tracking in forza. I don't even know what the head tracking does but I've not needed it in the 170 levels I've got on that game.

I don't know that they should kill it, per se, but they should certainly make it an optional peripheral. It's affecting their pricing strategy which puts them behind the proverbial 8-ball, and their core audience probably doesn't use it outside of the gimmicky voice commands. I don't see them making inroads with the casual market while having a $500 price tag.

I should really turn off voice commands. My girlfriend was on the phone and said "Something" so Xbox went to Bing while I was playing Forza. So I said Xbox go to Forza (I should have said the full game name, I know) but Xbox decided to go to Fifa and closed my Forza game.

For gaming? 100% yes, keep it far away.

I like kinect so no, they should offer a $400 price point without kinect though and I am sure they will.

You played only "kinect supported games" but how about playing "only kinect games". About 45% games right now on Xbox One supports Kinect. Kinect exclusive games are so much better. Just Dance is bad with Wii or PS4 motion controller(plus camera needed) but with Kinect you don´t need anything else to buy(extra). So then game developers who make Just Dance game can see that they sell most on Xbox One and then they make extra features and stuff exclusivly on Xbox One. Trust me, Kinect will be big part in future.

I played Kinect Adventures! on Xbox 360 and it was very awesome. Better than Wii

This ^ ^ ^

The Kinect is too intergrated into what the XB1 is all about. Plus Microsoft invested too much money into it to just kill it after a year or two. I think they will bring out a SKU without Kinect in a couple years.

Considering that everyone knows how much weaker it is than PS4 it'd have to be $400 with Kinect and $300 without or they're gonna get smeared. And yeah, I know they can't can't do that cuz they've managed to design a console that's weaker but more expensive to produce so they're basically screwed. Should have delayed and redesigned it. Oh well, too late now.

Considering over 20m bought the previous one,no

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57599628-75/microsoft-says-xbox-one-will-never-sell-without-kinect/

Microsoft says Xbox One will never sell without Kinect

If they did sell Xbox One without Kinect then Xbox One could sell easily even less. What would be point of having PS4, Xbox One, same price, same powerful, same games, only few different exclusives. It would be too much same. Again, they make all Xbox One with Kinect so then game developers can make Kinect games. If they sold without Kinect then most would buy without Kinect and then game developers wouldnt want make any Kinect game and then it would be same as PS4 eye. Look at PS4 eye, no games are coming. Skype 1080p and clear voice chat is also good. Again, if they sold without Kinect then Xbox One would be so worthless.

idk about that....they are doing pretty well with a $500 price point as it is.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/01/11/a-kinect-less-xbox-one-is-in-the-cards-for-2014.aspx

things my change....never say never

We're at the beginning. Consoles are selling as fast as the companies can make them right now. Well, PS4 is anyway while Xbox One gets spotted in the wild all the time. Once supply catches up to demand I expect PS4 to pull ahead ... well ahead.

Xbox One has higher price and it´s selling very well.

Let´s look PS3 and Xbox360. PS3 had higher price than Xbox 360. Xbox 360 sold more consoles(first 3 years or so) than PS3 but then making cost goes lower and then PS3 cut their price and then started to outsell Xbox 360 in Japan and Europe. Kinect and Xbox One will be cheaper in future. Again, highest console price and still sells so well i say it´s successful choice. Also Kinect alone outsold Xbox console when it came out. Best system for party games :)

I don't think every game needs it. I still think it needs that one killer game or function to be a grand slam. Keep it and great things will come.

No.

I hope we see near future more games like Kinect Sports Rivals(high quality) than Fighter Within. Kinect just needs more time. Yeah, not every game needs to be Kinect function. Focus on controller games and focus on Kinect games. Again, its all up to game developers. Microsoft gave Kinect and then game developers do what they want with hardware.

What MS should have given developers is a GPU worth a damn and a memory architecture that's with the times. They could do far, far more with that than they'll ever do with Kinect.

This. For some reason i feel that in 2016-2017 year there will be most party games on Xbox One(like Just Dance and this kinda stuff). I mean Nintendo is not selling Wii consoles anymore and Wii U is so confusing. Microsoft however knows how to do good marketing. Microsoft easily can and will steal many casual gamers. Wii games soon won´t be made and Wii U nobody buys(only Zelda and Mario fans) which leads all casual gamers to go on Xbox One. I feel that Microsoft may make new SKU like 100GB hard drive + Kinect and same price as PS4 or kinda like that.

I know my english sucks but i hope you understand :)

Well, that may very well happen. But is that the console you want ... one teaming with casual games?

No! Why people would buy Xbox One and PS4 when they same price, same games and same powerful. Why would they do that? Then people would buy PS4 instead and nobody wouldnt buy Xbox One. Also Xbox 360 highest selling game is Kinect game. Kinect also outsold Original Xbox and gave massive profit. Nobody need 100% same consoles with same games. Microsoft still keeps hardcore gamers on their side + now steal all casual gamers from Nintendo. Nintendo is down, Wii U is too confusing for people, casual gamers does not want Wii U. Why not having casual and hardcore gamers on 1 console than all hardcore gamers on PS4 and Xbox One and casual gamers no where(not even on Wii U).

What makes you think that with all things being equal Sony would be the victor? Virtually everyone in the industry was predicting a sound MS victory this time around. It was their console cycle to lose. And they've done just that. They had this thing in the bag but blew it with bad policy decisions in the beginning and terrible hardware design in the end.

As long as I get a kinectless X1, I don't care how they do it

200 million hardcore gamers, 100 million casual gamers.

If Xbox One had no Kinect then Xbox One would be priced same as PS4 and would be same powerful as PS4.

Sale would be: 100 million hardcore gamers on PS4, 100 million hardcore gamers on Xbox One, 10 million casual gamers on Wii U.

Now with Kinect thing is different. Sell is: 130-140 million hardcore gamers on PS4, 60-70 million hardcore gamers and 90 million casual gamers on Xbox One and 10 million casual gamers on Wii U.

Who won? Microsoft because Microsoft just took free casual gamers away from Nintendo because casual gamers can´t buy Wii games and nobody wants Wii U.

And no, it won´t ruin Xbox One games. There will be still same much multiplatform and hardcore games but just now with more casual gamers more.

Why have only hardcore gamers when you could have hardcore and casual gamers on 1 side? Again, it´s about money. Kinect gives more profit. Give trade 30 million hardcore gamers for 90 casual gamers. Again, with Kinect there still will be hardcore and exclusive games like Halo, Forza and new IP games. Stop hating it. People buy console to play games and HAVE FUN. If you had Xbox One then you would know how much Kinect Xbox One makes. Really, no need to hate. Don´t be racist.

I think the demand for the PS4 will slow down sometime in March. If you think the XB1 isn't still selling, you're crazy. Just because it has a lot of stock, doesn't mean gamers aren't buying it. The Wii was sold out for a whole year. I don't see that happening with the PS4, as most casual gamers aren't going to rush out and buy any next-gen consoles immediately.

If Microsoft never joined gaming then there would be no such things as: Friends Lists and voice chat, Matchmaking, A single ID, Gamerscore competition, Firmware updates, Downloadable content (DLC), Pay to play, Community, Cloud computing, Trial Games, Achievements and Kinect.

Xbox gave all those things before Sony did. If there was no Microsoft then Sony wouldnt have any reason to make anything better. Having no competition WOULD KILL GAMING!!!!

Hmm, I agree that some of those things are positives ... especially achievements. But pay to play (Same as free to play, strangely enough) and DLC are spawned directly from hell ... worst things to happen to gaming ... EVER!!!! So-called free to play games have the bizarre characteristic of being the most expensive games to play in the industry.

They don't need to kill it - just drop it from the XB1 SKU and sell it separately.

Then drop the XB1 price $110 to better compete with the PS4.

There's no need to shove it down people's throats when it doesn't offer anything mind-blowing to begin with.

I would prefer if they kill it, or create a SKU without it.

I don't see what it adds to the experience.

The things that I like about Kinect:

1. The TV will turn on when the system turns on.

2.The TV will turn off when the system no longer recognizes you for a long period of time.

3. Changing to a party game in an instant for guests, with no need to adjust to controllers.

No cheevos, no achievement hunters, no overpriced DLC for content that should have been on the disc, no constant patching to excuse lazy development and no wagglecam?

Someone get me a time machine.

C'mon, achievements are cool. :) But I agree with the rest of what you said.

I was meh about them until I became a trophy whore last February and after a few weeks I suddenly realised that actively pursuing them made me enjoy games less. Haven't gone over 30% in every game since. Been playing Borderlands 2 for the last two weeks and I haven't checked the trophy list once. If Sony and MS announced tomorrow they were ditching the decrepit things I would probably celebrate.

Begging for what? MS to continue being dumb. Totally!

Kinect is the single biggest reason I will not own an X1. I won't even allow a friend to bring over his X1 to hook up in my house because of Kinect. So yes, I would be a lot more open to buying an X1 if they released a Kinectless model for $100-$150 less than it's current asking price.

See, I feel the exact opposite way. I honestly, after using Kinect since launch day would never not use it to navigate the system, features, games, ect. It is absolutely for me one of the difference makers why I have so little interest in the PS4. The biggest being I feel the gaming line-up is so much better on the One, but that's not the topic of this thread.

When I show friends how the One works they are all damn impressed with the voice controls/navigation and Xbox Fitness alone sells me on the camera as its very well done how you can monitor your movements to see if you are doing the motions correctly. IMHO MS should drop the price of the One, but include it still and never sell it minus Kinect. Let people who don't want to use it simply set it aside, but the experience is very good as far as I am concerned. Its not perfect, has flaws, and will be constantly updated as the gen goes on but once the One becomes a dev box that great Kinect experience will likely come from a ambitious, creative indie dev. MS will still make the dance and kids games, but for me as a core gamer I don't have interest in motion controls outside of the navigation of the OS, Xbox Fitness, Skype. and Upload Studio, which I think is amazing and will only get better.

So we agree the price needs to drop. But I don't want to see Kinect drop. I see a great deal of potential with it, but not in a core game. At least not yet.