• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

New Xbox One Experience update drops Kinect gestures; usage was "very, very low"

ElNino

Member
Probably dropped to free up processing power.
I doubt it since this is only on the dashboard. Kinect gestures still work in games/apps that support them and voice still works everywhere.

It seems this is more about whether they wanted to dedicate resources to re-work the dashboard gestures in NXOE.
 

alterno69

Banned
What a waste of time current gen kinect turned out to be, i admit i enjoyed last gen kinect and Dance Central was a riot once during christmas at my place, but it was a crutch to Xbox One, i have never used it, voice commands are useless and gestures even more.
 

ElNino

Member
What a waste of time current gen kinect turned out to be, i admit i enjoyed last gen kinect and Dance Central was a riot once during christmas at my place, but it was a crutch to Xbox One, i have never used it, voice commands are useless and gestures even more.
I wouldn't say useless at all as there are some very good uses for voice commands (ie. Xbox Record That, and Play/Pause when watching videos). It might not be worth the cost for most, but they certainly aren't useless, and they will stand to get quite a bit more robust when Cortana support launches.
 

rjcc

Member
I wonder how the people who bought the XBO day one because they were excited for what the Kinect tech could do for games are feeling now.

exactly the same since this is about the dashboard?

Unless they only bought it for Kinect, which is sort of weird since it didn't launch with very much for Kinect to do in games.

Overall I'm pretty sure this person you describe only exists in your imagination.
 

Pachimari

Member
Gestures were better than the OG Kinect but not something I would use everyday. Voice on he other hand is invaluable for me.

So keep refining that side of Kinect. The little time I had to use Cortana in the preview showed me it was pretty good even in that buggy ass form. So more improvements in natural voice interaction would be cool.

What can you do with voice commands in the NXOE? Other than turning on/off, starting up game, turning up/down volume and such. Can you say "change to channel two" or something like that?
 
They didn't remove the ability to play games with your body.

exactly the same since this is about the dashboard?

But how many devs are going to make games like that now when no-one buying the console gets a Kinect and MS is doing all they can to deny its very existence?

Overall I'm pretty sure this person you describe only exists in your imagination.

Before launch, there were plenty of people on gaf saying they were excited about the XBO because of the Kinect. Maybe some of that was only fanboy self-delusion, but surely not all of it.
 
If it wasn't bundled at launch, I would've never bought a Kinect. The gestures never worked, but it is nice to mute the tv, change the channel, open apps, etc with my voice from anywhere in the room.

"Xbox On" is still hit or miss
mostly miss
.

The best thing Kinect has is Xbox Fitness.
 

Pachimari

Member
choosing specific TV channels via voice has been supported since launch

But I'm thinking, internationally, it won't be possible to say "Xbox, go to TV2" and instead one would say "Xbox, change to channel two".

Is Xbox Fitness really good? I have it installed but haven't bought my Kinect yet.
 

Omikaru

Member
At this point MS should just release a peripheral about the size of a Wii sensor bar (or smaller) that has a microphone and IR blaster on it, and forget about Kinect.

I'd quite like voice commands for my new Xbox, but I'm not paying for a Kinect.
 

pr0cs

Member
Still can't believe how much the launch xbone was 'designed by committee '
Can't help but imagine how much better the console could have been if they would have done their homework when designing the device.

I like the console, but taking away what was perceived as 'key features ' at launch is simply ignored now. Clearly whoever greenlit the launch xbone was clueless as to what gamers actually wanted from their console
 

SegaShack

Member
What happened to that one Kinect game people were excited about, Fru?

Their website isn't even working for me.
Good question. I played it at a pre E3 event in 2014 and the dev told me that it would be out in early 2015. It was actually a lot of fun to play. Not sure what happened.
 

jelly

Member
It sold well enough the first time that I guess they figured they could get away with it the second time.

Yeah but Kinect died on it's arse long before Xbox One. Consumers were over it. Devs showed it could only do so much and had no further interest. Kinect 2.0 wasn't a great improvement and devs mostly stayed well clear. It was an idiotic decision fueled by their TV and ad dream.
 
Good question. I played it at a pre E3 event in 2014 and the dev told me that it would be out in early 2025. It was actually a lot of fun to play. Not sure what happened.
Ay mamá.
Yeah but Kinect died on it's arse long before Xbox One. Consumers were over it. Devs showed it could only do so much and had no further interest. Kinect 2.0 wasn't a great improvement and devs mostly stayed well clear. It was an idiotic decision fueled by their TV and ad dream.
Oh, I know. I was just pointing out that II assume they figured they could get away with it, not that it was a good idea.
 

Cleve

Member
What can you do with voice commands in the NXOE? Other than turning on/off, starting up game, turning up/down volume and such. Can you say "change to channel two" or something like that?

Can you not do that in the regular experience?

I've been using nxoe for a while, and I use "xbox watch comedy central" or "xbox watch USA" a fair bit. It changes the channel and works really well from my experience.
 

cripterion

Member
It's like they have no idea what they're doing.

They failed so hard this gen on so many levels (in comparison to old gen) it's not even funny.
 

Shpeshal Nick

aka Collingwood
Not sad to see these go. Never used them and soooooo many times the Kinect randomly picked up a hand and would wave around the screen and jiggle my screen. Very annoying.

Voice is still awesome though.
 

ValeYard

Member
I actually used to use these gestures when quickly checking for updates, but not wanting to play anything, i.e., use a controller. However, it seems I was in the minority (report).
 

Pachimari

Member
Can you not do that in the regular experience?

I've been using nxoe for a while, and I use "xbox watch comedy central" or "xbox watch USA" a fair bit. It changes the channel and works really well from my experience.

But this might only work in the US. I don't think it'll work internationally. But is there an alternative to that then? Can one just say "change to channel three"?
 

Alx

Member
But I'm thinking, internationally, it won't be possible to say "Xbox, go to TV2" and instead one would say "Xbox, change to channel two".

The TV guide is localized in all supported countries, so it knows the names of the local channels and programs too.

Is Xbox Fitness really good? I have it installed but haven't bought my Kinect yet.

It's great. A good choice of different workouts, with nice game-like mechanics to give you the incentive to come back.
 

Pachimari

Member
The TV guide is localized in all supported countries, so it knows the names of the local channels and programs too.



It's great. A good choice of different workouts, with nice game-like mechanics to give you the incentive to come back.

But not even the voice commands are supported here in Scandinavia. So I'm thinking, if it is possible to just say "change to channel three"?
 

Alx

Member
But not even the voice commands are supported here in Scandinavia. So I'm thinking, if it is possible to just say "change to channel three"?

I don't think so. I think you can cheat it by registering your TV hardware from a different location (during the first few weeks when French TV wasn't supported, I said I had a Canadian Numericable box), but it will load the channel names from that other region, and I'm not sure you can call them by their number. I never tried, though.
 

super6646

Banned
BWyGfha.png


Ah, memories.

2013 FTW! I'm kidding, it was a terrible time to be an xbox fan. Myself included, damn! The amount of death threats I got, well 0, but still.
 
Welp. There we go. They finally admit nobody uses Kinect anymore.

That's not what this is saying. Gestures on the dashboard usage was very, very low, but not Kinect features as a whole.

Kinect is extremely useful for auto sign-in and voice commands. I use those multiple times a day. Considering they're expanding this with Cortana features next year, I'd say usage for voice commands with Kinect is much higher.

I never used gestures on the dashboard though, so it makes sense they would cut that. Even when I would throw on Dance Central or Fantasia, which use gestures, I would always use voice commands or a regular controller to launch them.
 
For all the people requesting a microphone, I'm pretty sure Microsoft said the Kinect box power is required to process and analyze the voice input, it's not possible to issue those commands with a standard headset
 

Justinh

Member
I remember wrestling
virtually
with the kinect back at launch trying to get the gestures to work on the dashboard. All I can say is good riddance.

Good thing they're not ditching voice commands, too. That stuff's pretty useful. I used to use it all the time when I had the television on with netflix or xbox video while on the exercise bike. Very handy, those voice commands, when doing that stuff...
Although, my kinect hasn't been plugged in since I game on a smaller tv closer to the couch now.
 

Alx

Member
For all the people requesting a microphone, I'm pretty sure Microsoft said the Kinect box power is required to process and analyze the voice input, it's not possible to issue those commands with a standard headset

As a matter of fact it is possible, since Cortana will support headsets. I suppose they can route the voice input into the hardware that was dedicated to kinect.
But the point of a sensor like kinect is to let you use it without having to hold a specific device or be near it.
 

Bgamer90

Banned
What happened to that one Kinect game people were excited about, Fru?

Their website isn't even working for me.

I'm not sure. I saw information that the game was being completely redone. Haven't heard any updates lately. I hope it isn't canned since I was really interested in the game. Looked like the perfect combination of traditional (controller) platforming and having kinect as a tool either for single player or co-op.
______________

Welp. There we go. They finally admit nobody uses Kinect anymore.

"Kinect dashboard gestures."
 

Pachimari

Member
I don't think so. I think you can cheat it by registering your TV hardware from a different location (during the first few weeks when French TV wasn't supported, I said I had a Canadian Numericable box), but it will load the channel names from that other region, and I'm not sure you can call them by their number. I never tried, though.

Oh man, such a thing can make me skip the Kinect. I really want to be able to change channels with my voice by just saying "Xbox, next channel", "Xbox, previous channel", "Xbox, change to tv two" etc.

But then there's Dance Central and Xbox Fitness..
 
Top Bottom