The Xbox 360 sold more than 84 million units worldwide. Not bad for Microsoft's second console. Its rival, Sony, sold more than 88 million consoles PlayStation 3 . But that distance was much less than that of the previous generation: 24 million Xbox sold compared to more than 155 million PlayStation 2 . So the Xbox 360 did quite well, despite its performance issues with the dreaded red ring. Curiously, the best-selling game for this platform was Kinect Adventures, a game designed specifically for Microsoft Kinect , a large device that you had to buy apart from the console.
Xbox 360 had great games. Microsoft made an effort to provide its console with good exclusive titles, such as Gears of War (2006), Halo 3 (2007), Gears of War 2 (2008), Halo 4 (2012) or Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition (2012). It also received the love of gamers with non-exclusive games that were sold in large numbers, such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011) or Grand Theft Auto V (2013), which still takes several generations at a time. But that was not enough. Microsoft wanted to do it right, so to enhance its console it decided to provide it with unmatched add-ons. Some were quite common on other platforms, such as official flyer for Xbox 360 . I still keep it in a closet. Or the wireless buttons to play trivia games, ideal for family gatherings or house parties with friends.
But the complement or accessory that attracted the most attention and with the most ambition on the part of Microsoft was the Kinect or Microsoft Kinect . A motion sensor that turned the player into the game controller through their head, foot and hand gestures. The idea was novel, it was out of the ordinary in terms of alternatives to the game controller and it predicted a promising future inside and outside the world of video games. Plus, Microsoft spared no expense: more than $ 500 million in advertising just for the launch. This is his story.
Kinect is presented in a big way
Twenty years of development. Kinect was not just another product. It was a capitalized device. It had to be a success, yes or yes. Spending so much development time in the facilities of Microsoft Research , under the direction of Alex Kipman , could not be done at all. Time, money and talent invested. So when it was first introduced, it was done with all the solemnity it required. At E3 2009, the world's most popular video game fair, the Project Natal or Project Natal was announced.
After a year, its trade name, Kinect , was leaked. And to show how revolutionary this Xbox accessory was, they used a demo video. It featured Milo and Kate , characters that gave the demo their name. A virtual child interacting with a real person. No knobs or controls. Only with his voice and his movements. Who wanted virtual reality being able to interact with a video game in such a natural and real way?
Project Milo was the code name for this demo that was developed as a video game, a unique experience of interaction between player and character. A game created between Microsoft and Lionhead Studios that took advantage of the possibilities offered by Microsoft Kinnect and that had the videogame developer Peter Molyneux . On the way between the video game and the interactive movie, your voice and your facial gestures influenced the story. However, several delays and internal conflicts caused the project, started in 2001, to be canceled in 2010. But its moment of fame at E3 2009 served to sell the world Kinect . The seed was already planted.
Is it a camera? What exactly does it do?
The first thing that caught the attention of Kinect was its size. A horizontal bar 23 centimeters long with a base or base that allowed it to be rotated. Placed above or below the television or screen, it looked like a professional webcam. Obviously, it had a built-in microphone and cameras. And technically, it could be used as such, in its version for Windows PC. But its original function was different. Microsoft Kinect had a depth sensor, camera and microphone. Otherwise, the accessory was connected via USB to the Xbox 360 console. In the first models, it required an auxiliary power outlet, but with the following versions of Xbox 360, the power ran to charge of the console itself.
Combining hardware and software, the device captures the movement of the entire body in three dimensions using an infrared project combined with a monochrome sensor. It also recognizes facial gestures and does the same with the voice. The end result is that all of you are the controller of the game and that you can interact with characters and elements of the game without any additional elements.
To put a little perspective on it. When the Microsoft Kinect was presented to the public in 2009, it was almost three years since the Nintendo Wii was available on the market, a console that enhanced active gaming causing the player to stand, jump, or perform movements. Something similar to Kinect but using two connected game controllers, one in each hand. For its part, Sony joined the party with PlayStation Move , presented that same 2009 and launched in 2010. It was a controller with a ball that lit up and offered some interaction with the play. To do this, you had to accompany the controller with PlayStation Eye (2007), the real star, a webcam that also offered gesture recognition. And, curiously, successor to the EyeToy of PlayStation 2, a gaming camera released in 2003.
Thus, the three great contenders of the console war had their own technology to make players get off the couch . The most risky, Wii, who bet everything on that type of interaction. Sony and Microsoft, for their part, played two bands, with games that followed the usual use of the game controller and others that were more risky with proposals to sing, dance, answer questions or use your feet and hands to play with the elements on the screen. .
Microsoft is serious about Kinect
We said before that Microsoft spent 500 million dollars on advertising only in the launch of Microsoft Kinect , at the end of 2010. Its presence was abundant both on the internet ( YouTube ) and on television ( Disney Channel, Nickelodeon ), magazines ( People, InStyle ), etc. You could even see the advertising for Kinect in the mythical Times Square in New York and it was hyped on large-audience shows in the United States such as the Oprah Winfrey Show, The Ellen Show of Ellen DeGeneres or Jimmy Fallon's Late Night. The list of advertising events is endless.
Another detail to keep in mind is that Microsoft wanted to get the most out of its Kinect. Its main function was to serve games such as Kinect Adventures or Dance Central, but it was also integrated into the Microsoft ecosystem offering itself as a webcam and microphone to make calls and video calls from Windows Live Messenger . It's more. A year after its release for Xbox 360, the same was done for Windows.
First, Kinect for Windows was released with development software for game programmers. Compatible with Windows 7, it allowed to create software with C ++, C # and Visual Basic. And after its launch, several updates were released between 2012 and 2013. However, this version for Windows did not get off the ground and stayed in the field of development and experimentation more than in the market for the standard public.
Initially, Microsoft's investment paid off. As I said above, Kinect Adventures! sold 24 million copies. The best-selling game on Xbox 360. It sold more copies than GTA V. What about the rest of the games for Microsoft Kinect ? Kinect Sports sold 3 million copies, behind successive Halo titles, Gears of War, Call of Duty, and Grand Theft Auto. And Dance Central sold 2.5 million units.
On the other hand, the specialized press praised Microsoft's invention and predicted a good journey to the present and future. And going back to the figures, according to the press of the time, in 2011, Microsoft had sold 10 million units of Kinect . And that its price was 150 US dollars, almost half the price of the Xbox 360 console itself, which was launched at a price between 299 and 399 US dollars.
New Xbox? New Kinect
After several years in the market, Microsoft put on sale the successor of the console Xbox 360 , named Xbox One . Their rivals, Wii U from Nintendo and PlayStation 4 . The result? Sony sold more than 117 million units. Nintendo was not at its best, with 14 million sales. For its part, the Xbox One moved away from its direct rival with an estimated 51 million sales. Half as Sony. Remembering what I said at the beginning, the battle Xbox 360 / PlayStation 3 was very close. But it was not like that in the next battle. And Kinect also came out scalded.
The intentions were good. If Kinect worked, let's launch Kinect for Xbox One. Kinect 2.0 was an enhanced version that offered detection of up to six people, higher resolution, and improvements in facial recognition, motion detection, and response time. Its design also changed a bit, although it was still a large horizontal bar. And if in 2013 the Kinect was released alongside the then-new Xbox One console, in 2014 the new Kinect for Windows was released, despite the fact that it was still in a niche for developers and away from the general public.
Kinect 2.0 was supported by Microsoft just like its first version. It was announced with great fanfare at E3 2013, alongside the Xbox One. They were even sold together in the same pack. However, Sony started with the advantage of offering its PlayStation 4 at an unbeatable price and below the combo Xbox One + Kinect . Microsoft could not be left behind and had no choice but to enhance its console separately. Adjust prices to boost sales. And this time, the Kinect was not helping to sell more. The developers are on to something else and the only notable title is Kinect Sports Rivals.
Neither did criticism of the device help the player's privacy . Society was already more aware of security and privacy, and several voices in the sector criticized that Kinect could be used to monitor the user without permission . The reason was that the device had to be on all the time and connected to the internet to work. It also didn't help a certain Microsoft patent that made intrusive use of its Kinect.
Privacy issues, the fierce struggle between Sony and Microsoft to see who sold the most consoles, and the lack of attention from game developers and gamers, made Microsoft Kinect stay in a corner of the house. It was an expensive device and there were fewer and fewer games supported. Why spend that money on an accessory if you could invest it in several games? Thus, Kinect is disappearing from the market little by little. The version for Windows is the first that Microsoft turns its back on in 2015. And in 2017 it will stop producing Kinect for Xbox One .
Credit: Microsoft
The Legacy of Microsoft Kinect
Despite its abrupt end, the Kinect is more alive than ever. The technologies that made this accessory device for Xbox possible remain in recent Microsoft developments, such as Microsoft's Hololens project, which is now in its second edition and has many uses in the field of aum reality. entry .
On the other hand, Kinect became from the beginning a gadget for experimenters, innovators, scientists and artists . The technology included in this device was very expensive to obtain separately. Thus, although its price was expensive as an accessory for a console, it was very economical for professional sectors that required the sensors integrated in Kinect . Hence its use in artistic installations or in scientific or academic research.
And in 2020, Azure Kinect was launched, a development kit that combines the best of Kinect with the capabilities and possibilities in the cloud of technologies such as Microsoft Azure and its cloud computing infrastructure. In the future we will see the results of the projects that revolve around it. But some of them are already beginning to be seen. Microsoft recently announced 3D avatars for their Microsoft Teams video calls. And he also intends to play with this technology in his video games. New proposals that draw on the experience obtained with Microsoft Kinect .
