The unexpected and explosive success of the Wii in 2006 sent shockwaves throughout the gaming industry. The system's motion controls were easy to grasp and attracted an audience that otherwise wouldn't touch a video game console, leading to amazing sales and a miniature phenomenon. Though Sony and Microsoft's consoles found success with the hardcore players, the two companies wanted to reach the same heights of Nintendo's little console that could. Sony ended up copying Nintendo outright with the PlayStation Move, while Microsoft went a different direction in 2010 with the Kinect for the Xbox 360 (and later PC and Xbox One).
While the Wii and PlayStation Move used controllers with pointers and sensors to facilitate motion detection, the Kinect employed sophisticated cameras instead. It was effectively a high-tech webcam capable of tracking and reading the body movements of multiple people at once while also being able to sense depth and make out specific hand gestures. Additionally, it sported other features not strictly tied to motion controls, such as voice recognition for turning on the console. The tech had some flaws, but it was still very impressive and did its job to draw in customers. While it failed to match the sales numbers of the Wii, the Kinect was still the hot ticket item for a bit; 8 million units were sold in just two months and 35 million were sold in total.
However, the Kinect's greatest strength was also its greatest weakness. The control scheme was completely alien from a design standpoint due to the lack of any sort of gamepad, which made it difficult to properly take advantage of. Prominent third-party developers thus didn't want to make games for the Kinect and passed it over. The complexity of the tech also meant that any input failures were inherently more noticeable than the Wii, especially since games typically provide visual feedback via avatars attempting to match your body movements. This was not helped by the Kinect having nearly 300ms of input lag, which is way past the threshold of where humans can easily perceive it. Additionally, the lack of any physical controller hurt immersion in some games where it would make sense for the player to hold something (e.g. Forza, a realistic racing simulator). The titles that did get made had little substance and were almost exclusively for the casual crowd, while the Wii and PlayStation Move still had games that appealed to hardcore gamers to an extent. The Kinect ultimately ended up with a reputation for being gimmicky even in comparison to the Wii.
After introducing the Kinect, Microsoft switched gears and focused largely on supporting it over their existing customer base that bought an Xbox 360 for traditional games. While chasing the casual audience was initially successful, the lack of normal first-party games left very notable gaps in the console's library during the latter half of its life. The shift in priorities likely contributed to the 360 ultimately being outsold by the PlayStation 3, which had recovered from its poorly-handled launch, started to do a much better job at catering to the traditional gaming audience, and saw a series of acclaimed exclusive games during the latter part of its life that made the lack of contemporary Xbox exclusives even more noticeable.
It wasn't long until a new generation of consoles was ready to hit the scene. Not wanting to give up on their shiny new toy after spending over half a billion dollars on marketing, Microsoft decided to double down on the Kinect with the Xbox One. They designed an improved, more sensitive and reliable Kinect sensor, and even bundled it with the system at its 2013 launch, making it a key part of the system's identity. They thought having the Kinect be a mandatory purchase would increase its viability and encourage developers to make games for it, but this backfired hard for a multitude of reasons.
- It had become clear by the end of the Seventh Generation that trying to sell a video game based entirely on the presence of motion controls was no longer viable. Years of oversaturation between the three main consoles and accusations of Waggle meant the public had largely lost interest and wrote it off as a fad. There was also expectations that the next generation would go back to normal, which it did for the most part. People just didn't care about or even want a Kinect anymore.
- The casual market that the Kinect was targeting had been taken over by Mobile Phone Games (especially of the Free-to-Play variety) and the rise of smartphones. A console had become a needless expense for them.
- Microsoft initially decided that the Xbox One wouldn't function unless a Kinect was plugged in, probably to ensure developers knew all future Xbox owners would have a Kinect. This caused major privacy concerns since the Xbox One was initially supposed to be "always-online", and the Kinect had a camera and voice recognition software that still technically functioned while the system was in sleep mode.
- Bundling a Kinect with every Xbox One jacked up the price of the system by US$100, to a launch price of $500. Not only did this lead to the Xbox One being quite expensive at launch, but Sony made sure to sell the PlayStation 4 for $400 to avoid repeating the mistake of the PlayStation 3's high launch price... which Microsoft made instead.
- Multi-Platform had long since become the norm for third-party developers, who didn't want to touch platform-specific features like the Kinect unless the Xbox One version's games sold enough to justify developing for it. This, combined with the console's low sales due to the its large amount of pre-launch controversy, led to a Vicious Cycle of nobody making games because nobody wanted it and nobody wanting it because nobody was making games.
Backlash to the Xbox One's policies led to Microsoft patching out the need for the Kinect to be plugged in so the console can function with a launch day update. Six months after launch, they also decided to axe the bundle to lower the One's retail price after it was quickly overtaken by the PS4. The Kinect would proceed to die a slow and painful death, receiving little support or mention from Microsoft for the rest of the generation. It was officially discontinued in 2017 — the Xbox One version had received less than 20 games before being put down. The Xbox One's successor, the Xbox Series X|S, launched in 2020 with no support for the Kinect in spite of its emphasis on backwards compatibility with older Xbox titles, driving the final nail into the coffin of Kinect's gaming applications.
While the Kinect as a video game system is dead, it still lives on outside the gaming sphere. Thanks to its wide variety of applications, the technology has seen use in the medical field, robotics, and other commercial endeavors such as modern iPhones. The technology also saw a more direct revival in Sky Glass TVs starting in 2022.
Kinect Games:
- The Black Eyed Peas Experience
- Child of Eden
- Dance Central
- DanceDanceRevolution
- Dance Masters. Notably, its arcade port, DanceEvolution Arcade, also uses a Kinect.
- Dance Paradise
- Doodle Jump for Kinect
- Dragon Ball Z for Kinect
- Fable: The Journey
- Fantasia: Music Evolved
- Fruit Ninja Kinect
- Grease (also known as Grease: The Video Game and Grease Dance)
- The Gunstringer
- Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
- Harry Potter for Kinect
- Ice Age 4: Continental Drift - Arctic Games
- Just Dance series (3, 4, 2014-2019, Kids series, Disney Party 1 & 2, Greatest Hits)
- Kinectimals
- Kinect Adventures!
- Kinect: Disneyland Adventures
- Kinect Rush: A Disney–Pixar Adventure
- Kinect Joy Ride
- Kinect Sports
- Kinect Star Wars
- Leela
- Mass Effect 3
- Michael Jackson: The Experience
- Power Rangers Super Samurai
- Rabbids: Alive & Kicking
- Rise of Nightmares
- Sonic Free Riders
- Snowboard Misfits
- Wipeout series
- Victorious: Time to Shine
Games compatible with Kinect:
- Angry Birds Trilogy
- Dead Space 3
- Dragon's Lair
- FIFA Soccer (2013-2017)
- Forza series (Motorsport 4, Horizon 1 & 2)
Games that use Kinect unofficially (non-Xbox, with no Kinect branding attached):
- Soundodger (soundodgerLIVE)
- Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator
