While I'm sure it will produce it's fair share of turds, I'm interested in seeing what becomes of Kinect when they have a proper, new console launch where they can be certain that everybody will have one. Of course, controller based games will still dominate, but I don't mind developers trying to do something creative with Kinect. If they let it get in the way of the quality of their games, then they as developers simply screwed up, and will almost certainly pay for it If you can't make it worthwhile, then don't bother, but Kinect has potential. I've always believed that. I just think that potential has a rather limited scope and would be best served in turn based jrpgs or specific kinds of open world adventure games involving magic. Never by itself, but in conjunction with a controller.

To entirely try to rely on Kinect for a game is silly and will probably never work out, but combo games utilizing both Kinect and the Controller in intelligent ways have potential. There were no legitimate attempts on the 360 that weren't gimmicky, and it makes sense that there weren't. Maybe this time can be different.

I think the biggest problem for xbox fans is:

Going to ps4 and losing all xbox achievements. Oh...how I love my achievements.

Not too big a loss. :)

Only achievements that I really ever cared about were the ones I got from Sakaguchi's games, and even with those games there came a point where I just stopped worrying about achievements, and just focused on enjoying the games.

Exactly. It defeats the whole purpose of just enjoying the game.

whoa whoa...who said anything about achievement whoring or doing stupid things/or things that arent fun to get achievements?

phaethon you made a fallacy. its okay karma will bite you in the ass later. lol

you can get achievements the natural way, just playing the game for fun and leave it at that. and it's still sad to see it all go away.

i agree opt, some games want you to do stupid shit to get achievements. the worst i can think of at the moment...is lost planet. i think i got about 15 points for beating the whole singleplayer game and left it at that. lol multiplayer was shit.

i thoroughly enjoyed halo4 achievements though all 1000 points!

None of us really cared about Kinect before because we could simply avoid it. But now it appears we are being given no choice as it's being forced on us, indeed being forced into the price point. Requiring that we use it to even get to our core experiences. And it seems that the more we understand that, the less enthused we become about the new console.

Won't the tablet control pad (that we can almost be certain is coming - multiple display planes gave that away) be enough? Why does it have to intrude on the way we like to play? And after 3 years it doesn't look like core developers have gotten a firm grasp on it either. But I honestly won't be upset about it, as long as I don't have to regret it being there.

And I don't know about the "always on" claim. We don't know anything for sure and I doubt very seriously if Microsoft would try to pull this off. I don't know about the rest of the globe, but a high definition, night vision capable camera and imaging device that scans the entire room, always on and gathering information on it's user(s)? Even if they managed the miracle it would take to squeeze this past the NSA and the FCC, consumer advocacy groups would rage. So I'm not going to concern myself over that yet.

3 display planes. One is reserved for the system OS, which means it'll probably be used to make sure the xbox user interface runs as smoothly as possible in the user's desired resolution, whereas the other 2 will be used for games themselves in a lot of instances.

In-game UI at one resolution and frame rate, while the actual gameplay is at another resolution and frame rate of the developer's choosing.

They'll mostly be used that way, but from a patent I read a while back, they can apparently also be used to help better display content on your desktop computer, laptop or smartphone, which, yes, is similar to the Wii-U's capabilities, but I wouldn't expect a tablet controller.

I don't feel they need a tablet controller because they have smartglass, an already proven delivery system available for iOS devices, windows 8 computers and tablets, and I believe Android devices. They are much more likely to have VR glasses that they will release in 2014 or sell separately at launch than they are to have a tablet controller. Those glasses are actually listed in Microsoft's leaked plans from a while back, and they've been giving subtle hints that the vr glasses aspect of their plans hasn't gone away.

I really don't believe Kinect will intrude on the way we play. I don't feel there's anything wrong with requiring it be connected and setup for the new xbox to be used. They are, after all, planning on doing Skype on the new xbox. I see it as mostly a major feature/requirement of the new Xbox's OS, as opposed to a major feature/requirement that will find its way into all games. I highly doubt you'll be forced to use Kinect in order to control your new xbox at all, in fact I'm positive this won't be the case, and it's not like every game will be designed for Kinect. A lot of them won't be.

There are Samsung smart tvs, for example, that can be controlled with a Kinect like feature, but they also come with a regular television remote as well. I expect the same of the new xbox. Microsoft just chose to save themselves money by not building it into the console itself, instead maintaining it as a usb, plug in device.

Another thing, I don't, for example, think that if Microsoft weren't planning on including Kinect, and would thus save money as a result, that they would automatically make the new xbox less expensive as a result of that, foregoing the money that they could make by charging whatever they want for it. So whatever they do end up charging for Kinect to be packed in with every machine, they will have to make sure it's a good price, or else they'll only be hurting themselves. Kinect will be a much better value as a pack in with an entirely new next gen console, than it ever was on its own.

Very true its a great bit of tech.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/next/archive/2011/10/12...

It does indeed have a lot of potential. It went from just being something that could have interesting uses in games, to having a level of mindshare that could turn it into one of the most successful consumer entertainment devices ever, if Microsoft plays their cards right.

For example, it stands the best opportunity of any device that I'm aware of currently to make remote free control of our televisions, computers, entertainment devices a much more widespread reality. Not that I want 100% Kinect style control of all things that I do with any entertainment device, I obviously do not. However, I can most certainly see a lot of cases where I just might not mind being able to control something with Kinect, particularly as it relates to navigating certain aspects of a game console's UI or even a television. And then, of course, I'm excited to see if a developer can come up with something genuinely worthwhile to do with it in a serious game, but we can always fall back on our controllers and more traditionally controlled games regardless. It's not like we don't have a choice.

It is indeed a great bit of tech, you can't deny that, but just keep it away from my core games and i'm good.

There are just as much dev's loving the tech as there are not loving it, so it's going nowhere i accept that, hell even Sony keep trying trying and trying again with motion gaming, so you know its not going to die any time soon.

Just going to be more prevalent on the MS consoles.

The problem MS have is making kinect fast enough, intuitive enough and responsive enough to not just be a novelty alternative to standard controls, but actually be as good as if not better then standard controls. I mean, menu navigation wise, sure, you can swipe your arm left and right and hold your hand over something for 10 seconds to select it. But you can do all that, will less effort, with more accuracy, and with more responsiveness in about 2 seconds with a standard pad using an analogue stick or d-pad. Which for me makes kinect utterly useless.

Yeah i get that, i dont use it in my core games either, but i feel there is great potential in the tech.

I agree.I agree with this whole heartedly!

Even though the rumored specs have new tech that is supposed to fix all the issues you list above, if i can do it faster on the controller i still will, the voice control stuff may be quicker? but time will tell.