I actually think Kinect 2 might be a gamebreaker for the future of console gaming. If done correctly, it can enhance the experience of a game tenfold in a way smartphones or tablets can not compete with. Kinect-only games will be great but when it is integrated into an experience with a controller (if it is as good as promised) I believe things will happen that we haven´t seen before.

Or am I being to optimistic?

Chen continued to say that modern games are bound to communicate with with only 16 buttons and two analogue sticks Yet their games hardly use any buttons... strange complaint.

Anyway if anyone can make something of Kinect they should be able to.
Chen was surprised at how good Kinect 2 will be. That's the catch though, will it be as good as advertised this time. How well will the emotional detection work in the dark (with only the infrared available) while I'm reclined in my chair 12 ft from the screen.

I thought a thread of positive Xbox One news or a thread where a Sony-centric game designer praised Microsoft would have had more responses. Had it said "Journey Deve says Kinect 2.0 doesn't appeal to us" maybe it would be more popular.

Bad news>Good news I guess.

It should.

It really depends on which band of IR the Kinect can sense.  If the sensor covers a broad frequency range of IR, than yes.  If the IR sensor only covers the NIR band that that is emitted by Kinect, than probably not.  It would be able to detect that something is cold but not hot.

Anyway, Kinect can see in the dark, which is means its using IR photons and converts those to electrons, creating a light image.  The depth sensing is precise enough that it can see small details, like counting your teeth.  So, yes.  In the dark it can easily determine your emotion by looking at your face.  Whether or not it can determine if you're flush or not in complete darkness, I don't know.  But it can "see" your face, and see your expression on your face.

You need to see my Xbox One Rules of VGChartz.

I'll wait for reviews first. The actual specs make it seem unbelievable.

Colour Stream: 1920 x 1080 x 16 bpp 16:9 YUY2 @ 30 fps
Depth Stream: 512 x 424 x 16 bpp, 13-bit depth
Infrared Stream: 512 x 424, 11-bit dynamic range
Field of View: 70˚ horizontal by 60˚ vertical

At 12 ft my face would take up 15x23 pixels in the infrared stream. Eye distance is a mere 6 pixels.
With the lights on it can use the 1080p color stream, bumping it up to 56x59 pixels. That should work, but I have my doubts about playing in the dark at that distance. You can always move the Kinect closer ofcourse, stick it on something in the middle of the room.