Peter Molyneux: Kinect Was a "Disaster, Trainwreck"

Megalith

Megalith

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The Fable creator has a reputation for spouting BS, but he may actually be right about this one. After all, Microsoft did drop the Kinect port from the Scorpio console, which would suggest that they have no more plans for the device. Molyneux claims that it didn’t live up to its promises on a technical level, but I think it failed just because gamers don't like to get up.

"It was a trainwreck," he continued. "It started as this device which kind of could do everything itself. It didn't take up any processor power, the field of view could encompass the whole room. The audio on it, which no one really talks about, was originally supposed to be multi-sensing, it could sense where you were." Molyneux went on to note that what Kinect ultimately turned out to be fell very far short of that original vision. "It ended up being none of those things," he said, highlighting how you had to sit in a very limited region for it to work. "Its promise... was so enormous. In fact, it reminds me a little bit of VR at the moment," he added.
 
He's right, but nobody cares what that charlatan says any more.
 
It's too bad if Kinect goes away. Some people have figured out innovative ideas for using them. Geography/geology departments have used them to create real-time projection models of topographic maps on 3D surfaces (for example).

 
"It started as this device which kind of could do everything itself. It didn't take up any processor power, the field of view could encompass the whole room. The audio on it, which no one really talks about, was originally supposed to be multi-sensing, it could sense where you were."

Squint and you'd swear he was talking about one of his games.

But yes, the Kinect was crap, I regret getting the damn thing for my 360.
 
This guy needs to shut his blowhole. He always overhypes his games (remember the forests that grew according to time flow in original Fable?) and there's plenty of interviews of him spouting his love of Kinect, until consumers didn't latch on. http://www.ugo.com/games/peter-molyneux-interview-fable-3-dlc-kinect-valium.html

"
UGO: I know that you had spoken about Kinect working with Fable 3. Are we going to see any of those features anytime soon?

Molyneux: We love Kinect. We have a lot of Kinect kits at Lionhead. We're working on Milo, so I think you can expect us to use Kinect in Fable. Were not sharing anything or talking about any of that functionality at this moment, but if there was something about Kinect in Fable 3, I will say I think it should be a substantial thing and not a gimmick. "
 
That fable connect game was fun as heck, and I loved the whole "I can't find my damn controller...where did the kids, oh wait I can just use voice" when I'm airbrushing and want to toss on netflix. Wish they actually made some better games for it, kiddo had a blast being a Rancor in star wars
 
It was fun. It had the mic for voice recognition. It had a few games that were fun to play with it. It wasn't an everyday device. It was a niche device. It should have been an optional device from the start. If you need it for the games, great. If not, it was a waste of space.

Lots of great technology with it and a lot of potential outside of the Xbox area. It just didn't have a lot of games that used it well. Like someone else said - it was like a Wii thing. Wii was big with the motion controls and Microsoft wanted a piece of that pie. Raving Rabbids was great. :D
 
I agree with the most gamers don't want to get up to play a game. As soon as I saw the Wii that was what I said is the reason it will fail. I game to relax and not exercise.
 
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rezerekted said:
I agree with the most gamers don't want to get up to play a game. As soon as I saw the Wii that was what I said is the reason it will fail. I game to relax and not exercise.
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No, I get up PLENTY to play VR. The problem wasn't "getting up", it was offering a compelling experience. The tracking of Kinect was marginal AT BEST...if I use a motion command in a game, I expect it to work, 100% of the time! Steel Battalion worked about 30% of the time, if you are being generous. Failed tech. It wasnt good enough for gaming and still isn't.
 
jnemesh said:
No, I get up PLENTY to play VR. The problem wasn't "getting up", it was offering a compelling experience. The tracking of Kinect was marginal AT BEST...if I use a motion command in a game, I expect it to work, 100% of the time! Steel Battalion worked about 30% of the time, if you are being generous. Failed tech. It wasnt good enough for gaming and still isn't.
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I don't want VR that requires me to get up from my chair either.
 
Kinect was like Nintendo's Rob: The perfect accessory for 1 game. In the case of Kinect, that was Fruit Ninja (truly a killer app). The rest of it was a solution looking for a problem. You could say it was semi helpful in a game like Forza Horizon, but only barely.....
 
The voice features are nice.

Kinect sensor technology just wasn’t there. It was ok for a few goofy mini-games that were fun for 10 mins. No serious gamer would want to use it because it simply didn’t work as advertised.
 
Obligatory: Takes one to know one, Peter.

But, yes, I never felt the slightest impulse to get a Kinnect. As others have said, I play games to relax, not to exercise. The Wii was a fad, and Kinnect was something few people asked for or used. "Build it and they will come" doesn't always work... in fact, it *often* doesn't work. Oh, and I don't want something looking at me all the time, either. At least Sony made their motion sensor optional.
 
Well at least it will be supported with an adapter and the system has enough USB ports. I don't really see the problem. I understand them dropping the port. They aren't dropping the tech for it, although I doubt they will support it much going forward. Sometimes it was the simple things like tuning a TV station or navigating without a controller, not necessarily what it provided for gaming itself. The Kinect device itself is really cool, too bad nothing came of it. Perhaps some of the things Microsoft promoted weren't promoted enough, the fitness program really never took off but I believe there was a market for it they never really invested in. Nintendo did very well with the original Wii even though the tech wasn't perfect, it showed that there was interest in such devices. I'm not a fan of gimmicks as a whole, but some of the Kinect wasn't a gimmick, it worked very well.
 
Nothing was ever written for it. That's why it failed.
 
When my kids were younger, they used to use the Kinect with the Xbox 360. They played the dance games, some kind of pet animal game, and oddly enough a free game that had you act as a monster stomping on things. Now they are older (and lazier), they never use the Kinect. The Xbox 360 hasn't been powered on in a long time either.
For me, I was definitely too lazy and also not a fan of the games that were available. I thought I was going to die playing the dance game with them. My heart was like "hey bro, what are you doing?"
 
the tech was good, ms them shelves never really supported it, they could have backed it software and games that really used it.
i aklways thought it would more useful for education based software rather than games, specialty for children it had great potential. ms screwed it up them shelves
 
TechLarry said:
Nothing was ever written for it. That's why it failed.
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http://123kinect.com/kinect-games/
blackwater-xbox-360-capa.jpg
 
it may have been a disaster for gaming, but it really has some innovative ideas on the other fronts. I'm hoping they improve on it somewhat
 
Innovation in the video game market usually ends up in failing in a lot of ways. Nintendo and Sega dared to dream this dream. Nintendo somehow keeps getting away with putting up failures but they do happen. But they also have hits and once in a while a battleship gets sunk.

The Kinect 2.0, for being what it was, was good technology. It was also fairly accurate in showing what I was doing, but not accurate in reacting to what I was doing. Which sounds strange after I've typed it. But it is what it is. It just ended up not being supported in the long run and most of the video gaming happens on the couch.

I see Kinect as the precursor to VR's success.
 
Yaka said:
the tech was good, ms them shelves never really supported it, they could have backed it software and games that really used it.
i aklways thought it would more useful for education based software rather than games, specialty for children it had great potential. ms screwed it up them shelves
Click to expand...

MS may have realized this, and removed the kinect port from project scorpio because the next version will have a usb connection (instead of requiring a separate adapter) in order to promote more adoption for non-gaming PC applications.

They haven't actually said they are killing the kinect, all they have done so far is remove the proprietary port.
 
sir-gold said:
They haven't actually said they are killing the kinect, all they have done so far is remove the proprietary port.
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Let me translate PR speak to english for you: They silence *is* them saying it. Not a snowball's in hell that the word Kinect comes anywhere near the Scorpio launch, since it sank the original Xbox One.
 
games don't like to get up...true...and he's comparing Kinect to current VR...maybe
 
I bought Xbox 360 and Xbox one just for Kinect games. Xbox 360 was barely passable experience. I was really excited that a new Kinect was coming out that was more accurate and could track more types of movement. I don't know what happened, but the end result was Xbox 360 Kinect games were more accurate at tracking than Xbox one games. That is why Kinect failed.
 
Lets hope they go with a USB version, that will also easily plug into PCs. I think Kinect is one of those things MS may give up on too early and exactly at the wrong time. All the sensors and cameras that are now being developed for cars and phones are just getting insanely good. MS should keep making it, it should just be an accessory you purchase separately. I think its funny that people bash it, I think it has more to do with the hate from the original release model and its bad timing to coincide with government spying giving it a bad name. A lot people are getting really into liking voice actions, amazon echo, even Comcast makes their remotes with voice commands now. And generally people are loving this stuff. Plus MS is still trying to push Cortana. So everything they need is there, all they had to freaking do was offer an off switch so the psychotic privacy nuts had nothing to complain about. MS biggest problem now days is there insistence I trying to force things into on states to stop people from turning them off. It just creates tons of negative press about trivial stuff that most people are going to leave on by default. Let the conspiracy crack heads have their off switch and keep pressing the technology forward for the normal people.
 
I want some sort of Kinect-like gadget that could read hand gestures, so for example, watching a movie, I can stop, forward or play the next file just by waving my hand in a particular way. Fapping to porn could be a problem though...
 
If I cannot use the Kinect 2 with the Scorpio, then why would I bother at all. I use these devices for far more than just games.
 
DPI said:
Let me translate PR speak to english for you: They silence *is* them saying it. Not a snowball's in hell that the word Kinect comes anywhere near the Scorpio launch, since it sank the original Xbox One.
Click to expand...
Kinect died with Don Mattrick.
 
Megalith said:
The Fable creator has a reputation for spouting BS, but he may actually be right about this one. After all, Microsoft did drop the Kinect port from the Scorpio console, which would suggest that they have no more plans for the device. Molyneux claims that it didn’t live up to its promises on a technical level, but I think it failed just because gamers don't like to get up.

"It was a trainwreck," he continued. "It started as this device which kind of could do everything itself. It didn't take up any processor power, the field of view could encompass the whole room. The audio on it, which no one really talks about, was originally supposed to be multi-sensing, it could sense where you were." Molyneux went on to note that what Kinect ultimately turned out to be fell very far short of that original vision. "It ended up being none of those things," he said, highlighting how you had to sit in a very limited region for it to work. "Its promise... was so enormous. In fact, it reminds me a little bit of VR at the moment," he added.
Click to expand...


2 types of gamers. Fat lazy ones, and o es that go to the gym 6x a week. Neither want motion stupid controllers.
 
Molyneux went on to note that what Kinect ultimately turned out to be fell very far short of that original vision. "Its promise... was so enormous.

Oh god, the irony.
 
percydaman said:
Molyneux went on to note that what Kinect ultimately turned out to be fell very far short of that original vision. "Its promise... was so enormous.

Oh god, the irony.
Click to expand...

No shit... i remember fable!
 
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