Xbox Kinect launches, strong holiday sales expected

[Mike]

Last night saw the midnight release of Microsoft's Kinect, the Xbox 360's much-advertised motion-sensing peripheral. Fans lined up days in advance at some locations, with a flagship launch event held in Times Square. Offering a "controller-free gaming experience," the sensor unit utilizes motion capture as well as facial and voice recognition to provide hands-free control of the Xbox. A standalone unit retails for $149.99 or comes bundled with a console for $299.99, and initial preorders and sales predict strong numbers for the holiday season. Microsoft expects to sell five million Kinect units before the year's end, as well as potential sellouts come Christmas.

One issue could mar the success of the launch, though. According to a story at Gamespot, several employees with dark skin tones had trouble being scanned by the facial recognition software. This feature is designed to detect a player simply by entering the Kinect's field of view, eliminating the need for choosing a player profile before starting a game. "The system recognized one employee inconsistently, while it was never able to properly identify the other despite repeated calibration attempts," the article reports.

Although this issue may steal the spotlight away from the launch, it is not uncommon in webcams to have facial detection issues. Especially when using low-resolution cameras, dark skin tones can be harder to detect and track, something that has troubled other webcam makers in the past. Microsoft is asking for anyone experiencing a problem to contact them via email and stresses that the system is designed to work with people of all shapes and ethnicities.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/40989-xbox-kinect-launches-strong-holiday-sales-expected.html

 

[KG363]

I think this is hilarious

 

[Guest]

Of course gamestop employees had a hard time using it, they were probably in the back not well lit room trying it out between sessions of WoW and jacking off.

 

[Guest]

Haha, the first racist game controller

Kel

 

[sMILEY4ever]

:OOOO
Racist hardware. If I were "dark skin toned" I'd sue M$.

 

[mccartercar]

It's not the first product that has trouble with different races.
Some digital cameras detect asians as having their eyes closed.

 

[TomSEA]

LOL...that is hilarious! How long before the NAACP launches a discrimination lawsuit?

Nevertheless, I'm sure they'll sell plenty of these. And six months from now they'll all be collecting dust. Just another novelty to drum up holiday sales.

 

[blimp01]

pretty great price, i would be expecting like $300. thisll un-fatten people! LOL

 

[Guest]

Is this ever going to PC platform.??

 

[Acespaces]

This might be what makes Microsoft stand out and stay above everyone else in the gaming crowd. Plus this would be such a tight thing to just have in your room and say "Xbox TURN ON RIGHT NOW!!!" and the tah dah it turns on.

 

[RealXboxMaster]

Guest said:
Haha, the first racist game controller

Kel

LMFAO...LOL

 

[RealXboxMaster]

Guest said:
Haha, the first racist game controller

Kel

LMFAO...LOL

 

[Recipe7]

300 for the kinect and the system is a great price. What is a Wii again? =p

 

[treeski]

I'm excited to give it a try... I know at least one friend that will buy a kinect.

 

[miska_man]

blimp01 said:
pretty great price, i would be expecting like $300. thisll un-fatten people! LOL

You do realize that this is a console accessory and not a whole console right? $300 is midrange console pricing and even $150 I believe is too high for an accessory. All I can say is price is a major factor in me not buying this.

Besides, I'd need to be a "new" 360 to run it. Honestly, the only way you'd really find me buying the Kinect is if I was in the market for a new 360 for some reason AND the price was $50 lower ($50 bundled and $100 sold separately). Also, most of the games look questionable. I'm hoping the Kinect doesn't let Microsoft shy away from the hardcore gamers (which I'm doubting will happen, but there's always that chance).

 

[Richy2k9]

hello ....

beware PC gamers, this is coming to the PC too

i'd rather go for surface, i love to 'touch'

cheers!

 

[hassaan]

As much fun as Kinect potentially brings to gaming, it could also be seen as a harbinger of the way we'll interact (yes, connect) with computers in the future.

 

[7410xas]

like wii, it's ahead of its time. sales cannot be met with weak game development in this quarter. everyone know this holiday belongs to the smartphones and tablets

 

[aalsheh]

not holding my breath for one anytime soon.... just gonna wait till a price drop or good games to come out, that if ever

 

[bioflex]

Guest said:
Is this ever going to PC platform.??

thats exactly what i am thinking now....seeing how the xbox 360 controller made its way to pc, i wouldnt be suprised if we get this on pc sooner or later.

and about the device not being able to detect some dark skinned people, well what can i say.....it might be something that could be worked on but i suggest mocrisoft work real hard and fast to resolve this issues before it gets out of hand........all the same great piece of hardware the kinect is.

 

[TeamworkGuy2]

That could be such a problem for M$ if Kinect did in fact have trouble detecting more darkly skinned people.
Would be cool to see this on PC, but I know all the monitors I my house are to small to stand up and walk away from and still see what is happening on the screen.

 

[co1rpal1]

I still think the product is exciting and am interested in getting one. Now at $150 I can wait until my next xbox upgrade or the price to go down. Besides with the facial recognition problem, a download firmware update will most likely be coming up that will fix the problem.

 

[Xero07]

Too expensive in my opinion but who knows people buy into stuff like this all the time

 

[TorturedChaos]

rofl a raciest game controller. thats great.
This isn't the first camera I have seen to have trouble with darker skinned people. I belive there was a web cam on a series of HP or Dell laptops - and the software was supposed to track the persons face in the field of view. It didn't work on darker skinned people at all. Saw a video with a white woman and a black guy. Would follow the white woman just fine, but the moment she stepped out of the way and the black guy came into the field of view the web cam snapped back to the center, and lots its focus some.

But I you know the Kinect games like Mortal Kombat can now be marketed as an aerobic workout .

 

[mikeusru]

bioflex said:

Guest said:
Is this ever going to PC platform.??

thats exactly what i am thinking now....seeing how the xbox 360 controller made its way to pc, i wouldnt be suprised if we get this on pc sooner or later.

It's very unlikely that the kinect will ever make it's way to the PC. Xbox games are fairly easy to port to the PC, and having a controller work with the computer isn't necessarily going to make them lose business, since PCs already have other gamepads available. There is no real motion tracking for the computer though, and the Kinect is specifically designed to be used in a large room with a lot of space - not the way most computer setups are. Even if you could set up the thing for a PC, no one would ever make games for it.

By the way, i have to say I don't even own an xbox right now (it's at my gf's place) and I have no room to set something like this up, but I am super excited for when I do -
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/113/1132366p1.html