Microsoft: Kinect Not For Core Gamers

[Dexiro]

At least they're being honest with themselves now. Instead of selling it as some amazing must have gaming experience they're admitting that there's bugger all they can do with that thing to appeal to gamers.

 

[poiuppx]

BWAHAHAHAA! Oh... oh wait... you're SERIOUS, Microsoft? You actually believe that?

Buddy, come on. You're telling me that, not the core gamers, but the guys who are casual gamers, are to be expected to shell out for your system, AND the Kinect, AND games for it? When for a lot less they could net a new Wii and a small library of games? What is Microsoft smoking?

 

[demoman_chaos]

I like Microsoft so something they've made should work well with windows 7, after all it's designed with alternate input in mind.

Should, but knowing M$'s work it probably won't be as easy and PnP.
Personally, I hate M$. Their illegal monopoly over the computer OS industry and their high-price-low-quality products drive me away from them, but my opinion is just that (MY opinion). But I don't see what they could do with Kinect that would be of any use to a PC user besides bundling a mic and an advanced webcam.

 

[Iconsting]

What the hell is Kinect?

 

[demoman_chaos]

Oh it's not a monopoly, you buy a pre-assembled PC and it comes with a selection of components pre-picked, OS is just one of them but you can easily change to Linux (I've actually been using it exclusively for a month now) and if you build from scratch you pick everything, including the OS. There are several netbooks that ship with Linux native now, the only thing is that Windows has a huge market share and is normally put on a new PC as a default.

You're not thinking outside the box, I don't just use my PC for work and gaming. A media PC, amBX and Kinect coupled with some good speakers shouts "voice activated disco light jukebox" to me! It's a toy to be sure but it's a toy I really want. I also like the idea of hooking commands in-game up to voice phrases, say 'retreat', 'advance' or 'regroup'.

But all boxed PC's come with Windows. If you could get one with no OS or Linux out of the box , then it wouldn't be a monopoly. Only thing keeping it from being a total monopoly is Apple and its thousand of so sales a year.
Netbooks using Linux is at least a step forward, but since Linux is free, to me it doesn't count as an OS sale.

Which distro do you use? I dual boot XP for gaming and PC Linux OS for everything else.

 

[demoman_chaos]

I dual boot windows 7 for gaming and Ubuntu 10.04 for everything else on my gaming rig, I use Ubuntu netbook edition 10.04 on my netbook and I have a second computer (for when I need to play with server-side stuff) that I'm looking at sticking Debian on. It's unadventurous but Ubuntu is such a damn fine distro that I've kind of fallen in love with it. Everything works, support for my eee netbook is absolutely perfect (as in no feature doesn't work, there is a fix for one I don't have but I never use it) and the software centre is super-awesome for student life, I can tinker with a new program whenever I want.

The one problem with selling a blank rig is that no one would buy it, as silly as that sounds it'd honestly take a lot of effort to explain the bonus of a Linux platform to anyone not already interested. I'd like to see more blank sets like this but people like it to work out of the box. Also not all Linux distros are free, Linux is free source but finished distros can be sold.

Everything on my tablet laptop works perfectly on PC Linux OS (even the pointer-pen). I also like having Synaptic (the built-in package manager) so I can get any kind of program I need easily without having to do a google search and all that nonsense.

Seeing how most people are greedy these days, just saying that it is free (all the ones I've seen have been, at least) and you don't have to pay for anti-virus would sway most. But since people are afraid of the unfamiliar and Windows is the only familiar OS, it isn't likely they can be swayed.

 

[Treblaine]

I don't get Microsoft, how can they introduce such an expensive peripheral for downmarket customers?

 

[TheECP]

If it costs anywhere near $200 I'll laugh, and just buy myself a Wii

 

[Josh123914]

oh my god, it's NOT FOR CORE GAMERS? stop the fucking presses.
though this is kind of stupid, the 360 has been battling for the hardcore audience for years, and while the PS3 Move is actually gonna incorparate into games like heavy rain and even God Of War 3,The 360 is homing in on nintendo's teritory which they've had a grip for years on casual audiences. Btw what would you buy?
Wii - mostly casual (roughly £150) optional hardcore classic controller(£30)= £180
PS3 - mostly hardcore(250GB £250 ) optional hardcore motion controller(£50) = £300
360 - mostly harcore (Elite £200 ) optional casual motion controller(£150) = £350
(P.S. I didn't count online fees or wi-fi or else 360 would be around £600 if you've had 1 since 2005)
And don't even get me STARTED on the 360 Slim, it just proves that Microsoft just copies everyone else whenever they start to lose their audience

 

[duchaked]

I was trying to imagine how one would play a shooter with Natal-er, Kinect
hehe I imagine something like in the movie Gamer
except your avatar is...not human (not that they are now...)

 

[Crimsane]

>Microsoft
>honesty about a product not appealing to people

mind = blown

 

[MR.Spartacus]

"Non-core" (aka casual) gamers do not spend half again as much as the console cost in the first place for a new controller.

Kinect is a solution in search of a problem. I'd love to be proven wrong. Innovative design driven by new human-computer interaction would be peachy. I don't see it happening.

Considering they got Cirque Du Soleil to advertise ripoffs of the Wii's launch title. Let's just that holding one's breath would be ill-advised. Also the whole using it for movies thing is asinine. Why would I want to dance and chant just to see a movie, when I could get to it with just two clicks.