Harrison: Removing Kinect Creates "Virtuous Cycle" of More Consumers, Developers

BlameTheWizards

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Harrison: Removing Kinect Creates "Virtuous Cycle" of More Consumers, Developers



"The more consumers who buy Xbox One, it's a virtuous cycle for more developers to make and more consumers to play games," the head of Microsoft's European Studios said at a London preview event last week.

Microsoft's been getting a lot of attention for its recent call to <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/134456-Xbox-One-to-Get-Kinect-Free-Version-for-399-in-June>offer a cheaper, Kinect-free Xbox One later this year. Now, Phil Harrison, former president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios and current chief of Microsoft's European Studios, has said that the move will ultimately create a "virtuous cycle," leading to more Xbox One owners followed by more developer support.

"Last week we made a very significant announcement about giving gamers a choice, a choice about how they want to enter the Xbox One ecosystem," Harrison told OXM. "And fundamentally that is good for opening up the Xbox One ecosystem - the more consumers who buy Xbox One, it's a virtuous cycle for more developers to make and more consumers to play games, and that is what we're committed to achieving and continuing."

Harrison stated that Microsoft remains "committed to Kinect as the premium way to experience the Xbox One vision." More than 80 percent of Xbox One Kinects are active, with an average of 120 voice commands being issued each day by all users. "When you have this premium experience that is where the Xbox One comes alive," he told OXM.

While Harrison clearly wants to paint a rosy picture for the Kinect's future, comments from other Microsoft heads raise some questions. Last week, Microsoft's corporate vice president for devices and studios stated that removing the Kinect <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/134509-Xbox-One-Could-Be-More-Powerful-Without-Kinect>could leave the Xbox One with more processing power for games.

Source: OXM

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Tradjus

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The Kinect was never going to work out in my opinion.
Microsoft had a few strategies it could have tried, the first of course would be twisting the arm of every developer and forcing them to make the Kinect a principle part of their games so as too acclimate players to it.
That would have failed -violently- because the Kinect simply wasn't ready for prime time and it would have ruined every game that they forced functionality for it into.
The second strategy is what they went with, making it a voluntary thing for developers but a forced thing for consumers. From the dev viewpoint, it doesn't matter one damned bit how many people -have- the Kinect, every feature they do to give extra functionality for it is a cost they can do without, which is why that strategy failed and now the Kinect is being thrown under the bus.
The third would have been too make it voluntary for consumers -and- developers, which was the strategy of the first Kinect for the 360, and we all know how that went.

No matter what they did, it was always going too fail, the only winning move would have been to never create it in the first place. But they just couldn't leave well enough alone, and years of research, development, and billions of dollars later, they have NOTHING to show for it.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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This is what I'm getting from all these Microsoft newsflashes about the Xbox and Kinect:

In other news, Eastasia is no longer at war with Eurasia. In fact, they've always been allies. The true enemy is Oceania, which has declared war on Eurasia, which is friends with Eastasia. This has resulted in a decisive victory over Oceania armies in Africa.
 

evilnancyreagan

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This on RPS just a couple days ago:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/05/21/of-mice-and-gamepads-the-future-of-controllers/

A strong argument in favor of other, unconventional game control mechanisms like Kinect.
 

CriticalMiss

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Johnny Novgorod said:
This is what I'm getting from all these Microsoft newsflashes about the Xbox and Kinect:

In other news, Eastasia is no longer at war with Eurasia. In fact, they've always been allies. The true enemy is Oceania, which has declared war on Eurasia, which is friends with Eastasia. This has resulted in a decisive victory over Oceania armies in Africa.
I think everyone outside of Microsoft can see that the future of the Kinect looks doubleplusungood. All the press releases they are throwing out kind of make it look like they didn't think it through that much and are just trying to make it up as they go along. They just need to have someone come out and say that this was Microsoft's plan all along to complete the circle of bullshit.
 

DrunkOnEstus

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I don't know about you guys, but terms like "how they want to enter the Xbox One ecosystem" kinda creep me out and drive me away. Is there anyone who's enticed by the idea of entering a branded ecosystem? Even if they just want to buy a box that plays games, or even run their cable through it. I dunno.

More on-topic, this puts the new Kinect in the same situation it was in last gen. Dancing games will do fine, almost every other input outside of that and Netflix will suffer for it unless someone has a lot of money or creative ideas for it.
 

ExtraDebit

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Remember way back when they said the kinect couldn't be remove from the xbone? Someone ought to ask him what else did microsoft lied to us about.
 

oldtaku

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evilnancyreagan said:
This on RPS just a couple days ago:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/05/21/of-mice-and-gamepads-the-future-of-controllers/
A strong argument in favor of other, unconventional game control mechanisms like Kinect.
Only if they work. Kinect fails to work far too often. If it actually did what it promised everyone would love it (and you'd see a lot more games using it).

I've got one gathering dust on my X360, and the XB1 Kinect fails to be better at anything but navigating the XB1 dashboard (which seems to be designed purposely bad to force you to use it). The input lag on Kinect Sports Rivals is excruciating even when it does actually correctly recognize what you're trying to do. It's actually LESS intuitive and immersive than just using a gamepad would be.
 

evilnancyreagan

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oldtaku said:
Only if they work. Kinect fails to work far too often. If it actually did what it promised everyone would love it (and you'd see a lot more games using it).

I've got one gathering dust on my X360, and the XB1 Kinect fails to be better at anything but navigating the XB1 dashboard (which seems to be designed purposely bad to force you to use it). The input lag on Kinect Sports Rivals is excruciating even when it does actually correctly recognize what you're trying to do. It's actually LESS intuitive and immersive than just using a gamepad would be.
That's something they definitely touch base in the article but, the spin on it is that hardware design is less important than developers utilizing the features of the hardware effectively and creatively. The whole piece suggests that game developers rely too heavily on traditional gamepads as crutches and limited control options are stifling the growth of innovative new game concepts.
 

Whoracle

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BlameTheWizards said:
[...]with an average of 120 voice commands being issued each day by all users.[...]
Now, this might be a case of getting lost in translation, with me not being a native english speaker and all that, but that sounds like all users (all 80% of XBone buyers) issue 120 commands per day, total, on average. Which made me laugh out loud :)

And no, I don't have anything substantial to contribute to the discussion, other than pointing out that this was phrased poorly, IMHO.
 

Fulbert

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Whoracle said:
BlameTheWizards said:
[...]with an average of 120 voice commands being issued each day by all users.[...]
Now, this might be a case of getting lost in translation, with me not being a native english speaker and all that, but that sounds like all users (all 80% of XBone buyers) issue 120 commands per day, total, on average. Which made me laugh out loud :)

And no, I don't have anything substantial to contribute to the discussion, other than pointing out that this was phrased poorly, IMHO.
Yep, wanted to point out the same thing. 120 commands by all the xbone users per day is not something it'd brag about if I were a Microsoft official.
 

Cybylt

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Sooo... are we just gonna gloss over how Microsoft monitors the use of the camera/microphone in their customers' homes?

That's not creepy at all.
 

ThunderCavalier

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So, after a year or two of trying to cram Kinect down our throats, Microsoft is finally conceding that they're wasting their time.

Took them long enough.
 

Scars Unseen

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DrunkOnEstus said:
I don't know about you guys, but terms like "how they want to enter the Xbox One ecosystem" kinda creep me out and drive me away. Is there anyone who's enticed by the idea of entering a branded ecosystem? Even if they just want to buy a box that plays games, or even run their cable through it. I dunno.
Pretty much why I bought a Kobo instead of a Kindle. Kindle locks you into Amazon's store, while Kobo uses an open standard for its e-books(and has an SD card expansion slot as well).
 

StriderShinryu

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Trying to spin using voice commands as being full use of the Kinect is, quite frankly, so stupid it hurts. The Kinect was initially foisted on everyone as an alternate (or even primary) control system for playing games. The fact that it let you use voice commands (and gestures, but even that must be a massive fail since they refuse to mention it) to control your dashboard was supposed to be just a fairly negligible side benefit. In reality, if all that Kinect is used for by the vast majority of people who actually do use it is voice commands on the dashboard, they could have already done that by making use of a headset which most Xbox owners already have. Sure it would be less convenient, but the function would be exactly the same. In essence, Microsoft is admitting that their "new way to play games" is really just a fancy and relatively expensive microphone.
 

MeChaNiZ3D

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I love how what they say they wholeheartedly believe is good changed so rapidly and just happens to coincide with what they want/have been pressured to do. I suppose it makes sense from a business perspective to look like you have convictions, but is being dedicated absolutely to every approach and its opposite when required promoting that image?
 

Rozalia1

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Well in essence their strategy isn't too stupid unless it does irreparable harm to their future sales (which it won't). They essentially suckered a bunch of people who would rather not have the kinect to get it, those who didn't bite will just buy the kinectless version, and later buyers in Kinect will get it on their consoles...so all round this will ultimately mean more kinects out there.

Also I think it's gotten to the point where pointing out Microsoft contradicting themselves is old hat. Companies will contradict themselves at times, but Microsoft seems to want to every other week for lord knows what reason.
 

-Dragmire-

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This is pretty hysterical but my initial reaction was, "No shit Sherlock".

BlameTheWizards said:
Harrison stated that Microsoft remains "committed to Kinect as the premium way to experience the Xbox One vision." More than 80 percent of Xbox One Kinects are active, with an average of 120 voice commands being issued each day by all users. "When you have this premium experience that is where the Xbox One comes alive," he told OXM.
Interesting... Is there some kind of transparency report that lists exactly what info they track?

It's something I want from all companies to be honest, the eula usually abbreviates this info with wording like, "Things like..." or "non identity related info". It's always so specific in what it wants from the users but disclosing what it tracks is always so secretive.