Microsoft is gearing up for a massive marketing push to launch Kinect -- a controller-free Wii-killer for the Xbox -- and blow away the competition come Christmas.Backed by a half-billion-dollar budget, the tech giant is rolling out a major movie-style marketing blitz aimed at driving its motion-sensing device to the top of holiday wish lists.
Like a much anticipated summer blockbuster, Kinect will appear on everything from soda cans to cereal boxes and will span television, magazines and the Internet.The company began planning the launch 18 months ago with the help of Hollywood producer Steven Spielberg.
Microsoft, which has fallen behind competitors in areas such as smartphones and tablet computers, wants to ensure Xbox remains a major player in the video game business."Kinect is the largest, most integrated marketing initiative in Xbox history, bigger than its launch," said Robert Matthews, general manager of global marketing communications for Xbox. "We are going to be spending millions to launch this globally."Microsoft launched Xbox in July 2000 with a $500 million marketing campaign, but part of that went to subsidies to make the hardware more affordable.
This time around Microsoft has struck a promotional partnership with Burger King. Four million cans of Pepsi and Diet Pepsi will plug Kinect, along with 60 million cereal and snack boxes from Kellogg's.Meanwhile, some 7,000 retailers will stay open past midnight on Nov. 4 -- the day Kinect goes on sale -- to stimulate demand.
Kinect uses a sensor, camera and microphone to detect players' movements and translate them into on-screen actions, such as kicking a ball, dancing and driving a race car. The device will also respond to voice commands, such as "play a movie."
Unlike with other consoles, including the Nintendo Wii, on which Kinect is modeled, there is no handset. As an Xbox attachment, Kinect costs $149 for just the sensor and $299 for the console and sensor bundle.
Kinect will take over YouTube's home page and have a big presence on Nickelodeon and Disney digital properties. Microsoft, with the help of its ad agency, McCann Erickson, is spending ad dollars in places it doesn't normally to target moms as well as kids.TV spots, created by AgencyTwoFifteen, will pop up on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" next Monday and on Fox's "Glee."The print ad buy includes titles such as "People" and "InStyle," among others. Microsoft's Xbox team is also organizing a major outdoor event in Times Square, where many of the huge billboards will show Kinect ads.
The new device will face off against many other rivals, including the just launched Sony PlayStation Move bundle and perennial favorite Nintendo Wii.
The launch should help goose an industrywide slowdown in both video game hardware and software.
According to the latest NPD Group data, videogame hardware sales across the industry were down 19 percent in September compared to the same month a year ago.
So far this year, hardware sales are down 13 percent, to $3 billion, while video game software is off 8 percent to $4.93 billion.
It seems appropriate for me to make this topic.
Tune in to see Kinect for Xbox 360 featured on "The Oprah Show" on Tuesday, Oct. 19 as part of "Susan Boyle, Jackie Evancho: What Happened to the Next Big Thing?" Check local listings for air times. Even Ellen is in on the fun when Kinect makes a special appearance on the "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" later this month.
$500 mil huh. That could fund like. A lot of games. Ones that ARENT on Kinect
Awaiting the glorious train wreck.Don't be so sure :smug.
In July Microsoft insisted that Kinect could recognise players who were sitting down, despite a recent developer comment to the contrary.
This evening Eurogamer can reveal how Microsoft has made this possible.
The console manufacturer updated the software used by developers to make sense of the information gathered by the Kinect sensor so that the base node was switched from the bottom of the spine to the back of the neck, according to a developer with more experience working with the technology than most.
$500 mil huh. That could fund like. A lot of games. Ones that ARENT on KinectLike Lost Odyssey 2 :'(
That fucking sucks :maf
I was just talking to a friend about how I want this gen to go on for at least three more years, but with Move and Kinect we're practically done with that now.
I was just talking to a friend about how I want this gen to go on for at least three more years, but with Move and Kinect we're practically done with that now.If Kinect sells,software particularly,you will see a lots of hardcore games that have optional Kinect support.
That fucking sucks :maf
I was just talking to a friend about how I want this gen to go on for at least three more years, but with Move and Kinect we're practically done with that now.
You will receive plenty of hardcore games for your 360 or PS3 in the next few years. There is hardly anything to worry about on that front. Now the Wii is a different story. But the HD market of consoles is fine. In fact all they really know how to make is hardcore games. They don't even understand how to really make mass appeal Kinnect or Move games. And so most of them won't. Or at least the devs you care about probably won't.
Is Oprah currently in a fitness phase or a "I'm happy being fat" phase? This could be make or break.
Is Oprah currently in a fitness phase or a "I'm happy being fat" phase? This could be make or break.
Is Oprah currently in a fitness phase or a "I'm happy being fat" phase? This could be make or break.
She's in a 'I'm a whale but you wouldn't no that from looking at the cover of my magazine' phase.
Is Oprah currently in a fitness phase or a "I'm happy being fat" phase? This could be make or break.
Well, I don't think MS is investing so much money for nothing. X360 + Kinect is the new Xbox. Just like how Gamecube + motion controls is the Wii.
Expect the new Xbox Kinect to last for a few more years. And MS is stubborn. Even when it fails, they'll try hard to keep it around. Look at the original Xbox.
Yeah, Sony fans made that point too many times earlier this gen. I dunno what Third is talking about.Well, I don't think MS is investing so much money for nothing. X360 + Kinect is the new Xbox. Just like how Gamecube + motion controls is the Wii.
Expect the new Xbox Kinect to last for a few more years. And MS is stubborn. Even when it fails, they'll try hard to keep it around. Look at the original Xbox.
Really? I thought MS dropped Xbox like a hot potato the second 360 came on...? Ironically enough, just as Xbox 1 was picking up steam (Halo 2, Fable, etc.)
Anything that makes the Wii irrelevant is fine with me.
Kinect :rock
Yeah, Sony fans made that point too many times earlier this gen. I dunno what Third is talking about.Well, I don't think MS is investing so much money for nothing. X360 + Kinect is the new Xbox. Just like how Gamecube + motion controls is the Wii.
Expect the new Xbox Kinect to last for a few more years. And MS is stubborn. Even when it fails, they'll try hard to keep it around. Look at the original Xbox.
Really? I thought MS dropped Xbox like a hot potato the second 360 came on...? Ironically enough, just as Xbox 1 was picking up steam (Halo 2, Fable, etc.)
Is Oprah currently in a fitness phase or a "I'm happy being fat" phase? This could be make or break.
She's in a 'I'm a whale but you wouldn't no that from looking at the cover of my magazine' phase.
There's no way this thing doesn't sell 4 million units by springtime. Xbox fans will buy anything new and shiny.
who is that guy? :lol
Anything that makes the Wii irrelevant is fine with me.
Kinect :rock
You don't own a 360, Wii or PS3, and play Blizzard games almost exclusively. What do you care?
http://gizmodo.com/5668115/oprah-audience-explodes-into-hysterics-over-free-xbox-kinects
Vid shows crowd going wild as per usual with Oprah giveaways :lol
another version of the vid with some Kinect stupidity at the beginning.
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIi8oxaEAR0[youtube]
http://gizmodo.com/5668115/oprah-audience-explodes-into-hysterics-over-free-xbox-kinects
Vid shows crowd going wild as per usual with Oprah giveaways :lol
another version of the vid with some Kinect stupidity at the beginning.
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIi8oxaEAR0[/youtube]
http://gizmodo.com/5668115/oprah-audience-explodes-into-hysterics-over-free-xbox-kinects
Vid shows crowd going wild as per usual with Oprah giveaways :lol
another version of the vid with some Kinect stupidity at the beginning.
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIi8oxaEAR0[/youtube]
most of that audience probably has a 360 already.
She should have given them something the don't have,
Like a PS3
:smug
I see methodis is posting angrily.
Too bad I can't see what he posted, since I have him on ignore.
:drake
Just pretend for a second that Kinect was not here. I know it's here, it's big, bold, bright, loud and proud, right? But let's assume it wasn't here.
crap, I forgot to add the rest of my post, demi, were you in the beta for this?
NaturalMotion believes it has found an opportunity in the circumstances, and will soon launch new Kinect-specific module to its animation system Morpheme.
How does the tool work, in terms of Kinect detecting motion and that being translated to game animation?
The Kinect system runs live alongside our Morpheme runtime engine. The Kinect module in the Morpheme runtime retargets the live motion data onto your character and from there can be treated like any other animation data. For authoring, our Morpheme Connect tool presents a simple Kinect drag and drop node in the animation blend tree.
This means, for example, you can apply Kinect to only the upper part of your character, whilst the lower part is driven by a walk cycle. Or you use the player’s shoulder tilt to drive the direction of the walk cycle.
Microsoft provides this technology itself. Why pay for more?
Microsoft provides the Kinect technology, SDK and core dev tools. NaturalMotion provides two important pieces to use Kinect in a game.
Firstly, dedicated Kinect algorithms for retargeting and noise reduction.
Secondly, there’s a tight integration into a graphically authorable animation engine. In our experience, both are required to get the most out of a live motion input system.
Is the module competitively priced? How many studios are you hoping to adopt the tech in two years?
Kinect for Morpheme is very cost effective in terms of the time and money it saves both compared to creating a similar solution in-house, as well as in terms of sheer reduction in iteration time.
The tech has already been deployed in multiple studios, so we’re very optimistic for the months ahead.
Who’s your intended market? Independent studios?
It’s both publishers and independent studios. Right now, we probably have a few more of the former than the latter, but that mainly reflects hardware availability.
One of the biggest and most controversial stories surrounding the system has been the removal of an onboard motion processor. Instead of processed data being transferred over USB, instead the raw streams from the camera, depth sensor and mic are beamed across to the 360, where the CPU and GPU work in concert to decode and process the data. Kipman makes the claim that the console has the power to spare, saying that no 360 game - not even the latest state-of-the-art title - uses all of the CPU and GPU power available.
"As much as we like to talk about bits and percentages, you take a game like, I don't know, Call of Duty: Black Ops - there's a significant amount of processing, be it CPU or GPU, that still remains on the table," Kipman says.
"So after that, when we came to this revelation about games and future games that would be coming to Xbox, we looked at it and we said - 'is it worth the trade-off to put on-board processing on the device when we think we can create magical, unique, deep, thorough experiences without it?'
"That trade-off is easy, it's about the affordability of the device. From the perspective of bringing to market this amazing deal, £129.99 with Kinect Adventures, plus sensor - buy one and have your entire family play, it's a very interesting customer value proposition. We can create games which are as rich and thorough and as deep as the games which we have on our platform today and which we will have tomorrow.
"Then the conversation becomes simple: you start moving into a world which says, why keep something complicated when you can make it simple? We decided to have our cake and eat it too."
There is plenty of merit in what Kipman says here beyond the shoe-horned PR. Theoretically, there is nothing to stop developers creating Kinect titles that look and feel exactly like a premium core gamer title, because the system overhead is minimal - a low amount of CPU time spread across two threads on a single Xenos CPU core plus an even smaller amount of GPU resource. Take a look at Kinect Adventures and you see a fully fleshed out Unreal Engine 3 title, and that's exactly the sort of tech that would not take kindly to being robbed of significant amounts of system resources.
Kipman also confirms that the Xenos GPU is used to process the depth information and help build the skeletal data on which a great many Kinect titles depend.:bow Xenos :bow2
"One of the major key ingredients of the experience is machine learning. Machine learning in our world is defining a world of probabilities. Machine learning, particularly our kind, which is probabilistic, is not really about what you know, it's about what you don't know," he explains.
"It's about being able to look at the world and not see duality, zeroes and ones, but to see infinite shades of grey. To see what's probable. You should imagine that, in our machine learning piece of the brain, which is just one component of the brain, pixels go in and what you get out of it is a probability distribution of likelihood.
"So a pixel may go in and what comes out of it may be - hey, this pixel? 80 per cent chance that this pixel belongs to a foot. Sixty per cent chance it belongs to a head, 20 per cent chance that it belongs to the chest. Now this is where we chop the human body into the 48 joints which we expose to our game designers. What you see is infinite levels of probability for every pixel and if it belongs to a different body part.
"That operation is, as you can imagine, a highly, highly parallelisable operation. It's the equivalent of saying, pixel in, work through this fancy maths equation and imagine you get a positive number, a positive answer, you branch right, you get a negative answer you branch left. Imagine doing this over a forest of probabilities. This is stuff where you'll get a thousand times performance improvement if you put it on the GPU rather than the CPU.
"GPUs are machines designed for these types of operations. The core of our machine learning algorithm, the thing that really understands meaning, and translates a world of noise to the world of probabilities of human parts, runs on the GPU."
The full GI.biz interview is well worth a read, with a second part coming tomorrow. While Alex Kipman expertly side-steps a fundamental question or two, his comments do serve to remind us that Kinect is truly a remarkable evolution in console gaming. The sheer technological achievement in bringing a fully featured real-time motion capture system to the Xbox 360, with support for multiple players and without sapping too much in the way of the console's resources is something of a miracle that perhaps gets overlooked.
thanks demi, now I don't need to buy a 2nd Kinect. All hail burger king... I mean Five Guys, fuck buger king. I'll take the Kinect though.I'll try this also, but I never win these things. I don't mind having Kinect if I don't have to pay for it.
If Kinect does work for you, congratulations: you have what amounts -- for now -- to a novelty peripheral that is in no way geared towards the day-one buyer or "core" gamer. Microsoft conceived a potential game-changer with Project Natal, it just seems like Kinect was born prematurely.
The Good
The hardware is easy to set up, with good instructions
The games are simple to jump in and play
Using your hand as a cursor can be fun
The games make you move, and tend to be a good workout
Voice commands are useful in some circumstances
The camera can adjust itself to put you in frame
Games still work in low light conditions
It knows who is playing, and uses that account
The effect is uncanny when everything works right
The Bad
The menu system takes much longer than just using buttons
The hardware sometimes has issues hearing you or seeing your movement
The games are very similar
Without buttons, you lose control in certain parts of certain games
It starts at $150, which feels expensive
There is lag. It's not terrible, but it's there
The Kinect Hub doesn't do everything, or even most things
The Ugly
Too many games used the "take pictures during gameplay" gimmick. We get it—playing games on the Kinect makes us look stupid. It almost feels like you're playing a game so the 360 can laugh at you
Verdict: Skip... for now
As it turned out, removing my glasses was the fix. I performed the Kinect ID setup again and sped through it in a flash. The console recognized me. All was well. Except for the fact that I need my glasses to see, and didn't really care to take them off every time I wanted to be recognized. I tried things again wearing an older pair of glasses that had a thinner, matte metal frames. Kinect was fine with them. My conclusion: the frames of the glasses I wear on a daily basis are too reflective for the Kinect sensor to handle, basically bringing the system to its knees.
At least it can pick up pregnant women dancing!
Kinect doesn't like:
- black people
- glasses-wearing people
- messy people
- small-roomed people
- table-owning people
- poorly-lit people
- improperly-dressed people
Dance Central looks so fun, I want to play it
Before you can take part in an actual fight you must play through the most boring tutorial sequence in the history of the world. Because you couldn't work out for yourself that raising your right knee will make your on-screen avatar raise his right knee.
But here's the hilarious twist - it won't! Fighters Uncaged is so terrible at recognising your movements that any incidences of your avatar actually doing what you do are rare and precious moments to be treasured. When you raise your right knee, there is only a small chance your fighter will raise his. (Even if he does, the lag is so bad you will have either grown a beard or reached menopause by the time he gets round to it.) He is equally likely to do a kick, do nothing, perform a sweeping attack or, if he's feeling really creative, throw a punch.
...
Then it's time to view that six man-strong character roster. All the fighters look like extras from a scene in a Police Academy film where one of the dislikeable characters ends up in a gay bar. Think leather waistcoats, bare chests and big beards, and characters with names like Ratface and Rider. Good grief.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-11-04-fighters-uncaged-review?page=2 (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-11-04-fighters-uncaged-review?page=2)QuoteBefore you can take part in an actual fight you must play through the most boring tutorial sequence in the history of the world. Because you couldn't work out for yourself that raising your right knee will make your on-screen avatar raise his right knee.
But here's the hilarious twist - it won't! Fighters Uncaged is so terrible at recognising your movements that any incidences of your avatar actually doing what you do are rare and precious moments to be treasured. When you raise your right knee, there is only a small chance your fighter will raise his. (Even if he does, the lag is so bad you will have either grown a beard or reached menopause by the time he gets round to it.) He is equally likely to do a kick, do nothing, perform a sweeping attack or, if he's feeling really creative, throw a punch.
...
Then it's time to view that six man-strong character roster. All the fighters look like extras from a scene in a Police Academy film where one of the dislikeable characters ends up in a gay bar. Think leather waistcoats, bare chests and big beards, and characters with names like Ratface and Rider. Good grief.
2/10
:bow Kinect :bow2
QuoteKinect doesn't like:
- black people
- glasses-wearing people
- messy people
- small-roomed people
- table-owning people
- poorly-lit people
- improperly-dressed people
... sounds like a cool guy, does he want to hang out or bone my sister? Because ... i can make it happen.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-11-04-fighters-uncaged-review?page=2 (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-11-04-fighters-uncaged-review?page=2)QuoteBefore you can take part in an actual fight you must play through the most boring tutorial sequence in the history of the world. Because you couldn't work out for yourself that raising your right knee will make your on-screen avatar raise his right knee.
But here's the hilarious twist - it won't! Fighters Uncaged is so terrible at recognising your movements that any incidences of your avatar actually doing what you do are rare and precious moments to be treasured. When you raise your right knee, there is only a small chance your fighter will raise his. (Even if he does, the lag is so bad you will have either grown a beard or reached menopause by the time he gets round to it.) He is equally likely to do a kick, do nothing, perform a sweeping attack or, if he's feeling really creative, throw a punch.
...
Then it's time to view that six man-strong character roster. All the fighters look like extras from a scene in a Police Academy film where one of the dislikeable characters ends up in a gay bar. Think leather waistcoats, bare chests and big beards, and characters with names like Ratface and Rider. Good grief.
2/10
:bow Kinect :bow2
Dance Central looks so fun, I want to play it
Is ryan playing?
I know none of you agree with me, but I think all this stuff looks pretty goddamn fun.
I know none of you agree with me, but I think all this stuff looks pretty goddamn fun.I think Dance Central looks fun. That's about it do far.
I'm pretty excited about dancing and fitness games, which I feel are the devices strengths but I'm really interested in seeing what can be done from here. It's not flawless but I think they can do some really neat things with it. Like, one day I expect to see R.U.S.E. 2 using kinect.
Kinectimals is awesome I must discover the island's secrets
I'm buying a Kinect just for Dance Central, that looks so funnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
If SEGA wanted to get in big on Kinect, they need to do WRITING OF THE DEAD.
First pay I get I'm copping one :bow
[youtube=560,345]FVqyfff_AIQ&[/youtube]
:drool
All games should be punch to start.
I blame nintendo for this trend. RIP hardcore gaming :'(
[youtube=560,345]rw7Nxv2nIaQ[/youtube]
move yo fat body
I blame nintendo for this trend. RIP hardcore gaming :'(
Anyone who lumps WoW in with The Sims and Farmville needs to be banned from gaming for life.
Anyone who lumps WoW in with The Sims and Farmville needs to be banned from gaming for life.
At this point, WoW is more of a non-game than The Sims and Farmville. WoW has become this strange being that sucks people's souls by forcing them to click their mouse and make their character dance.
Really maxy, you wanna mention the giant bomb quick looks? Why don't you link the sonic free riders one, or the joy ride one? Why won't you link those maxy, why?
Wow, you mad.
Really maxy, you wanna mention the giant bomb quick looks? Why don't you link the sonic free riders one, or the joy ride one? Why won't you link those maxy, why?You could do that easily.
Kinect not racist. Gamespot full of shit:
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2010/11/consumer-reports-tests-kinect-facial-recognition-problems-video.html
Kinect not racist. Gamespot full of shit:
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2010/11/consumer-reports-tests-kinect-facial-recognition-problems-video.html
Trust us: Your body will thank you for helping avoid unintentional injuries.
Really maxy, you wanna mention the giant bomb quick looks? Why don't you link the sonic free riders one, or the joy ride one? Why won't you link those maxy, why?
You're being trolled. No one actually cares about Kinect other than to troll people who hate Kinect. Because its easy.
Really maxy, you wanna mention the giant bomb quick looks? Why don't you link the sonic free riders one, or the joy ride one? Why won't you link those maxy, why?
You're being trolled. No one actually cares about Kinect other than to troll people who hate Kinect. Because its easy.
I genuinely think Dance Masters looks great :-\
Everything else looks bad to uninteresting. Even Dance Central looks like a total bore and people are saying it is the best thing. It doesn't look bad or anything, but it's like an accurate Just Dance, and I don't want something like Just Dance period.
Dance Masters probably means that I will buy Kinect one day. The three problems are content, space required, and price. Well, not so much price because if it had content, I'd buy it at $150.
Really maxy, you wanna mention the giant bomb quick looks? Why don't you link the sonic free riders one, or the joy ride one? Why won't you link those maxy, why?
You're being trolled. No one actually cares about Kinect other than to troll people who hate Kinect. Because its easy.
I genuinely think Dance Masters looks great :-\
Everything else looks bad to uninteresting. Even Dance Central looks like a total bore and people are saying it is the best thing. It doesn't look bad or anything, but it's like an accurate Just Dance, and I don't want something like Just Dance period.
Dance Masters probably means that I will buy Kinect one day. The three problems are content, space required, and price. Well, not so much price because if it had content, I'd buy it at $150.
Kinect will never near Wii's popularity. You're delusional to think otherwise.
http://www.gamesradar.com/f/oh-dear-my-house-is-not-compatible-with-kinect/a-20101104112019187027
I wonder how many people will return Kinect after finding out they don't have enough room for playing this.
Why is every game Bish involved in bad or super mediocre?
Why Dance Masters? Why?
Had an issue today with the Kinect that made it continuously think I was trying to get to the damn Kinect guide. I left the room, unplugged the Kinect and it kept acting up till I turned off the 360. Then everything was back to normal.
DDR and PPP Fans, rejoice
Dear DDR and ParaParaParadise fans:
For years, it’s been a lonely separation for our feet and hands in our games. But at last, our favorite franchises have gotten together and reproduced in the form of DanceMasters.
You’ll see DanceMasters’ origins mostly in the song lineup (DDR) and the hand gestures (ParaPara). Their presence lends an air of familiarity but also potential disappointment, if you were hoping for a completely fresh new offering from Konami.
There’s a lot to be said for a game that lets us score AAAs while busting it out like in our favorite J-pop music vids. We think you’ll like DM.
Love, OXM.
Bz I saw you naked, you are the far opposite spectrum from delicious Ryan Davis
what are your thoughts guys on the Kinect achievements in "Better with Kinect" games? The new harry potter game has some achievements you can only unlock with Kinect.
Bz I saw you naked, you are the far opposite spectrum from delicious Ryan Davis
While this is true what if we were to both play Kinect dancing games together and rub honey on our bare hairy chests and nipples?
I've been to the new HQ for Giant Bomb and Whiskey Media. Even met Ryan and Vinny, cool guys. Vinny I run into at least once a year for the CAX event in santa clara.
Lets get this bitch back on topic kinda, what are your thoughts guys on the Kinect achievements in "Better with Kinect" games? The new harry potter game has some achievements you can only unlock with Kinect.
ALSO:lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFssLMRXkn0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnfADKAe6zs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux1FZpPKh20
:rofl
Warzonegamer and dramasetter embark to Toys R Us located in the world famous Times Square where Microsoft was having a midnight launch extravaganza for the highly anticipated Kinect. Exclusive footage with Major Nelson, Kudo Tsunoda, Don Mattrick, and Cliffy B among others in this star studded event. Gameplay footage, reactions towards Kinect, and lack of sleep is documented in this 24 hour takeover in Times Square.
[youtube=560,345]rw7Nxv2nIaQ[/youtube]
move yo fat body
THIS IS THE COOL KONAMI SOUND
YOUR DANCE WILL SAVE US ALL!
Wait, Alan Wake is a download code? Is it even a Games on Demand title?
Yeah, I know about that but I just didn't think Microsoft would start using those codes in bundles and such. I wonder if they'll start doing Games on Demand releases day and date with retail releases. That would be great.
Sadly, none of the Games-on-Demand titles are available in Japan. They're locked by IP-address, like the movies and TV shows they offer (but even that has its own inconsistencies); the last one I tried was the Fable 2 full game free download, but that didn't work, even through the website Marketplace.Yeah, I know about that but I just didn't think Microsoft would start using those codes in bundles and such. I wonder if they'll start doing Games on Demand releases day and date with retail releases. That would be great.
MS and Sony could have been doing this for awhile but they are scared of backlash from retailers. So I doubt they will do same day and date retail release with big titles. Hopefully next gen they pull their heads out of their asses.
After less than a week on sale, US retailer GameStop has picked Kinect as the first round winner in the Great Motion Controller War of 2010.
When asked whether Microsoft's Kinect add-on or Sony's Move would come out on top this Christmas, senior VP of merchandising and marketing Bob McKenzie told Eurogamer, "I'd say right now Microsoft's Kinect is looking to be the winner of the two for us.
"We're very happy with the sell through over the weekend. It has met our expectations and actually exceeded our initial forecasts."
"I do have them both obviously and the Move sports bundle is a great option," he added, "but I knew for my family – with an eight-year-old daughter and ten-year-old boy – that Kinect was really going to be the thing that was more geared towards my household."
Microsoft recently up-scaled its sales expectations for Kinect from three million to five million by Christmas, citing exceptional demand for the hands-free controller.
Sony has a similar target for its Move peripheral but has had another month on sale. It's shifted around 2.5 million units worldwide so far.
Kinect went on sale in the US on 4th November, with a European release due this Wednesday.
Green Man I think you're too far into the Green Fanboy zone to really look into Kinect and realize that nobody seriously looks at it and goes "woah that's some Minority Report shit" because no one cares about a 8 year old movie and a 30 year old book outside of nerds.
Sorry chief, I'm just using a phrase I typically hear when the topic of Kinect pops up in the various video game establishments I frequent.
Also, I am no fanboy, I just think Kinect is pretty neat and will preform better than most.
those dudes are dangerously out of shape and substitute energy drinks for exercise, i am not surprised jumping around in front of the tv has nearly crippled one of them
those dudes are dangerously out of shape and substitute energy drinks for exercise, i am not surprised jumping around in front of the tv has nearly crippled one of them
those dudes are dangerously out of shape and substitute energy drinks for exercise, i am not surprised jumping around in front of the tv has nearly crippled one of them
The best is when Jeff is playing Your Shape and it guess his weight at 180 and it takes like 5 minutes for him to move it up to the proper weight.
Listening to Giant Bombcast now.
Does anyone agree that Alex Navarro is one of those nerds that thinks he's a lot cooler than he actually is?
http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-your-shape-fitness-evolved/17-3467/ (http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-your-shape-fitness-evolved/17-3467/)
Move it to about 4:30
::)
Don't you have some shitty Ps3 exclusive to hype?Or maybe you could step in front of moving bus
moving bus sounds like a native american name
rain dance central?
Maxy and Third, just fuck and get it over with.
jesus.
http://www.gamingnexus.com/FullNews/I-think-Kinect-is-OK2c-but-its-the-best-24150-I-spent-on-a-console/Item20369.aspx
:bow2
The know it all nerd plagues California big time.
Listening to Giant Bombcast now.
Does anyone agree that Alex Navarro is one of those nerds that thinks he's a lot cooler than he actually is?
Yes.
Not a fan of Navarro.
Microsoft announced today it has sold over one million units of its Kinect 3D camera controller for the Xbox 360, putting it on track to beat its target of 5 million sales by the end of the year.
"It's a strong start," Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Business SVP Don Mattrick said in an interview with Reuters. "Consumers are loving it."
The sales for Microsoft $150 camera controller, which encompass roughly ten days of availability in the U.S. and five days of availability in Europe, seem to compare favorably with those for Sony's PlayStation Move.
SCEE Chief Andrew House said that camera-based PS3 controller took a month to sell "on the order of 1.5 million units" in Europe.
A Gamasutra analysis of U.S. Move sales estimates that the controller reached one to three percent of the American PlayStation 3 audience in its first 15 days of availability, putting the camera-based wand controller in much less than a million U.S. homes in that period.
Sony said last month it had shipped one million PlayStation Move controllers in America.
Kinect's European launch combined with that of Call of Duty: Black Ops to make for the industry's highest-grossing week ever in the continent, according to industry analyst group Chart-Track.
A recent teardown of the Kinect hardware estimates that each unit costs Microsoft only $56 to produce, suggesting that Microsoft is making a healthy profit on each sale.
According to our tip, Microsoft is using the Spike TV Video Games Awards (VGAs) to introduce some big action games, including new titles for the Kinect. The headliner is Gears of War for Kinect, coming straight from Epic Games. Now, we cannot clarify whether or not this is an all-new Gears of War for Kinect or if it's an existing Gears of War game, retro-fitted for the camera controller. But it definitely clicks with recent rumblings that Microsoft wants to get in front of the conventional wisdom that the Kinect is only a toy for casual gamers and family.It's not Gears 3,Epic "denied" that,my guess...it will be the first hybrid title shown
Sales of Xbox 360 in the UK doubled last week off the back of the launch of Kinect, Eurogamer has learnt.
The spike was confirmed this afternoon by sales monitor Chart-Track, a spokesperson stating that, while specific figures could not be revealed, it was "more than a fair reflection" to say the figure was double that of the previous week.
The boost is understood to have widened substantially the gap between Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with Sony's biggest hope for a pre-Christmas surge coming next week with the release of the long-delayed Gran Turismo 5.
A senior publishing source added: "360 doubled last week and it was already selling a lot. Wii and PS3 have been beaten by 360 consistently over the past few months.
"Wii is still outselling PS3 – the numbers are going the wrong way for Nintendo year-on-year but it's certainly not a disaster."
QuoteSales of Xbox 360 in the UK doubled last week off the back of the launch of Kinect, Eurogamer has learnt.
The spike was confirmed this afternoon by sales monitor Chart-Track, a spokesperson stating that, while specific figures could not be revealed, it was "more than a fair reflection" to say the figure was double that of the previous week.
The boost is understood to have widened substantially the gap between Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with Sony's biggest hope for a pre-Christmas surge coming next week with the release of the long-delayed Gran Turismo 5.
A senior publishing source added: "360 doubled last week and it was already selling a lot. Wii and PS3 have been beaten by 360 consistently over the past few months.
"Wii is still outselling PS3 – the numbers are going the wrong way for Nintendo year-on-year but it's certainly not a disaster."
Okay. I played Kinect at Best Buy and I'm planning to buy in the next few days :o
I'm not only a new tech nerd, i was surprised at how well it worked. My only question is are there any real games out (not sports compilations or exercise shit or mini games). i'm going to probably get kinect sports with it but I want something else too. The only thing I've seen is Harry Potter. Is there any news on upcoming games?
yeah, your precious hardcore games are going the way of the dodo ::)This. I don't understand the hate. Kinect, Move and Waggle are a maturing platform and it will take a while for games that make good use of them to come out but there are certainly games out for them now that are fun.
I can't find Dance Masters anywhere but I heard it's a lot better than Dance Central so I'll wait til I can find it.
yeah, your precious hardcore games are going the way of the dodo ::)
yeah, your precious hardcore games are going the way of the dodo ::)
No Kinect voice recognition in NZ
3:45 pm Wednesday 17 November, 2010
by James Cullinane
Kunect for Xbox launches in Nu Zeelund tomorrow but will not include voice recugnition support as local accents are too hard to understand, says Microsoft.
In a statemunt, Microsoft explains, “Because of the complexity of solving for languages and accents voice support will roll out across the world in waves. In [autumn] 2011, Kinect voice support will be available in Canada (French), France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia and New Zealand.”
Stink.
maaaate, it doesn't support bloody aussies either. It just aint fair dinkum mate
sheeit. It's not lke I'm gonna be saying "fush and chups" to my xbox or anything
Holy shit Im merely hours away from handling my own pet tiger:-*
(http://i55.tinypic.com/16m8yzk.jpg)
(http://i55.tinypic.com/16m8yzk.jpg)you should get that as your tramp stamp so I got something to aim for ;)
Germany:
Week 45, 2010
01 (__) [PS3] Call Of Duty: Black Ops (Activision Blizzard)
02 (__) [360] Call Of Duty: Black Ops (Activision Blizzard)
03 (__) [360] Kinect Adventures (Microsoft)
04 (__) [360] Kinect Sports (Microsoft)
05 (03) [PS3] Fifa 11 (Electronic Arts)
06 (02) [NDS] Professor Layton And The Lost Future (Nintendo)
07 (01) [WII] Wii Party (Nintendo)
08 (07) [WII] Wii Fit Plus + Balance Board (Nintendo)
09 (05) [NDS] Art Academy (Nintendo)
10 (__) [360] Your Shape: Fitness (Ubisoft)
Sweden:
Week 45, 2010
01 (__) [PS3] Call Of Duty: Black Ops
02 (__) [PC] Call Of Duty: Black Ops
03 (__) [360] Call Of Duty: Black Ops
04 (__) [360] Kinect Adventures
05 (__) [360] Kinect Sports
06 (01) [PC] Football Manager 2011
07 (03) [PC] The Sims 3: Late Night
08 (__) [PC] Farming Simulator 2011
09 (__) [360] Dance Central
10 (04) [PS3] FIFA 11
11 (02) [360] Fable III
12 (05) [360] FIFA 11
13 (__) [360] Kinectimals
14 (09) [WII] New Super Mario Bros Wii
15 (06) [PC] Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty
16 (14) [PS3] NHL 11
17 (__) [360] Your Shape Fitness Evolved
18 (10) [NDS] New Super Mario Bros
19 (15) [360] NHL 11
20 (11) [PC] The Sims 3
Sweden:
Week 45, 2010
01 (__) [PS3] Call Of Duty: Black Ops
02 (__) [PC] Call Of Duty: Black Ops
03 (__) [360] Call Of Duty: Black Ops
04 (__) [360] Kinect Adventures
05 (__) [360] Kinect Sports
06 (01) [PC] Football Manager 2011
07 (03) [PC] The Sims 3: Late Night
08 (__) [PC] Farming Simulator 2011
09 (__) [360] Dance Central
10 (04) [PS3] FIFA 11
Did you guys see the new Cabella game with the scoped rifle?
I WANT IT
Futatsugi, director of Panzer Dragoon and Phantom Dust, is working on the tentatively titled Project Draco to be published by Microsoft in 2011. Draco is a 3D flight shooting game. Players use Kinect to communicate with a dragon, raising it and making it learn skills, with the hopes of deepening your bond with the creature. In the game's online mode, you can fly through the skies with your friends.
For their work on Kinect, Futatsugi and his staff are taking care to ensure that players can enjoy themselves for lengthy periods without betting tired. They're paying attention to such things as the length of a single map and the frequency of enemy attacks. Explained Futatsugi, Project Draco is not a party type game where everyone enjoys themselves for brief periods, but is rather the type of game into which players sink their teeth. Because of this, they're developing the game to keep players from being tired while still delivering a control scheme that delivers a direct feel of movement.
As a sales point for the game, he said, "Don't you want to be able to actually experience the feeling of communicating with a dragon and riding it into battle? I do."
(http://oi55.tinypic.com/2m5ndoy.jpg)
:rofl
The segment ends with an obviously mentally disturbed child-like grown man sitting in a room full of plush Mario’s, which even made me feel a little dirty (and I like Nintendo). I would hate to think what the general public would think of a Nintendo fan after seeing that.
kinect sports is so much fucking fun. no joke.
[youtube=560,345]KWbLOFGSEDo&[/youtube]
Kinect :bow2
People seemed more pissed that it became a kinect advertisement that Microsoft paid for. Which, I don't see but whatever.
gaf ntards are fuming over this :lol
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjXEP2NYqfA[/youtube]QuoteThe segment ends with an obviously mentally disturbed child-like grown man sitting in a room full of plush Mario’s, which even made me feel a little dirty (and I like Nintendo). I would hate to think what the general public would think of a Nintendo fan after seeing that.
:rofl :rofl
ahahahaha
[youtube=560,345]KWbLOFGSEDo&[/youtube]
Kinect :bow2
heh, i'm in there briefly talking to GameBoy Jason, at 2.57
Confused, my kinect sits right under the TV. The problem is I have to move hella far away from it to play. Maybe if the astronaut was going into space to play Kinectimals
I demand mupepe impressions!haha okay okay
Edit: More than just X game is fun. :P
he did it wrong, then. Only your body has to be far away, not the camera.
[youtube=560,345]uVNiDnVur5s[/youtube]
OLD?
I was offered a Kinect for free yesterday but turned it down - there's just no way I could play it without moving every piece of furniture in my living room around. (this was also why it was being given away). Who cares about a bit of convenience in the interface if it causes so much real life inconvenience. Half-baked.
:lol who was giving it away?
My daughter kept interrupting my Kinectimals introduction, and I think it was confused about who it was supposed to be tracking, because she was causing the panther to lie down, while I was causing it to jump. Pretty weird.
I was offered a Kinect for free yesterday but turned it down - there's just no way I could play it without moving every piece of furniture in my living room around. (this was also why it was being given away). Who cares about a bit of convenience in the interface if it causes so much real life inconvenience. Half-baked.
:lol who was giving it away?
My daughter kept interrupting my Kinectimals introduction, and I think it was confused about who it was supposed to be tracking, because she was causing the panther to lie down, while I was causing it to jump. Pretty weird.
our Microsoft chum, who beta tested it.
The future of console gaming.
:lolQuoteOr would it have been one of those awkward "Where is that Kinect I gave you?" moments over beers at Casa Cormacaroni?
his X360 had just RRoD'ed under our care , he then cooked a massive turkey and was the perfect host despite his terrible loss - i think then taking his Kinect for nothing would have been taking the piss a bit ! ;)
So, wait, when did JoyRide go from being a free, shared content, possibly microtransaction game to a disc-based, retail, nearly-full-price SKU? :maf
So, wait, when did JoyRide go from being a free, shared content, possibly microtransaction game to a disc-based, retail, nearly-full-price SKU? :maf
Poor Kinect, it needs Nintendo games to make it look cool.Poor Nintendo Games, they needs Kinect to make them look cool.
Poor Kinect, it needs Nintendo games to make it look cool.Poor Nintendo Games, they needs Kinect to make them look cool.
Think I'm gonna be That Guy and flip mine while the getting's good. I like Dance Central buy my backlog of Real Games takes priorityCrap, so I shouldn't even bother? It's not compelling?
My cynical mind says once they saw Mod Nation Racers and knew JoyRide was DOA. Might as well refashion it for Kinect and try to soak the idiots.
Once they announced it for Kinect I think.There was never any real announcement about it though, huh? Man, I thought it would be a really interesting experiment for XBLA, to have a first-party title that was out there for everyone for free, meaning it would probably have a consistent online multiplayer group available, plus the ability to show off your Avatar Awards, so there's something driving that marketplace, PLUS it would be interesting data about micropayments driving a console multiplayer game... Darn it. I was curious how it would work out. Now it's just shovelware for a controller most people won't buy.
So, since Channukah is almost here, my dad asked me what I wanted. I said Kinect & he said, why don't we just get it today :D To my surprise, the Target near me had 3 Kinect Sensors left :D I gotta say, it is pretty different compared to the Wii. I was getting so into Kinect Adventures (and the Kinect Joy Ride Demo (http://"http://marketplace.xbox.com:80/en-US/Product/Kinect-Joy-Ride/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8024d5389b4")) that I had to take my asthma inhaler afterwards :lol I'll probably end up getting the various sports/"exercise" titles.
btw, is Forza Kinect - Forza 4 w/ Kinect enabled, "Forza Adventures" with Forza 4 being a separate "core" project, or an actual gimped Forza sequel with none other in the works. Is this known yet?
Razorfish has ported the DaVinci: Microsoft Surface Physics Illustrator to be used with the Kinect. The prototype they have created is stunning. This seems like one of the best Kinect apps till date. The video is spectacular. Just watch..
To date, many of the experiments in gestural interface development have not taken into account the hands. Unfortunately, the result is an experience that isn’t precise – users have no context of where they are interacting in the virtual space and 1-to-1 manipulation of objects in a scene proves difficult. By using an clenched hand to signify “grabbing” an object and an open hand to signify “releasing” an object, we are able to create experiences with an higher level of precision which can mimic a touch based experience. In fact, we’ve created a Kinect plugin to enable our entire suite of touch-based experiences to work with gestures – more videos to come!
Gesture-based interaction is great when touch isn’t practical. For instance, on a large screen projected display as shown in the video above it is difficult or physically impossible to control the entire area using touch. Using a technology like Kinect, we can create a virtual canvas in mid-air in front of the user. Interactions within this virtual canvas space are projected into the experience as shown in the DaVinci example.
To be honest, we had a blast playing with this experience. It definitely fulfilled all of our Star Wars fantasies of controlling objects with your mind. We’ll be adding more features in the coming weeks including the Darth Vader death grip. Stay tuned!
You knew it was coming. It was inevitable. And, yes, I'm talking about Kinect sex.
With almost any hot new tech toy, especially one with a heavy degree of interactivity--which Microsoft's motion-sensitive controller has in spades--someone is going to try to hack it and try to make it X-rated. The Kinect is no exception.
To date, there are no overtly sexual Kinect games on the market, though the folks who put together Kinect MotionSwinger (pretty NSFW) would like you to believe--for a moment at least--otherwise. But that's nothing more than a joke concept for a Kinect sex game put together with some imagery from Second Life.
Still, when it comes to finding ways to utilize new technology for, shall we say, lewd purposes, there are few people more qualified thank Kyle (qDot) Machulis, the dean of the underground sex-tech genre known as tele*****nics.
In a Sunday blog post titled "Kinect Sex--Because you knew I'd make this post sooner or later," Machulis finally brings his trained eye to the project that countless millions were surely waiting for him to get around to and evaluates the kink potential of the device Microsoft is hoping may breathe new life into its Xbox 360 video game console.
The question, as Machulis delicately puts it, is "How can I [have sex]" using Kinect?
As he quickly points out, Kinect most likely wasn't designed for such a purpose, and though the device was made to recognize even minute movements by a person's body, it's geared to look for our larger limbs, like arms and legs.
"Microsoft put a ton of work into making the Kinect track the human body as a whole, so you can play games by jumping and running and generally acting the...fool and feel like you're in the game instead of just sad," Machulis wrote. "Genitalia, for the most part, are not a major geometric feature of the human body when taken in perspective of physical size....Neither are they normally used in the control of video games, be they rated [for all] or [for adults only]."
Machulis said he experimented by waving a sex toy in front of a Kinect, and then by wagging his tongue around in front of it, and concluded that the graphics quality isn't very good, though the device was capable of picking up both the toy and his tongue.
Machulis wrote. "The pattern the Kinect uses to get depth data is made for picking up full bodies to control video games, and therefore isn't quite so good at picking up minutiae about those bodies."
Yet, Machulis also points out that because the Kinect is both very good at picking up hand-based gestures and capable of identifying discrete body parts like "manbreasts" (see video below), there is the distinct possibility that the device could be used to digitize--albeit with less than ideal graphics quality--simulated sexual motions
1.Call of Duty: Black Ops
2.Kinect Sports
3.Dance Central
4.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
5.Halo Reach
Wait, so if I want a Kinect I should not expect to find one in post-Christmas Silicon Valley? Can anyone tell me if they're region-specific?
There is some website that can maybe help you,Kinect basically comes and goes...not sure about post-Christmas thing
http://www.nowinstock.net/videogaming/accessories/kinect/ (http://www.nowinstock.net/videogaming/accessories/kinect/)
AFAIK they are not region locked,not sure though...the only problem is the AC adapter(if you have old 360)
Device itself is region free...99.9% sure in that,games are just like normal 360 games
I don't quite understand your last qualifier, but if you meant they're just like any other 360 accessory, I'll say that it seems a safe bet.
PrimeSense seeks to democratise motion sensor developmenthttp://www.develop-online.net/news/36558/Kinect-tech-firm-releases-open-source-drivers (http://www.develop-online.net/news/36558/Kinect-tech-firm-releases-open-source-drivers)
Kinect sensor tech firm PrimeSense has released open-source drivers for the peripheral, and established an NI devices, applications and middleware organisation.
The open-source OpenNI Framework supplies an API for writing NI apps while also providing middleware that grants access to RGB-D sensors like Kinect and PrimeSense’s development kit PSDK 5.0.
PrimeSense has said that it planned on releasing the drivers at a later date, but brought that plan forward in light of the successes of Kinect ‘hacking’ community OpenKinect, which aims to make use of the sensor in as many different ways as possible.
Windows and Linux binaries for the NITE skeleton tracking library have also been released by OpenNI, with the intention of allowing for improved gesture applications creation.
FIRST WORKING DEMO OF KINECT CONTROLLER FOR SEX GAMES INTERFACE!
USE MICROSOFT KINECT CONTROLLER & WINDOWS 7.0 TO CONTROL 3D SEX-SIM
Innsbruck, Austria - December 15, 2011 - www. 3DSexGames.com Announces Microsoft Kinect Controller Support
thriXXX software gmbh, the world's leading provider of 3D role playing game sex simulation videogames, is adding support for Microsoft's xBox Kinect device to its line of 3DSexGames titles available at www.3dsexgames.com.
Recent events in the Kinect Hacker community and the Open Sourcing of device drivers have enabled the Kinect device to be used directly from connected PC's operating on Windows 7. The Kinect interface provides another exciting interface option for users of the sex simulation software to control the experience in extraordinary new ways!
Controller free is the next generation of game user interfaces allowing users to use gestures, spoken commands, or objects to control in-game action that creates a completely new sex game activity and magical experience. "The Kinect Controller is astonishing new technology that allows users to experience cybersex like never before!" says Brad Abram VP of Business Development. "It's novel, sexy, social, age-spanning, crazy, and a rush to have virtual control at this level".
Users will ultimately be able to use full body or hand gestures, voice commands and even real world sex toy objects like vibrators to control interactions in-game and between two active participants. The technology is demonstrated in this video posted at www.gamerotica.com the official community for thrixxx games. The software in early alpha stage testing will be released in 2011 and made available as an option in all games using the thrixxx engine.
About
Thrixxx software gmbh has been building sex simulation software and games, for any sexual orientation, since 2003. Leading adult brands from around the world; Playboy, Hustler, Private, and others have White Labeled the game engine. Thrixxx games are available in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, and shortly in Japanese, and Russian. Software can be purchased through affiliates who register at www.gameboxxx.com
Microsoft is working to improve the accuracy of Xbox 360 motion-sensing add-on Kinect so that it could detect finger movement and hand rotation, Eurogamer understands.http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-12-17-source-ms-quadrupling-kinect-accuracy (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-12-17-source-ms-quadrupling-kinect-accuracy)
Microsoft's Kinect team is said to be working "very hard" on a switching or compression technology that will allow a greater amount of data to pass through Kinect to the Xbox 360 console.
Kinect features are dictated by firmware so that they can be added and upgraded over time.
The depth sensor used by Kinect is also dictated by firmware – it is currently set at a 30 frames per second limit and a 320x240 resolution limit.
At a 640x480 resolution, however, Kinect could begin to detect fingers and hand rotation – an effective quadrupling of its accuracy.
The issue relates to the USB controller interface, Eurogamer was told. It is capable of around 35MB/s, but it only uses around 15/16MB/s.
This artificial limit is in place because multiple USB devices can be used at once on an Xbox 360. But Microsoft is working on a technology to allow greater throughput in this regard, Eurogamer understands.
If Microsoft achieves its goal it could double the spec of Kinect's depth camera with a simple dashboard update.
The Japanese are masters at weird cultural stuff, that is a well know fact. However, this latest craze takes the cake.
The latest craze in Japan is Hatsune Miku. Miku was planned as a marketing stunt for a text-to-voice application, but she quickly turned into a virtual pop star with hologram concerts and best-selling records.
Fans have since released the freeware application MikuMikuDance. MikuMikuDance completed the circle by making it possible for fans to create their own music videos to the music they’ve synthesized using the voice synthesizer application. Fans are now in complete control over the virtual artist. They can create the songs and music videos with her singing and dancing without any approval from the copyright owners (using them for commercial purposes is another matter). In a sense she is the first really open source artist.
This is really strange and interesting, but has originally nothing to do with the Kinect. However, when higuchuu added Kinect support to the MikuMikuDance application that is no longer the case. higuchuu may have created the first real time motion capture demo for the Kinect. Just like Andy Serkis famously did with Gollum, by moving the body the virtual character, in this case Hatsume Miku, makes the same movements. This is a much more time effective process than animating it manually.
The hack is not completed yet, as it only works for the upper body. However, higuchuu is still developing the hack.
Hello All,
So over the weekend I was putting the Kinect to use in a proper theater space and wanted to share some of my findings. I was feeding the depth image from the Kinect into Isadora via the Kineme QuartzComposer plugin (v0.3), which worked reliably.
• The range of measurement is much more than I initially thought when I was trying it in my flat. We were able to clearly discern objects as far as 10m (approx. 30ft) away.
• The field of view is quite wide; I wasn't able to measure this precisely, but I can safely say it was about 10m when you were 10m away from the camera; in other words you get about 1m of width for each 1m of depth.
• The depth resolution seems to be something like 10cm or so in the situation I was describing above. We were attempting, for instance, to discern someone's leg when seated on a couch. Because the leg was not so thick, we were unable to reliably discern the front of the couch from the leg itself. What is unclear to me is if the depth resolution is finer when you are closer to the camera; I wasn't able to take the time to test that carefully.
• The edges on the depth image itself are quite coarse. We were attempting to do some masking based on the depth image, but it required a gaussian blur to get rid of the noise and other artifacts.
• One interesting trick was to use the Luminance Key actor to isolate certain depth ranges; you can determine what depths will be seen by changing the 'key bottom' and 'key top' inputs. This worked quite well, and allowed you to track -- and keep distinct -- multiple objects depending on their distance from the camera. This meant that we could track one person who was, for instance, 3m away and keep the person who was 5m away totally separate. (This required two Luminance Key actors with different settings fed to to separate Eyes++ actors.)
• Also, having a QC Kinect actor or in each scene was problematic; it would seem to lose the connection during a jump because one actor was being turned off and while the next was being turned on very soon thereafter. My solution was to put the Kinect actor in a secondary scene, and feed the video output to the other scenes via a Broadcaster actor.
Anyway, as I suppose is clear, this is a very interesting object to be sure. I look forward to seeing how other Isadora users make use of it.
I think its more funny that all this happened because of the open source drivers. MS of course, doesnt get it, and is clamping down on it.I don't think they are trying to clamp down on it anymore,somebody probably realized,hey this is good for us
It was only a matter of time before Microsoft's continually-hacked Kinect became embroiled in a VR simulation of some sort, and while we're not riding light cycles quite yet, enterprising developer Nao_u has managed to put himself in the shoes (and short skirt) of a Japanese virtual pop icon. Mapping his every move onto the virtual skeleton of Vocaloid's Miku Hatsune probably won't impress you much at this stage of the game, but there's the little matter of what Nao_u did next: he hooked up a pair of Vuzix VR920 LCD glasses to see through the digital diva's eyes, too. Find the terribly cutesy video after the break, and fast-forward to 4:30 to watch Nao attempt to walk a narrow beam set atop a virtual skyscraper.
How come we don't see the Move being used for neat shit like this?
Obviously, Microsoft is sitting on a goldmine. Who knew some video game peripheral would be so useful for folks.
P.S. If PS Eye or eyetoy were the same as this, why haven't we seen either do this :smug
Any gamer who has been following games for a while remembers Eye Toy and Kinect is essentially a suped up eye toy. But where Eye Toy fails, Kinect suceeded. It's all marketing.
The Eye toy ended up selling millions of units and being very profitable for Sony. You guys are idiots and should be banned from this forum.
ps. Both are embarrassing and defending them is embarrassing. SMH maxy.
The Eye Toy was successful? Well, I didn't know.Blame marketing
But it didn't transform into some huge dev support
I don't think they are trying to clamp down on it anymore,somebody probably realized,hey this is good for us
The mocap stuff is AMAZING. It would be great if indie devs could use a Kinect for bargain basement mocap solutions. The costs of doing it professionally are ludicrous.
Here's a quick preview of some experiments on streaming a skeleton from a Microsoft Kinect into MotionBuilder, in realtime.
A base application acquires a color and depth image from the Kinect and processes this into a 3D pointcloud.
(Not shown here but these can be dumped to disk as polygon objects as well)
PrimeSense's NITE is used to recognize the user and track a skeleton.
It then streams that data over TCP (could be done over a network connection) into MotionBuilder.
Using a custom device plugin the regular MotionBuilder toolset can then be used to map this onto a character.
All still very alpha and proof of concept at the moment, but hey it kinda works and is fun :)
More info at:
http://www.brekel.com
Note, this all runs on 30+ fps on a core2quad, the screencapture software had difficulty with it though.
This is like when Big Mama's House was #1 at the box office.
Probably the dumbest thread ever.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=407664
I love the moving goalposts which is how fanboys operate. Read the beginning of the thread and then the latest posts in the thread and how the argument has completely shifted to a different argument.
FAAST is middleware to facilitate integration of full-body control with games and VR applications. The toolkit relies upon software from OpenNI and PrimeSense to track the user's motion using the PrimeSensor or the Microsoft Kinect sensors. FAAST includes a custom VRPN server to stream the user's skeleton over a network, allowing VR applications to read the skeletal joints as trackers using any VRPN client. Additionally, the toolkit can also emulate keyboard input triggered by body posture and specific gestures. This allows the user add custom body-based control mechanisms to existing off-the-shelf games that do not provide official support for depth sensors.
FAAST is free to use and distribute for research and noncommercial purposes (for commercial uses, please contact us). If you use FAAST to support your research project, we request that any publications resulting from the use of this software include a reference to the toolkit (a tech report will be posted here within the next week or so). Additionally, please send us an email about your project, so we can compile a list of projects that use FAAST. This will be help us pursue funding to maintain the software and add new functionality.
The preliminary version of FAAST is currently available for Windows only. We are currently preparing to release code as an open-source project. Additionally, we plan to develop a Linux port in the near future.
January 1, 2011
Our video demonstrating control of World of Warcraft using the Microsoft Kinect has received over one million views on youtube in less than a week!
DEFEND THIS, ASSHOLES
This is pretty cool
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8BmgtMKFbY&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
First Kinect app on Mac app store
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/kinect-3d-viewer/id409696421?mt=12 (http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/kinect-3d-viewer/id409696421?mt=12)
Using a single Kinect camera and standard graphics chips, MIT researchers demonstrate the highest frame rate yet for streaming holographic video.
Dance Central, Adventures and Sports (gf loves bowling). They had a bundle with Motion Sports ( :teehee) and The Biggest Loser thrown in for free so I just took them to EB and traded them for real games.
The Biggest Loser demo is pretty tough if you don't do much working out to begin with. I'm sure Your Shape is the funner fitness game.
Publisher Ubisoft has said that it is considering Kinect adaptations for all of the brands in its popular stable of IP.http://www.mcvuk.com/news/42818/Ubisoft-eyes-up-Kinect-IP-conversions (http://www.mcvuk.com/news/42818/Ubisoft-eyes-up-Kinect-IP-conversions)
The company has already enjoyed big success with Microsoft's Xbox 360 motion camera, claiming third party market leadership on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to launch titles such as Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, Fighter's Uncaged and Motion Sports.
And while these three new IPs have enjoyed varying success, the publisher has plans to bring some of its more established brands to the platform.
“We will be bringing some of the industry’s most innovative offerings to Kinect soon,” says chief marketing and sales officer Geoffroy Sardin told MCV.
“I think we can propose Kinect versions of all the brands that we’ve got, but it is down to the production team. I can’t announce anything, but we will have something for everyone, that I can assure you.”
The Gunstringer
What type of game is it?
It's a cross between a platformer and a shooter starring a skeleton cowboy that you puppeteer with your hands. There appears to be a lot of on-rails shooting sequences. The action on screen is supposed to be a puppet show, complete with an audience cheering you on.
What's the story?
Somebody did The Gunstringer wrong, and he's gonna make 'em pay. It's a Western revenge story inspired by "A Fistful of Dollars."
As you may have already gathered, The Gunstringer is unlike any Kinect game you may have played previously. There are no minigames, forced gestures, or end of level photos of you in your underwear here. You can play it sitting down, which is great if you just want to play and relax rather than burn crazy calories. Most importantly, you can aim and move with precision not seen in any of the Kinect launch titles, and with a speed and feel that’s just not possible with a traditional controller.
Edit: Fight Night should already have Kinect functionality and the next EA Sports MMA title should have it too.
Conduit 2 developer High Voltage Software is making a Kinect-enabled game for BioShock publisher 2K Games, Eurogamer can reveal.
Details are thin on the ground. It's a licensed game and it's Kinect enabled, which means it can be played by those who own Microsoft's motion-sensing add-on and those who don't.
What could it be?
High Voltage chief creative officer Eric Nofsinger was tight lipped when cornered by Eurogamer.
"It's not announced yet," he confirmed. "We're doing that with 2K. It's a licensed game. That's our bread and butter as a developer. That's how we've stayed in business for almost 18 years. We don't develop for just one hardware. We don't develop for just one genre of game. We don't develop with just one publisher. We've diversified all the way through."
An announcement is planned for "around GDC". The game will launch this year.
"This game works well with or without the Kinect," Nofsinger added. "It's supported as a device, so if you have the device it works very well, but I don't think it's this brilliant, genius idea.
"It works really well because it's a 360 game. I don't think it necessarily works really well because it's a Kinect game."
from ssx thread
http://whois.domaintools.com/ssxkinect.com (http://whois.domaintools.com/ssxkinect.com)
http://whois.domaintools.com/kinectssx.com (http://whois.domaintools.com/kinectssx.com)
New stuff
http://whois.domaintools.com/simskinect.com (http://whois.domaintools.com/simskinect.com)
http://whois.domaintools.com/thesimskinect.com (http://whois.domaintools.com/thesimskinect.com)
E3 presentation is slowly filling up,lol
:'(
edit:Lips is there too
http://whois.domaintools.com/kinectlips.com (http://whois.domaintools.com/kinectlips.com)
Rovio, the developer behind the iPhone and Android game phenomenon Angry Birds, have unveiled via Twitter not only that Angry Birds will be heading to the Wii and 3DS later in the year, but that the upcoming Xbox 360 version of the game might well feature Kinect Support.
Confirmation that the game is coming to Xbox Live Arcade, as well as Sony's Playstation Network was given at last years Social Games Summit by Rovio CEO Peter Vesterbacka. Late last week, replying to a plea from a Twitter user asking for Kinect Support, Rovio replied that "You might just get what you ask for..."
One great lesson we learned from our Kinect prototyping: because it’s reading in information about your body and not just a point, we can get the information of where your points are in real terms. “Your hand is stationary next to your hip” is incredibly more useful than “this dot of information isn’t moving”. Because your limbs have natural resting positions and extents, you also get the same benefits of Fitts’ Law that you’d get with a physical device like a thumbstick!
If you try to apply normal game mechanics that uses binary actions to this analog system though, you have the same waggle problems as using accelerometers. But, if you design your controls for true analog inputs instead, you can really make something new and inventive.
This is what we set out to do with The Gunstringer. Marionetting isn’t about binary actions like “move in this direction at x speed”, it’s about the analog feel of a puppet. Because of that, we ended up building a unique control system that uses your hand, wrist, arm and shoulder to determine how to move the Gunstringer through the environment.
Having that whole tree of skeletal information allows us to make really unique decisions. We know where your hand is relative to your shoulder and body, so you can move the Gunstringer anywhere along the screen just by moving your hand to that location instead of doing the “move left, move left, no move right, okay stop” shuffle that you’d have to do with an analog stick or D-Pad.
This isn’t limited to movement, either. Since we know how your entire arm from your hand to your shoulder is moving, we can accurately extrapolate what you’re aiming at with your hands, and place the reticle exactly where you’re pointing. It allows you to do either huge swipes with your hand, or smaller, more precise movements to target something specifically.
It also allows us to implement a real “fire” command using your arm without it conflicting with the hand movements you need to mark targets to kill. Our fire action involves literally firing your six shooter as if you just felt recoil in your arm. Because we can look at the full arm instead of just a point, we can tell the difference between the player firing a gun and the player just moving the reticle upwards.
In layman’s terms: you get to pew pew enemies with your hands.
QuoteIn layman’s terms: you get to pew pew enemies with your hands.
http://twistedpixelgames.com/wordpress/2011/02/09/designing-for-kinect/ (http://twistedpixelgames.com/wordpress/2011/02/09/designing-for-kinect/)
Kinect-controller hybrid games incoming
BURBANK, Calif. - (Business Wire) Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announces Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, an innovative, engaging and funny, new video game on Kinect™ for Xbox 360®. Being developed by award-winning Double Fine Productions, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster will be available in Fall 2011.
In a truly original interactive experience, young players join Cookie Monster, Elmo and other Sesame Street characters as they explore a living storybook titled Once Upon a Monster. In the book, they make new zany monster friends from the Once Upon a Monster world and share in their adventures, solving problems, forging friendships and learning key life skills along the way. Parents and children literally become part of the whimsical storybook adventure by getting active together through dancing, jumping, flying and more.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/press/street-once-a-monster,1657306.html (http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/press/street-once-a-monster,1657306.html)
(http://mms.businesswire.com/bwapps/mediaserver/ViewMedia?mgid=262871&vid=4)QuoteBURBANK, Calif. - (Business Wire) Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announces Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, an innovative, engaging and funny, new video game on Kinect™ for Xbox 360®. Being developed by award-winning Double Fine Productions, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster will be available in Fall 2011.
In a truly original interactive experience, young players join Cookie Monster, Elmo and other Sesame Street characters as they explore a living storybook titled Once Upon a Monster. In the book, they make new zany monster friends from the Once Upon a Monster world and share in their adventures, solving problems, forging friendships and learning key life skills along the way. Parents and children literally become part of the whimsical storybook adventure by getting active together through dancing, jumping, flying and more.
WTF, deflowering a girl with Kinect.
SPEAKER/S: Ben Sugden (Lionhead Studios) and Michal Iwanicki (Lionhead Studios)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Friday 11:00-12:00 Room 3007, West Hall 3rd Fl.
TRACK / FORMAT: Programming / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: MILO AND KATE is an Xbox360 title in development at Lionhead Studios.
This presentation introduces an innovative pipeline where we moved from a conventional content-creation workflow to building and painting our world using mesh sculpting tools alone, working entirely in 3D, eliminating the need for artists to consider both texture budgets and UV parametrization.
We describe algorithms to handle these multi-billion polygon assets, discuss our virtual texture streaming system, together with how to deal with common implementation issues. We follow with a description of a novel real-time global illumination solution we have developed and a survey of alternative approaches.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will learn a new approach to modeling environment assets, providing a more artist oriented workflow. They will gain ideas to solve common problems with virtual texture streaming, compression and processing of these extremely detailed models. They will benefit from our research into computing indirect illumination in real time.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: The talk is primarily targeted towards graphics, tools or engine programmers or technical artists. Some knowledge of existing graphics pipelines and lighting models may be beneficial but is not required. The talk is targeting intermediate to advanced level.
ELIGIBLE PASSES: Main Conference Pass, All Access Pass
BEN SUGDEN (LIONHEAD STUDIOS)
LEAD ENGINE PROGRAMMER
LIONHEAD STUDIOS
I have been working professionally in the games industry for 17 years. Currently I am the Lead Engine Programmer on Lionheads new IP Milo & Kate. Prior to current role, I was technical director on its spiritual predecessor: Project Dimitr' and worked on the graphics engine for Black & White 2 for the PC. This followed a lead programmer position at Warthog games on Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter on multiple platforms. Before this I was lead programmer at Videosystem working on F1 World Grand Prix for the Sega Dreamcast. This followed Project Lead / R&D Programmer at a games company specialising in PC Flight Simulators (GSI), after contract work in Holland on the Philips CDI. Before university I was an active member of Atari ST demo scene.
MICHAL IWANICKI (LIONHEAD STUDIOS)
SENIOR ENGINE PROGRAMMER
LIONHEAD STUDIOS
I started my professional career in 2003, in CD Project RED in Poland. I worked as a Graphics Programmer and later as Lead Engine Programmer on The Witcher. After finishing the game I became Lead Programmer on the technology that later became engine for the upcoming The Witcher 2. In 2009 I moved to Lionhead UK, and since then Ive been working in Milo & Kate engine team In 2009 on SIGGRAPH conference in New Orleans I was presenting a talk titled Normal mapping with low-frequency, precomputed visibility, prepared together with Peter-Pike Sloan.
Kinect holds the Guinness World Record of being the "fastest selling consumer electronics device". It sold an average of 133,333 units per day with a total of 8 million units in its first 60 days
save us all(http://i.imgur.com/qJiVr.jpg)
Fortunately, the ESRB knows a lot more about Rise of Nightmares. They gave the game a "M" rating and a revealing description.
This is a horror-adventure game in which players assume the role of an American tourist who must rescue his wife from a deranged scientist. From a first-person perspective, players use brass knuckles, knives, hatchets, and chainsaws to kill zombie-like creatures and disfigured monsters inside a mansion environment. Combat is highlighted by exaggerated sprays of blood, and damage often results in dismemberment or decapitation—stray body parts sometimes litter the ground.
Some sequences and cutscenes depict more intense acts of violence: a man screams loudly as spikes impale his body; a restrained character’s hand is chopped off before he is killed; a character (cut in half) crawls away in a pool of blood; a soldier is ripped apart by a monster, causing blood to stain the screen. During the course of the game, some female creatures are depicted in revealing outfits (e.g., ‘pasties’ that partially cover their breasts); in one sequence, a woman sits on the central character’s chest and engages in suggestive dialogue (e.g., ‘Oh, how I’ve thought of this—night after night. How I’ve missed these lips.’). Dialogue also includes phrases such as ‘Best sex of my life.’/'Worst sex of my life,’ ‘f**k,’ and ‘sh*t.’
in one sequence, a woman sits on the central character’s chest and engages in suggestive dialogue (e.g., ‘Oh, how I’ve thought of this—night after night. How I’ve missed these lips.’). Dialogue also includes phrases such as ‘Best sex of my life.’/'Worst sex of my life
This game is cute, but the controls are abysmal. It's like they were making a casual racing game and then tried to strap on the Kinect stuff halfway through... oh, wait.
Using the Kinect technology, PowerUp Heroes is an ultimate super power-infused full-body fighting game. Players control each move in combat by using their entire body to launch projectiles, dodge strikes and counter deadly attacks. Players can unleash attacks on their opponents in a two-player cosmic showdown online. Additional modes include local two-player versus and four-player tournament.
Players use their unique Xbox 360 avatars to create custom playable superheroes in the game and prepare their avatar for battle by infusing their super suit with deadly powers and special abilities. After the player's character destroys an enemy in battle, they will strip them of the super suit and wield their power for their next battle. There are 20 super suits to collect including the mighty Necromancer suit which allows the player to control a horde of skeletons, and the Mentalist suit that gives the player the ability to break into their enemy's mind.
[youtube=560,345]XtX3n3RPKrE[/youtube]
I've been playing Rez, E4, and Lumines Live lately (Qubed disc for $10 at GS) and I love them all. Getting a Kinect just for this game seems like it'd be worth it. Or maybe I'll borrow my friend's.
Source: Layoffs At Crytek Budapest, Kinect Game Moves Foward
An anonymous source told Gamasutra this week that Crysis developer Crytek will lay off 30-35 workers at its Budapest studio, which will purportedly switch from work on an Xbox 360-exclusive Kinect game to focus on tablet titles.
Avni Yerli, managing director for the Frankfurt, Germany-headquartered developer, responded to the source's claims, stating in an email, "We can confirm that our Budapest studio is getting a new direction and focus." He did not confirm specific details of those changes.
The source claimed that in the "next few weeks," the Budapest studio, which has been working on the first-person melee Kinect game Codename: Kingdoms, will shrink from 80 workers to 30-35.
The headcount reduction purportedly comes after Codename: Kingdoms publisher Microsoft Game Studios made a "sudden decision" to have Crytek move the development of the game from Budapest to Crytek's Frankfurt studio.
The source also said nine workers have already been laid off following the project's move to Frankfurt. Crytek is reportedly keeping more workers on board for the time being as the developer prepares to present Codename: Kingdoms at Microsoft's E3 press conference early next month.
The Budapest studio had been working on the game for two years, the source said. The title debuted briefly at Microsoft's E3 conference last year via a live-action trailer, originally with no confirmation of Kinect support.
Laid-off workers reportedly include people from an array of disciplines, including level design, quality assurance, IT, art and audio.
The source also said Crytek will "move their tablet development [to Budapest]," but did not confirm details of any projects in the works.
Wait, Codename Kingdoms was a kinect game? OH WHAT THE FUCK.
Crysis developer Crytek has confirmed its Budapest studio is to take a new direction, but has refused to comment on rumours of layoffs.This kinda paints another picture
A source close to the business told GamesIndustry.biz that as many as 50 roles could go at the studio which has been working on Kinect exclusive title Codename Kingdoms for the past two years.
However, the source claims that game has now been moved to Crytek’s Frankfurt studio following completion of work set to be unveiled as part of Microsoft’s E3 conference next month in Los Angeles.
At least 10 non-sequel Kinect games will be announced at trade show E3 next month, Eurogamer can reveal.
One source told us these games "won't be obvious". Another source said Microsoft is expected to "serve the hardcore" at E3 with its Kinect announcements.
This is in addition to planned announcements of sequels to Kinect games, Eurogamer sources have indicated.
Rare will unveil Kinect Sports 2, set for release Christmas 2011, Eurogamer understands.
Rare is also hard at work on a second Kinect game, although this is under wraps. We do know, however, that this game is not associated with any of Rare's established characters, such as Banjo.
An announcement relating to Xbox 360 Christmas 2011 launch exclusivity for Dance Central 2 is "highly likely", Eurogamer has been told.
Elsewhere, two new Kinect games from a developer that has already launched Kinect games will be announced at the show. The developer wished to remain anonymous.
Microsoft has set up a London Soho Studio that Eurogamer has been told is hard at work on a Kinect game "aimed at the younger audience".
A new studio, MGS Family, has been set up close to Microsoft's Redmond HQ.
According to job descriptions spotted by 123Kinect, this studio is focused on "highly experimental gameplay" for Xbox 360 and Kinect.
It is already known that MGS Vancouver is looking for staff to work on a triple-A shooter Kinect game project.
Microsoft plans to triple the number of games available for Kinect by the end of 2011.
Meanwhile, Eurogamer has heard an open world driving game called Forza World is in development at UK developer Playground Games, helmed by ex-Codemasters racing studio executive producer Gavin Raeburn.
Raeburn's LinkedIn profile reveals he's "working on an unannounced AAA title for a major publisher". During his time at Codemasters he helped reboot the Dirt and Grid series.
Forza 4, from US developer Turn 10, is due out this autumn. It features Kinect support and will form a part of Microsoft's E3 presence.
At E3 Microsoft is also expected to announce a Halo 1 remake, rumoured to be built using the Halo: Reach engine by TimeShift maker Sabre Interactive and due out November 2011.
Microsoft is also expected to show off its Kinect Star Wars game, quietly in development at Ghostbusters: The Videogame creator Terminal Reality. This is due out Christmas 2011.
Microsoft told Eurogamer it "does not comment on rumour and speculation".
Microsoft has just sent out invites for a Forza 4 evening press event at E3 this year, taking place on Wednesday June 8 between 8.00pm–12.00am PST. The showing will reveal “what’s new under the hood of the best racing game of 2011 at an unforgettable event under the stars with new content you won’t see anywhere else.”
Xbox 360 party application Avatar Kinect is on track for release later this spring.
It allows a party of up to seven friends to chat under the watchful gaze of their Kinect cameras - which track whether you're smiling or not.
No more typing LOL and not really laughing. Kinect will know.
Players can choose a variety of themed backdrops for their pow-wows. There's a late-night talk show, an American tailgate party and a magical forest.
Once chatting, smiles and frowns are projected on you and your chums' avatars in real time.
"When you smile, your Xbox 360 avatar will smile with you," says the saccarine-sweet press release.
A trio of game ratings appeared on the Australian Classification website today, perhaps spoiling some of the titles Microsoft will announce just around the corner at E3. New entries for "Crimson Alliance," "Fusion: Genesis" and "Kinect Me" all list Microsoft as publisher and run the gamut from Mature-rated to PG to G. Only the Crimson Alliance page notes a developer, Certain Affinity, which is corroborated by the game's Brazilian classification. Likewise a rating for Fusion: Genesis has also shown up in Brazil, where both titles are listed for Xbox Live Arcade.
Kinect Me remains the most mysterious of the mystery titles and could perhaps feature some connection to the kinect.me promotional site (pictured above) that's been live since last summer. A source tells Siliconera to expect an E3 announcement of "Kinect Fun Lab," which the site surmises could be a working title for Kinect Me -- both names are at least sufficiently generic-sounding to be one and the same game.
Additionally, Brazil has classified two more Xbox Live Arcade titles, Fruit Ninja Kinect and Hole in the Wall (from Ludia), supporting previous ratings of the pair of pending releases.
In a recent email invite to the "Harmonix E3 Spectacular," the company reveals that a new title is on the way.
The party, which takes place the night of June 7, is meant to "celebrate the announcement of our latest title with the best and brightest in the industry."
The invite also promises "Drinks, Dancing and Developers." Dancing, huh? Does this hint towards Dance Central 2 perhaps? Keep in mind that it's not Rock Band 4.
Full stereoscopic 3D is set to hit the Xbox 360, Eurogamer can reveal.
This stereo 3D support works exactly like the PlayStation 3's 3D effect. In other words, full-on HDMI 1.4 stereoscopic 3D in the 1280x1470 twin 720p framebuffer configuration.
This would mean a 720p image per eye.
When asked for information on this planned improvement, a source familiar with Xbox 360 development hinted at an E3 announcement.
"They'd be mad not to do it, is all I can say," said our source. "The machine is not only very capable, it's more capable than the PlayStation 3 of doing stereo, assuming you don't have one of the old crappy ones with the composite leads... assuming you have a HDMI Xbox.
"The bottleneck is more on the graphical throughput for rendering out in stereo."
So, when will Microsoft announce full stereo 3D support for the Xbox 360?
"E3 is coming up," is all our source would offer. "Microsoft is going to have to go on stage to say something, aren't they?"
3D is gay. Nobody wants to sit on a couch wearing glasses poppin' bubbles out of the air like some sort of fucked up Ray Charles.
Trademarks:
-Crimson Alliance (Microsoft/Certain Affinity)
-Fusion: Genesis (Microsoft/Microsoft Game Studios)
-Fruit Ninja Kinect
-Hole In The Wall
-Kinect Me
-Fusion: Sentient
-Fusion: Vault
-Kinect Googly Eyes
-Tetris Party Challenge
Game Rumors:
-Codename: Kingdoms (First Person Melee, Rumored Kinect Functionality, Moved To Crytek Frankfurt)
-Forza World (Open World Racing, Developed By Playground Games)
-Kinect Sports 2
-Dance Central 2
-Kinect Fun Lab (Speculated To Possibly Be "Kinect Me")
-Rare Kinect Title #2 (Unrelated To Rare IPs)
-Two New Kinect Titles From Veteran Kinect Developer
-Halo CE Remake
-Gears Of War Kinect Rail Shooter
-Fable Kinect Game
-Kinect Roller Coaster Game (From The Developers Of Roller Coaster Tycoon)
-Big Park Story-Driven IP (They Made Kinect Joyride)
-Alan Wake: Night Springs (XBLA, Possibly Kinect Enabled)
-Kinect Star (Ubisoft)
-Kinect ShowTime (Ubisoft)
-Kinect Raving Rabbids (Ubisoft)
-Monsters: Mass Destruction (Majesco, Kinect)
-Left Brain Right Brain (Majesco, Kinect)
-Harley Pasternak’s Hollywood Trainer (Majesco, Kinect)
-Over the Top Wrestling (Majesco, Kinect)
-Motion Sports: Adrenaline (Ubisoft, Kinect)
Studio Creation Rumors:
-London Studio For Kinect Kids Titles
-Redmond Studio "MGS Family" (MGS = Microsoft Game Studios In This Context)
New Feature Rumors:
-Full Stereoscopic 3D Support
-Zune Features/Services Integrated With Xbox Live Gold
-Kinect Community Site For Users And Developers
-Project Orapa (Combines Xbox Live, Kinect, and IPTV Into One)
-Free To Play Games Coming To XBLA (Dungeon Fighter Online XBLA Seemingly Confirms)
Official - Confirmed E3:
-Gears Of War 3 (Epic)
-Forza 4 (Turn10)
-Good Science Studios' New Game (They Made Kinect Adventures)
-Sesame Street: Once Upon A Monster (Double Fine)
-XCOM (2K Marin, Though It May Not Be In The Presentation)
-Star Wars Kinect (Terminal Velocity)
Official - Known 2011 Releases (Thus Likely E3):
-Doodle Jump Kinect
Official - Potentially Not E3:
-343 Industries' Halo Game(s)
-Zipline Studio's Kinect First Person Shooter (Zipline Studios Is A New Microsoft First Party Studio)
-Lionhead Kinect Game (Possibly Fable Kinect)
-Skype Functionality Is Coming To Kinect (The Press Release Confirmed This)
-Kinect Game From Virtual Toys (Microsoft Published, Developer Of Petz: Horsez 2 and Imagine: Fashion Model)
-The Kinect Games From TGS (Project Draco, Codename D, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, Fire Pro Wrestling, Haunt, Rise Of Nightmares)
-PowerUp Heroes (Ubisoft, Kinect)
Official XBLA Exclusives - Potentially Not E3:
-Radiant Silvergun (Treasure)
-Guardian Heroes (Treasure)
-Trenched (Double Fine)
-Gunstringer (Kinect, Twisted Pixel)
-Class3 (Undead Labs)
-Toy Soldiers: Cold War (Signal Studios)
-Hybrid (5th Cell)
-Fez (Polytron)
-Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
-Spelunky HD (MossMouth)
GAF Original Rumors:
-Kinect Object Scanning, Interactive Books, And Education Software (fin)
-Ruffian Still Working With Microsoft (Doffen)
Too many Kinect titles for my taste.Hey, it sold above and beyond what they hoped for. Of course they're gonna pump out a ton of shit for it. Granted I care about next to none of the games for it. 8)
-Kinect Googly Eyes
-Hole In The Wall
Game Rumors:
...
-two new kinect titles from veteran kinect developer
Sega talisman joins Premium Agency as executive producer and advisor
Game development pioneer Yu Suzuki has joined Tokyo-based Premium Agency as executive game producer, the group has announced.The industry veteran Suzuki will advise on a number of social and mobile projects, but also will oversee games for living-room devices.Premium Agency has said Suzuki will advise on a new, as yet unknown, fighting game for Kinect.The impact this new role has on Suzuki’s relationship with Sega is unknown. Develop has contacted Sega for comment.
“I’ve been [interested in] the idea of integration of technology and entertainment faithfully as a game producer," Suzuki-san said.
He spoke of joining Pemium Agency's "pioneer spirit”, as well as delivering games with global appeal.
Premium Agency is a relatively unknown entity in western game development. The group builds games as well as CG animations, and had previously worked with the Naruto IP.
Yu Suzuki, a widely-revered pioneer in arcade game development, has been central to numerous games such as Hang-on, Space Harrier, Out Run, After Burner, Virtua Fighter and the Shenmue duo.
Xbox 360 has moved 55 million consoles in six years
Microsoft has announced Xbox 360 has now sold sold 55 million consoles across 38 countries during the six years it’s been on the market.
The console, according to NPD, as maintained the top spot on the console charts for the past eleven months, and during the first four months of 2011, Xbox 360 has seen a 29 percent year-over-year increase in sales.
Microsoft said this figure is “triple the growth of PlayStation 3 and the largest growth of any console on the market.”
The firm also said there are now 35 million active Xbox Live members worldwide “spending an average of almost 60 hours a month on the service,” which means that cumulatively, Live members are now logging 2.1 billion hours a month on the service. That’s three-times the amount of usages compared to a year ago.
Microsoft also said it has sold more than 10 million Kinect sensors and more than 10 million standalone Kinect games worldwide, making the Xbox 360 console more of an entrainment device than ever before.
The firm expects 2011 to “once again be a high water mark as the best year ever for the brand.”
Microsoft is working hard to improve 10-million selling motion sensing add-on Kinect so that the games you play feel and control better.
Improvements made by Microsoft to the way the Xbox 360 works with Kinect mean it will detect finger movement – and even pointing.Eurogamer sources have indicated that gamers should see "pretty big improvements" in the short term via new software updates.
Improvements to face recognition, skeletal tracking and voice recognition are all planned.
Other rumours point to an E3 2011 announcement for a Xbox Live Diamond subscription.
According to Winrumors.com, Microsoft is working on a demo for E3 that would showcase "Project Orapa", discussed by Eurogamer this week.
Project Orapa is a codename for Microsoft's combination of Xbox Live and Mediaroom IPTV. If an Xbox app is planned, it could allow Xbox owners to control their TV settings, social networking, music and video with Kinect-fuelled gestures.
"Microsoft is currently in last minute negotiations to secure the necessary agreements in time," said a source. Microsoft plans to make Xbox Live Diamond available in November.
With regards Kinect, Eurogamer can reveal how Microsoft will improve its accuracy.
Currently, Kinect passes information to the Xbox 360 through a variety of streams. But Microsoft will soon allow developers to "turn off sound or depth", thus enabling Kinect to concentrate on sending a video feed, for example, of higher quality."If it had just have been a video feed from a camera, it would have been of really good quality," a Eurogamer source close to Kinect development said. "But the fact it's sending sound, depth and video is what tends to clog the bandwidth."
The Kinect camera outputs in 640x480, but the depth buffer is 320x240. Microsoft restricts the resolution of Kinect because of Xbox 360 USB limitations revealed by Eurogamer last year.
Most Xbox 360 games are 1280x720, but with Kinect outputting in 640x480, the video feed is smaller than the display picture, stretching it out.
"What people would ideally want is that it's at least 1:1 mapping," continued our source. "That's what they're working on. You can do Augmented Reality-type things, and if you want to just turn off the depth of the sound for a moment, then you can ask for the higher-quality video feed.
"Microsoft has been quite clever and canny in that they have put slightly more expensive pieces into the Kinect, which is why it's expensive, even though you can't access them immediately. But in software hopefully we'll be able to do this, now the PC people worked it out quite quick."
Improvements are also being made to the way Kinect tracks skeletons.Currently, Kinect uses a 21 node skeleton to work out your movements. On every point it tells the Xbox, 'Here's the co-ordinate I believe the node is at, and here's how confident I am that it's there.'For your hand, for example, Kinect sends through an X, Y and Z value, and says, for example, 'I'm 99 per cent sure.'
When you sit down, however, issues can arise. Kinect may say, 'Your knee is there, but I'm only 30 per cent sure it's there.' This presents problems to developers trying to work out if the information they are getting from Kinect is accurate."All the knees and ankles have always been a bit like it's semi-guessing," a source told Eurogamer. "But all those values are about to go up. They've been doing a lot of work on the seated position and said it will improve shortly with an update.
"If anyone thinks we're looking at fingers to see if you're pushing buttons, that would be really pointless. But if you were to hold your hand out and say, how many fingers am I holding up? Two, three, one, whatever... We're doing some work on it and it looks like you can do it."You can hold them out as well. If you point at the screen, you'll be able to work out whether you're pointing one finger or two fingers. The accuracy is actually pretty good."They're doing some improvements on their libraries. All game designers are just working out how better to recognise gestures, when to throw data away, and when data might be dirty. That's going to happen with the second wave of games."
The upshot of these improvements is a more accurate Kinect, and better games."Any Augmented Reality would look higher quality," Eurogamer was told. "The recognition on your body and gestures would be more accurate."Eurogamer understands the second wave of Kinect games, many of which will be unveiled at E3 next week, will work much better than last year's launch titles.
"So many games were rushed for launch and early release," said a source. "For everyone, it was like, this is a bit new and different. Everyone's starting to get into it now and say, hold on a second, we're going to design this one properly.
"I know internally at Microsoft there's a lot of work going in on how you can push it to the limit.
"You're going to see some pretty big improvements. The hardware is slightly more capable than the software. There are so many places it can be improved through clever software. Microsoft is doing its bit low level. Game designers are learning how to deal with this kind of data. Everything is going to be drastically improved through software."
According to their Twitter page, Microsoft are bringing Razorfish's DaVinci Kinect experience to E3. This is notable for a few reasons. Firstly it is, or was, more of a tech demo than a game. Secondly, why is Microsoft bringing open source PC Kinect hacks to E3?
The obvious explanation is that Microsoft may simply be giving more details on the official Kinect SDK, and DaVinci is one of the first apps ported to it from an open source environment. A more exiting prospect however, is the notion that Microsoft are ready to show off Kinect XNA apps playing on the Xbox 360, downloadable via a new app store.
Given the huge attention and interest many Kinect PC applications have received, it would be incredible for Xbox 360 owners to also have direct access to these smaller, homebrewed applications rather than only big and expensive retail products, and Xbox Live Arcade games.
We've previously speculated about the existence of a Kinect app store, with unofficially revealed Microsoft-produced titles such as Kinect Fun Lab, Kinect Googly Eyes and Kinect Me sounding like prime examples for launch apps. Razorfish's DaVinci was notable for its highly precise hand and grab tracking, offering a fun and polished physics sandbox. If we were to speculate further, DaVinci could have evolved into Kinect Fun Lab, with Microsoft publishing it as one of the first XNA Kinect 360 applications.
Not at IOS prices though. :'(
This is miserable. I need a new hobby
Or maybe suicide is the answer
Gears, Forza, Halo, Fable....:gloomy
MS needs some new IP instead of regurgitating the same ones over and over.
System requirements for the SDK
Hardware
* Kinect for Xbox 360 sensor
* Kinect power cable (not included in the Xbox 360 Kinect bundle)
* Computer with a dual-core, 2.66-GHz or faster processor
* Windows 7 compatible graphics card that supports DirectX 9.0c capabilities
* 2-GB RAM (4-GB RAM recommended)
Software
* Windows 7 (x86 or x64)
* Visual Studio 2010 Express (or other 2010 edition)
* Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0
* For additional requirements for samples, see the Readme file
Avatar Kinect has released earlier than previously expected, and is available right now on the marketplace! The Gadget is available to all Xbox Live Gold subscribers for free via Kinect Fun Labs, weighing in at 658.59MB's.
Avatar Kinect gives you full control of your Xbox Live Avatar, letting you interact in a variety of environments with friends and, for the first time with Kinect, control your characters face via facial tracking. You can also save and upload your interactions and voice to KinectShare, Facebook and other social network and media sites.
The software also comes with 8 achievements for a total of 50 points. So what are you waiting for? Go check it out and let us know what you think!
Avatar Kinect is now available for download. Once the download is complete, you can either select ‘Play Now’ from the download screen, or later, you can return to the Guide and select the “Games” tab, then “Quick Launch” to play. If you have FunLabs, go to “My Gadgets” and select “Avatar Kinect.” Once you upload your movies, then go to KinectShare.com where you can watch the video, download it or share it out on Facebook.
will DL when I get home. I havent been bothered to 50/50 those other Kinect apps so I may grindan some of that shit tonight.
Microsoft has today announced the follow-up to last year’s hugely successful Kinect exclusive videogame release, Kinectimals. The cuddly cubs are back and ready to play, as Kinectimals Now with Bears! expands last year’s popular introductory title to now also include five adventurous bears that can’t wait to fish, climb and explore.
A new guide, Bumblina, will help you and your new bear cub explore an uncharted island off the coast of Lemuria. Bring your bear cub along to track Captain Blackwood’s progress Electronic Theatre Imagewhen he explored the island more than two hundred years ago, and uncover a mysterious device buried underground to seek out a new adventure. Your journey begins when you adopt and name one of five adventurous bears – Black Bear, Grizzly Bear, Cinnamon Bear, Glacier Bear or Polar Bear, or five playful cats – Lion, Royal Bengal Tiger, Cheetah, Leopard or Panther. Discover the lush environments on the islands as you journey with your cub to unlock ten more animals during the course of your journeys to solve the Legend of Felis Aurum and the Fiddler’s Quest.
Players can train their pet to perform tricks like fetch, play activities including jump rope and juggling, and even master agility courses with hops, stops and balancing acts. Of course, there is always time to care for your pet by feeding, bathing and grooming, too. TravelElectronic Theatre Image far and wide to collect hundreds of different treasures and toys. You can customize your pet and decorate your home, plus use the in-game store to shop for items to nurture and care for your new best friend.
I was standing there with my mouth closed and my avatar was going AIBIABIABIABIAIBIABIAIBIABABABABABAA
KinectFusion HQ
We present KinectFusion, a system that takes live depth data from a moving depth camera and in real-time creates high-quality 3D models. The system allows the user to scan a whole room and its contents within seconds. As the space is explored, new views of the scene and objects are revealed and these are fused into a single 3D model. The system continually tracks the 6DOF pose of the camera and rapidly builds a volumetric representation of arbitrary scenes.
Our technique for tracking is directly suited to the point-based depth data of Kinect, and requires no feature extraction or feature tracking. Once the 3D pose of the camera is known, each depth measurement from the sensor can be integrated into a volumetric representation. We describe the benefits of this representation over mesh-based approaches. In particular, the representation implicitly encodes predictions of the geometry of surfaces within a scene, which can be extracted readily from the volume. As the camera moves through the scene, new depth data can be added or removed from this volumetric representation, continually refining the 3D model acquired. We describe novel GPU-based implementations for both camera tracking and surface reconstruction. These take two well-understood methods from the computer vision and graphics literature as a starting point, defining new instantiations designed specifically for parallelizable GPGPU hardware. This allows for interactive real-time rates that have not previously been demonstrated.
We demonstrate the interactive possibilities enabled when high-quality 3D models can be acquired in real-time, including: extending multi-touch interactions to arbitrary surfaces; advanced features for augmented reality; real-time physics simulations of the dynamic model; novel methods for segmentation and tracking of scanned objects
Impressive stuff but not sure about projecting my room into game world.
But projecting (ex)girlfriends as game bosses...oh yes 8)
I would finish any game,no matter what.
Twisted Pixel's live-action western shooter, "Wavy Tubeman Chronicles," is the first DLC coming out for their Xbox Kinect game, The Gunstringer.
This hilarious DLC gives gamers a chance to live the wild, wild west. You play as a cowboy stranger protecting the townfolk from danger. With over-the-top acting and weird oversize guns appearing in this DL,C you must watch the first 15 minutes of gameplay in order to believe. Click the video below.