If they made Minect with 640x480 binocular camera and it meant selling it at a loss then I'd say cutting down the specs with no perceptable loss in gaming functionality to be able to sell at a profit is the right move.

Sign language would have been a "feel good" but pretty much useless feature at this stage of the game.

http://store.microsoft.com/microsoft/Kinect-for-Xbox-360/product/C737B081

There it says 640x480.

Will it be less? I don't know, I don't care. Because I am not getting it. Do the target audience care? Propably not.

Well, if Digital Foundry said it, there is little to argue. They are already a damn source and they are too big of a site to lie... maybe spin things a bit, but when when they do it usually favors the X360.

Maybe going for higher resolutions on the depth map would be too much of a cost. Maybe next-gen dudes. 

Just to be clear I posted the DF thread as an interesting read - not because of anything specificaly to do with supposed spec changes.

I'd take the mooted drop in resolution as speculation until we see it officially called out by MS or by retailers - most of whom are still stating the higher resolution.

it is a perceptable loss (if true).  ability to do "sign language" isn't about helping out the disabled in this case...it's about using fingers has a viable control input.

really old news but remember this canceled game? it requires finger being able to recognize finger movements..

http://kotaku.com/5453423/canned-natal-two finger-game-concept-art

..although overall i agree that MS can't take a loss on this at launch.  sony taught everyone this lesson quite well already.

I know dude, I had actually read that article before it was posted, and it was a good read.  It is what prompted me to create a thread specifically asking where everyone had gotten the spec change from and the only thing there was, was Play.com.  Digital Foundry posted an article about it, then Kotaku saw the DF article, then writes their own(making up things as they go, such as that Kinect, at one point, could already do finger recognition), after which, Engadget sources Kotaku about the same thing.  Sheisty internet news.

I don't know why everyone is crying foul over the resolution being reduced to a quarter, when play.com themselves say that. It's not the image feed itself that has been reduced though, it's the depth map, which is exactly what DF have said all along.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-kinect-spec-blog-entry

The issue is that Play.com is the ONLY retailer that says that.

And DF is basing their information only on Play.com's specs.

"Here's Play.com's data in full."

Amazon, Microsoft's Store, Toys R Us, Walmart, etc, all have 640 x 480 for depth.  Just seems odd that every retailer but one has the specs one way.

If true this sucks, but I will wait till I see news from M$, thanks...

Overpriced Eyetoy