Kinect on the Xbox 360 has gotten a bad reputation over the past few years as a gimmicky device that barely worked in some situations. It found a new lease on life in core games with its voice recognition capabilities, but that wasn’t exactly what gamers envisioned when the device was being marketed ahead of launch. Microsoft is looking to change all that with the Kinect 2.0. In fact, the new device is said to cost almost as much as the Xbox One to make, and it’s a big part of the Xbox One experience.
According to a developer Rare, makers of Kinect Sports and other titles for the accessory, the Kinect 2.0 is 10x more powerful than the current model. According to Rare’s Nick Burton, the new sensor “can register a fingertip from three meters away, a feat that was impossible last generation, and its wide field of tracking means it can register more players and at closer distances.”
Rare is currently working on a next-generation version of Kinect Sports. The camera is said to be able to capture facial structure, hair, skin color, body composition, and expressions with “remarkably accurate” precision.
The Kinect 2.0 has been a point of contention for some thinking about purchasing the Xbox One this holiday season. There’s only one way to purchase an Xbox One, and that’s with the camera included in the bundle, making the Xbox One a more expensive alternative than Sony’s PlayStation 4. Despite rumors that the company could possibly launch a Xbox One bundle without the Kinect included, Microsoft says that the device is an integral part of the Xbox One experience.
