Microsoft ruined Kinect's potential by bundling it with the One

[Norris2k]

VanceIX said:

Norris2k said:

I really think that Kinect had not so much potential to begin with.

It's here for 4 years and I've never seen anything awesome on it, can't think it's a new step to gaming, or than any popular genre except for party/casual game will fit on it. It didn't become a trend in the industry, and it's hype was dropping on the 360.

I think MS was totally aware of it. They could not make it the main and only controller the same way the wiimote was. They could not achieve a strong lineup with games based on it.  In fact they still can't show anything great after 6 month.

So the kinect was really by essence a secondary device... just like a wheel you would use for racing games. They could not make it interesting enough to sell independently, so they bundled it. "Avoid fragmentation" is a beautiful way to say "the product can't achieve sufficient market share without force selling it in a bundle".

But by bundling it (and in the process making consumers hate it), they made it more unpopular than ever. Look at the PS Eye, over 1 million sold and it wasn't bundled. The Kinect should have been what Morpheus is trying to be- a future tech that is optional, and gains popularity due to its uses, not just because it was forced on consumers. 

Sure, MS was pretty bad at selling it, and considering the current result where the Kinect is not popular and not force bundled, any alternative way to sell it would have done better.

But for me, the point is they just didn't have an high potential, innovative and good selling controller with the Kinect. It's far from enough to make it 100$ wise, to make the xbox one a better product, or to allow games than millions of people need.

Bundling it was not so popular, but selling it like the PS Eye would have meant 5 times less sales for Kinect. I don't think the eye toy will achieve sales significant enough to make PS4 better and selling more. I don't really like the wiimote, but there were a clear hype at launch, people wanting it so much, and the wiimote and a few games were enough to sell a million of consoles every month. The hype for a controller that requires you to move is almost dead, and I think that's why Nintendo moved on from it, why Sony made it a cheap and not major product, and why MS could not base its launch on it (with a strong Kinect line up and 3rd party support, commercial making it great, etc.).