The Xbone

[Amit]

Oh christ just stop. That's not the damn point at all, consoles are not built for just hardcore games even if that's what might appear to be played most. They are built for GAMES, aka, entertainment and fun. Microsoft notes this and is moving forward with the general gameplay experience by researching and experimenting further with Kinect.

I know there's no true way to know exactly what is the most played game on consoles, but in terms of online play, there is. According to Major Nelson and Microsoft, for the week of July 24th, 2013, the following were the most played games on XBOX LIVE:

• BlOps 2
• Minecraft
• FIFA 13
• MW3
• NBA 2K13
• GTA4
• ACII
• Halo 4
• BF3
• BlOps
• Skyrim
• MW2
• BL2
• Reach
• GoW3
• NCAA Football 14
• Spartacus Legends
• ACIII
• Forza 4
• Madden 13

16/20 games on that list can be considered "hardcore" games. Most of those games (or a game in their series) are also the best selling X360 games so far. And for over a year it's been those same games that have been top of the list.

Obviously, consoles aren't created just for those game alone, but those games are primarily what is played on the X360. Now whether you want to play the Kinect games or not, you have to make a choice. That choice is either to spend money on something that you know you will not use or to not purchase the XBOX at all. That's not really what you want to force on your consumers. But, I'm guessing that if Microsoft didn't make this decision, then the Kinect 2.0 wouldn't sell well enough. This way there's a 100% sales success rate for a decently expensive piece of non-essential hardware.

You know game input won't just be done by a controller forever, right? We have to start somewhere, and I god damn applaud Microsoft for their efforts. My opinion still stands that Kinect is pretty cool and has tons of potential, Amit you're just being a little too stubborn to see it.

To be clear, I'm not saying that the Kinect doesn't have any potential. Technologically, it's an impressive piece of hardware, but it's optimal match is not on the closed platform of the console. I'm not so delusional to think that we'll be using M/Kb and gamepads exclusively forever, but I think that the applications for Kinect on XBOX is limited. The Kinect 2.0 is used in the Virtuix Omni (Oculus Rift + low-friction foot platform + Kinect 2.0) for motion tracking and so far it's doing a damn great job. You make it sound as though Kinect 2.0 is the only thing reaching out to new ways of gaming when there actually working prototypes of many other awesome peripherals that actually do more for the game than Kinect. That's not to say that the tracking is inferior for some bullshit reason on the XBOX, but the potential for more advanced and innovative gaming is not possible on the XBOX because the software is not open the way it is on PC.

Your opinion stands, yes, as your own opinion. I'm not suppressing your right to that.

The whole idea of it is a gimmick? How does that make any goddamn sense, it's a GAME, not a reality simulator, something that only Nintendo would usually make. It looks pretty damn awesome, and there's only so little we've seen so far. It's not all about using Kinect, you probably don't even have to use Kinect in the game at all. But seriously, how is it a gimmick? Was Little Big Planet a gimmick because it was just building levels? Because that's the impression I'm getting from you . (and we all know LBP was fucking awesome)

Keyword: idea. The way Microsoft is showcasing Project Spark is like a gimmick. At least, that is the impression I have gotten with it, even if the game itself isn't a gimmick. I don't think anyone is stupid enough to expect a "reality simulator" as you put it. That's simply not possible due to a whole host of reasons. What sets LBP apart from Project Spark from the marketing perspective is that the main push of the game wasn't for it to be created using tools other than the controller. So far Kinect on the X360 has been used as a gimmick tool. While I believe that Kinect 2.0 can enhance Project Spark, I think Microsoft Studios is marketing the game a bit to much to push the Kinect 2.0. It's to the point where it becomes a gimmick.

I think you need to take a step back and stop taking my skepticism of Kinect 2.0's uses on the XBOX personally.