It is the most confusing thing to me besides the Wii U Gamepad. What was Microsoft's intention with it? It has had only like 2 games since launch, 1 which is a legit 2/10 (some fighting game from Ubisoft) game and one which is whatever (Kinect Sports Rivals). It has had some downloadable games here and there but nothing substantial.

The Kinect's purpose was clear - get some of the Wii audience. Motion controls were still popular in 2010 but the Wii hype was dying, so for 2 years the Kinect took advantage and sold 24 million. The thing is the Kinect was actually supported. It launched with 15+ games, and was regularly supported for those 2 years.

Motion control gaming died in 2012... so what was Microsoft trying to do with Kinect 2? And they couldn't be going after the blue ocean audience because the they didn't have any games for the Kinect and the One was $499 (compared to the Wii's $249 price point and Kinect+360's $299).

Only the Gamepad is the weirder choice for controller for the past 15 years.

It was Don Mattrick's fetish imo

Microsoft entered the 8th gen too confident. It thought that, because the original Kineckt sold really well and the XBox 360 practically draw agaist the PlayStation 3, they could follow the same strategy and keep being succesfull (not to mention the DRM policies). When everyone called them out, they had to make a new plan to compete against the PS. Even Nintendo didn't follow the motion controlls, in favor of a tablet-like controller. It wasn't a good idea, but you have to admit tablts are very popular nowadays, so the logic is at least there.

It has more games than 2 games and I use it everyday on my X1 :)

Because Don mattrick said go to hell to peter moore and his stupid 'give gamers a lot of games ideas' and then DM came with kinect that sold like crazy and made the Xbox devision profitable ofcourse the stockholders were happy with the idea of Kinect 2. Lucky Mattrick is gone but Phil Spencer can not do much about Kinect now. Only thing we can do now complain about not investing in Kinect 2 or complain that he does.

I don't see how MS didn't see the writing on the wall with the first Kinect, it was a gimmick and it was pretty much dead after the first year or so it was on the market. So the fact they felt the need to include another Kinect with Xbox One is mind boggling.

First off, motion controls are far from dead. They are used in quite a few games from all the systems in one way or another. Gyro is form of motion control. There is also the massive usage on mobile devices with motion controls or touch interface using swiping and such, also motion controls. 

The Kinect 2 could have been a very neat experience beyond what it was actually used for. It's quite sad really. Instead of making newer versions of games like police 911 or some on rails shooters, or even more usage of squad based tactical games, they just went for a couple fitness games and "sport" type games. There could have been more interesting usage if they incorporated some controller usage and even a couple other peripherals for it like a sort of light gun type thing and the ability for proper movement with something like a nunchuck for the Wii-mote or move. Certainly a missed opportunity. Sony was planning on releasing the PS4 with the camera and similar usage to the X1, I'm sad that they didn't, Sony would have been more likely to utilize it than MS has due to generally better first and second party support. 

I don't see what is weird about the gamepad. I do wonder if you have used it beyond a demo at a booth. Those are quite terrible to show what it is capable of. Perhaps if they had a zombi U set up or something like that, that shows it's abilities, but where it really shines is in groups of people playing together. There are lots of possibilities for it to be utilized more as well. Just the basic usage of off screen play is superb for people with lots of people around that want to watch TV or movies. 

I don't understand the whole thought of 'core gamers' not utilizing anything and everything available to create new game experiences since it is actually expanding the gaming experience. As a 'core gamer' shouldn't they at least be willing to try everything? This is in reply to the negative view of motion controls on any of the systems. 

One of the next big things coming out for systems is VR which highly utilizes motion controls, so again, it's far from dead. 

Actually Nintendo till uses motion controls quite a bit with the tablet, but there is also the option to not use them for many. 

What is with the gamepad hate? 

I don't hate the tablet, but I'm sure the gamepad is the main reason Nintendo can't make an effective price cut (like the GCube), and the machine really needs one. Specially after the NX announcement/teaser. The WiiU has a lot of problems, and even if the gamepad isn't its biggest, it's certainly important.

Kinect was meant to be a reason to get a xbox one game over a ps4 game - they envisaged every game would be 'better with kinect' and have 'kinect exclusive features'
they thought the cost of kinect would justify the money that came in from people choosing xb1 game over ps4 game, but it didnt work out