Kinect for PC to cost $250

P

Plague_Injected

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Oct 6, 2008
Messages
6,621
Source here.

In the US Kinect costs $150, but the PC version is tentatively priced at $250. According to the Kinect for Windows blog, the reason for the PC price hike is the that the Xbox 360 version is “subsidized by consumers.”

“The ability to sell Kinect for Xbox 360 at its current price point is in large part subsidized by consumers buying a number of Kinect games, subscribing to Xbox LIVE, and making other transactions associated with the Xbox 360 ecosystem,” claims the blog. “In addition, the Kinect for Xbox 360 was built for and tested with the Xbox 360 console only, which is why it is not licensed for general commercial use, supported or under warranty when used on any other platform.”
Click to expand...


I think this user comment sums it up the best:

“But even though there are many people out there who have done the legwork of adapting the hardware to the PC and taking the technology in new directions only possible on the PC format, we will not be taking their efforts into account. We will, however, be taking advantage of that initiative and inginuity.”
Click to expand...
 
Kinect is Ms wii, they gather to the general audience, very casual gamer, then a month later its accumulating dust in a corner...
 
Depends on the voice commands. If it can be integrated in Netflix, and Media Player and I can tell it to just play X movie or song out of my library, it would be worth it. I like being able to tell my xbox to pause, play and whatnot. There is some cool potential there. I don't care about the gaming aspect, but the Kinect does have other uses if implemented properly.
 
Isn't $250 almost the same as you know...an xbox with one?

This will just make people either not bother with it or buy a "console" version. Would be pretty stupid of them to tell people "hey I know you like your xbox kinect but you have to pay $250 to use it with your PC too!".

Then again they do sucessfully charge silly people monthly for p2p gaming, so who knows...
 
I think it has potential as a head/face tracking device. If it can offer a level of precision comparable to TrackIR without a head mounted sensor that would be compelling. FaceTrackNOIR is alright using a single webcam, so this seems feasible. I would love to see head tracking become more mainstream and therefore get more in game support outside of the sim community.
 
Microsoft isn't pushing this towards gamers. If you guys watched the (extremely boring) press conference they were talking up non-gaming features and talking about professional partners.
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
No current game support = no gamer support

Quite simple. I don't think MS has a clue.
Click to expand...
When has Microsoft ever had anything remotely resembling a clue when it came to PC gaming :D.

I have no idea what market this is supposed to be intended for either. I assume the homebrew / tinkerer crowd has already hacked the cheaper 360 version to work with PC. Gamers aren't going to feel compelled to buy the dedicated PC version due to no game support.
 
This is hardly new, the entire console hardware market is subsidised by the gamers, there's a reason why console hardware is ultra cheap and games are ultra expensive, Microsoft charge royalties on their platform and make massive amount of money essentially taxing developers, and those developers pass that tax straight back to the gamers by hiking the price of games.

Everytime you pay £50 for a console game instead of £30 for a PC game part of that additional £20 is going to pay off your cheap hardware.

Kinect is a gimmick, who cares? Gimmicks die fast, no one will be using it in a few years.
 
Unless it's able to compete with the TrackIR by being capable of head tracking without wearing sensors on your head, it's useless to probably 99% of PC gamers. And I have no idea what the intended audience would be for the casual PC user, as even if they have a PC capable of gaming, I'm sure most of the Kinect games on XBox are XBox exclusive.
 
-Sn1PeR- said:
I think it has potential as a head/face tracking device. If it can offer a level of precision comparable to TrackIR without a head mounted sensor that would be compelling. FaceTrackNOIR is alright using a single webcam, so this seems feasible. I would love to see head tracking become more mainstream and therefore get more in game support outside of the sim community.
Click to expand...

The problem is, I even thought TrackIR was prohibitively priced at $160 or whatever...this is way more. I know it has the potential to do more as well, but the pricing still seems outrageous.

That said, if it in fact WAS as accurate as TrackIR without having to wear anything, I would be intrigued. Not at a $250 price point, but maybe $100 or so. I've used FaceTrackNOIR as well (actually helped beta test it) and it's pretty good, but there's sort of an inherent framerate issue with a lot of webcams that makes it not work that well. Plus, it can cause your CPU usage to spike like crazy.
 
Last edited:
I wouldn't exactly put it past Microsoft to add Kinect integration to their list of Games for Windows requirements at some point, the same as they did with the X360 controller for Windows.

The question, if this happens, is how publishers would react. It's fairly clear that Games for Windows certification is a big deal for publishers, but if the cost of achieving certification becomes too great, the rate of defection is going to be nearly absolute.
 
wonderfield said:
I wouldn't exactly put it past Microsoft to add Kinect integration to their list of Games for Windows requirements at some point, the same as they did with the X360 controller for Windows.

The question, if this happens, is how publishers would react. It's fairly clear that Games for Windows certification is a big deal for publishers, but if the cost of achieving certification becomes too great, the rate of defection is going to be nearly absolute.
Click to expand...

It's not really that important to publishers. There are double the amount of Steamworks titles than GFW. Many games released these days aren't GFW these days.
 
Is there anything in particular stopping PC users from just buying the 360 version and using that instead? Forgive me for my ignorance, I don't have one so I have no idea how it actually connects to the xbox.
 
$250 would be sweet if it came bundled with Win8, otherwise I'm sticking with 7 and my trusty mouse.
 
MatDef said:
Is there anything in particular stopping PC users from just buying the 360 version and using that instead? Forgive me for my ignorance, I don't have one so I have no idea how it actually connects to the xbox.
Click to expand...
Wikipedia:
Because the Kinect sensor's motorized tilt mechanism requires more power than the Xbox 360's USB ports can supply,[46] the device makes use of a proprietary connector combining USB communication with additional power. Redesigned Xbox 360 S models include a special AUX port for accommodating the connector,[47] while older models require a special power supply cable (included with the sensor[45]) that splits the connection into separate USB and power connections; power is supplied from the mains by way of an AC adapter.
 
Derangel said:
Yep. 200-something GFW games and over 400 Steamworks games.
Click to expand...
A great many of them self-published (as many as a third, perhaps). I was referring to major publishers like Ubisoft, Capcom, Bethesda Softworks and 2K.
 
wonderfield said:
I wouldn't exactly put it past Microsoft to add Kinect integration to their list of Games for Windows requirements at some point, the same as they did with the X360 controller for Windows.

The question, if this happens, is how publishers would react. It's fairly clear that Games for Windows certification is a big deal for publishers, but if the cost of achieving certification becomes too great, the rate of defection is going to be nearly absolute.
Click to expand...
I doubt they would when even the Xbox 360 doesn't require Kinect support. I think MS is going to try and push it as a more general purpose input device and not so much as just a gaming peripheral.
 
This is a development product at this moment, not an end consumer device and it's much more than about gaming. I pre-orderd mine last night. I've been playing with the 360 Kinect on Windows since the SDK came out last summer. There are some really great potential here, thus the focus on developers as again, it's only potential at this point. $250 is nothing to spend on tools for serious development. Hopefully there's enough capability to do accurate hand tracking, that's be perhaps the biggest request I've seen on Kinect development forums.

I think this technology is going to be huge when it improves to the point of being able to accurately capture hand gestures, that's the key.
 
MavericK96 said:
That said, if it in fact WAS as accurate as TrackIR without having to wear anything, I would be intrigued. Not at a $250 price point, but maybe $100 or so. I've used FaceTrackNOIR as well (actually helped beta test it) and it's pretty good, but there's sort of an inherent framerate issue with a lot of webcams that makes it not work that well. Plus, it can cause your CPU usage to spike like crazy.
Click to expand...

I would be interested as well. I have a TrackIR myself, and not only does it require you to wear some sort of headgear in the form of a hatclip or headset clip, the resolution seems to be pretty piss poor. I think this is part of the reason why it's practically useless at anything more than 4 feet, so it's not very feasible to use in an HTPC setting, where you're trying to fly/drive in front of your HDTV.
 
heatlesssun said:
This is a development product at this moment, not an end consumer device and it's much more than about gaming. I pre-orderd mine last night. I've been playing with the 360 Kinect on Windows since the SDK came out last summer. There are some really great potential here, thus the focus on developers as again, it's only potential at this point. $250 is nothing to spend on tools for serious development. Hopefully there's enough capability to do accurate hand tracking, that's be perhaps the biggest request I've seen on Kinect development forums.

I think this technology is going to be huge when it improves to the point of being able to accurately capture hand gestures, that's the key.
Click to expand...

Exactly. This is a tool for robotics and application engineering, not for playing PC games. I think it's encouraging that MS is releasing this at all, regardless of the price. Youtube has some amazing videos to illustrate the real potential of this device.
 
Microsoft themselves have never been that great in gaming, on either PC or XBOX. They make a good OS and make a good console, but their own developing they really are not that impressive. Very few Microsoft Studio games are top notch.
 
This is fuckin retarded. Who the hell is going to set this up on there PC and jump around in front of there computer desk like a monkey to play it?

PC people are minimalists. GG Microshaft.
 
Krenum said:
This is fuckin retarded. Who the hell is going to set this up on there PC and jump around in front of there computer desk like a monkey to play it?

PC people are minimalists. GG Microshaft.
Click to expand...

Because people aren't going to jump around like a monkey. The firmware in the Windows version is designed to work at much shorter distances and support hand tracking I believe.
 
-Sn1PeR- said:
I think it has potential as a head/face tracking device. If it can offer a level of precision comparable to TrackIR without a head mounted sensor that would be compelling. FaceTrackNOIR is alright using a single webcam, so this seems feasible. I would love to see head tracking become more mainstream and therefore get more in game support outside of the sim community.
Click to expand...

This 100%! No silly cap with dot on it while playing flight sims = bliss :D
 
Krenum said:
T
PC people are minimalists. GG Microshaft.
Click to expand...

Which is exactly why we have our Keyboard, Mouse, Steering Wheel, Gamepad, Joystick, 3 monitors, 3 different pairs of headphones, 1 headset, and an extra rig on the side *just* for LAN parties.

Yes, we are definitely minimalists.

/sarcasm.

But really, I think they understand that the Kinect for PC has little to no gaming relevancy, they're getting this out there to take advantage of all of the people who are hacking the kinect and developing all kinds of amazing uses for it.
 
TheOneKnownAsMe said:
But really, I think they understand that the Kinect for PC has little to no gaming relevancy,
Click to expand...

I don't think Microsoft is ruling out anything when it comes to Kinect for Windows, indeed I can see gaming as having a LOT of relevance even on Windows. I think that's what's so cool about this device on Windows. Here it is, figure out how to do something with it. No preconceptions, no limits, just your ideas and work and talent.
 
As far as gaming support, there is no reason why multiplatform games with Kinect support on the Xbox can't have it on PC as well. Mass Effect 3 is using the Kinect primarily for voice commands, so the player can give orders on the fly to teammates and actually voice the response-options during conversations to "enhance immersion". Headtracking could be good in racing games and flight simulators as well. Of course, I wonder if the same means couldn't be achieved with a standard webcam and microphone.

I think it's gimmicky and I couldn't give a rat's about using Kinect, but that doesn't mean I actively want the thing to fail and remove another choice from users. Anything that opens up the platform is a good thing.

My only problem is the idiotic price-hike on the device itself, especially when MS was very happy to use the Kinect "innovations" created by PC users hacking the device to promote the product.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top