“A spy in the living room” 10 years ago this controversial accessory was removed from Xbox boxes

Game News “A spy in the living room” 10 years ago this controversial accessory was removed from Xbox boxes

Big brother is watching you

“Many people had guessed it when they played “Madame Soleil”, but they were probably right“, we wrote on May 13, 2014. “Microsoft has just announced that an Xbox One without Kinect will be released on June 9, 2014 for 399 dollars” added our dear Epyon in his article. The sensor was far from being a hit with gamers, it is suddenly withdrawn from them. It is urgent to remove the accessories from the boxes. From April 2014, sales of the Xbox One fell while those of the PlayStation 4 increased sharply. The first decision of Phil Spencer – newly appointed boss of the big brand”X” – is to remove Kinect from the box to reduce the price of its console. This is the beginning of the end of the Xbox 360’s star sensor, of which the general public only grasps one thing: The accessories for the future Microsoft console pose a threat to privacy. And that is no coincidence for buyers.

From the Redmond company’s point of view, Kinect v2 is a technological gem. The camera has a high resolution (1080p), a wide viewing angle, a powerful microphone that can hear whispers, and technology that can detect a wide range of movements day and night (thanks to infrared).. It can also analyze facial expressions or determine the player’s heart rate.”If you don’t find all this devilish, I’m afraid I have to tell you that you have the moral conscience of an oyster at low tide.“we read in a message from our forums that was published on May 25, 2013.”The Xbox One Kinect v2 is a device specifically designed and engineered to control your actions, gestures, words and, in a less direct way, your thoughts.“ worries the author of the topic.

It is a fact: the more Microsoft insists on the enormous capabilities of its sensor, the more the press and the general public wave the red flag. At FrancetvinfoWe emphasize that the console “suspected of domestic espionage” by American associations and by the German CNIL (BfDi), while Terra Femina calls Kinect “the connected spy“ Based on an article by The Guardians Establishing the link between the NSA and GAFAM, Forbes writes: “The NSA’s domestic spying program makes the Xbox One even scarier“. The American giant is fighting like a devil To extinguish the embers, the fire spreads across the Internet. Surely Kinect v2 is familiar with motion detection, but what it causes is rejection.

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Camera lens blocked

No official statement, no Confidentiality statement Don’t appease the spirits. Kinect becomes the counterpart on the Xbox 360 after 24 million units sold. He was the eye of the 360, then he brought the evil eye to the One until its launch on 22 November 2013. The former “Project Natal“, which brought families together in the glory days of motion gaming and convinced Microsoft to develop a more powerful version for its new machine, seems like a scarecrow.

Promises of a simple menu navigation that responds to fingers and voice do not change this. This mandatory sensor for the Xbox experience, which comes without a big dedicated game, annoys hardcore gamersespecially because it blows the bill. We had to wait until April 8, 2014 to get the first real game developed for the accessory, Kinect Sports Rivals, before other – more interesting – games slowly started to appear on the market in the following months (D4, Disney Fantasia, France).

The withdrawal of Kinect v2 from the Xbox One boxes, decided by Phil Spencer and his teams, is the first blow that buries the former glory of the 360. As the weeks go by, the detection of movements on the interface disappears, while an adapter becomes necessary to connect the accessory to the new console models. Kinect v2 is abandoned by both first-party and third-party vendors and ends up in the cash express bins, where it offers its reduced services for around twenty dollarsThe sensor was sold for a while, but disappeared permanently on October 25, 2017, when Microsoft announced the discontinuation of its production.

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From detecting movements to immobility

What is left of Kinect today? Not much left. The accessory was used by professionals from the world of surgery to ready-to-wear, but the descendant of Xbox Live Vision has tired both gamers and research and development departments. In 2019, the accessory returned with Azure Kinect in a modified version reserved for professionals, but production ended in August 2023. The soul of Project Natal continued to live in the Hololens headset, but the latter has not given more reassuring signals since the dismissal of its team and the abandonment of the Windows Mixed Reality platform, scheduled for November 1, 2026.

Nevertheless, the Kinect adventure has provoked a strong opinion among Xbox executives: there is no point in getting involved in a technology that has not yet found an audience. Because Matt Booty and Phil Spencer believe that VR is still not proven, the Redmond company’s consoles do not offer it. Some will talk about exercising caution, especially when we see how Sony handles the PSVR 2, while others will consider it a regrettable lack of courage.