We could go back and forth, but here's the bottom line.

Both BluRay and Kinect could be argued to enhance the console's gaming capabilities. Both firms incorporated it into their marketing.

The difference is in how the consumers perceived and bought into that message.

If I had to guess, I would believe that relative to BluRay, the Kinect was unsuccesful in convincing a majority of gamers that the feature enhanced their gaming experience. Actual utility is subjective and we can go back and forth on it, but if we did a professional survey, especially when Xbox One debuted and its negative image was at its peak, then a majority of gamers would say they didn't see the utility of Kinect in terms of gaming.

I'm a little less sure about BluRay getting >50% of gamers saying they thought it was useful when the PS3 debuted.

But now let's focus on another aspect. Again, the marketing. As true or untrue Sony's claims about the Cell Processor and BluRay was, their proposition was that those two things would lead to better performance. We can debate if people bought that, but that was the messaging they gave.

Microsoft has been much weaker in translating Kinect in terms of gaming, and I think that was their biggest downfall:

Just look at all those dislikes for that video.

All Microsoft needed to do was demonstrate how the Kinect could be used in a gaming context. Instead of showing people watching football through Skype, why not show 2 guys playing CoD/Madden while Skyping with each other? Why not show a before and after footage of someone going through menus to do something (e.g. equip new armor) and have someone do the same thing with a single command?

Bottom line:

It's not a matter of actual utility (utility in and of itself is subjective).

It's a matter of how the feature was markted by the company, and how the consumers interpreted that marketing.

And I find it hard to believe, after all those PS3 fanboys when about how great the Cell processor and BluRay is in terms of graphics and performance, that BluRay was received just as negatively as the Kinect.

I'm sorry, that's just pure fantasy.

#1 yes, ignore valid points and their elaborations, should you raise a question had I simply left it as "x does y"

#2 So is a power supply a peripheral? The USB socket a peripheral? The power button? Instead of dancing around your false statement, just own up to it. Definition of "peripheral": a device that is connected to a host computer, but not part of it. It expands the host's capabilities but does not form part of the core computer architecture.

The Blu ray drive forms and is a part of the PS3. Kinect does not form the Xbox nor is it a part of it. It is a separate entity. Take blu ray away from PS3 and it's not a PS3 anymore. Take Kinect away from Xbox and it's still an Xbox 

#3  The list is pretty expansive. Here you go. 

#4 I didn't say anything about DLC being on a 2nd disc (unless we're talking Capcom. They're know for on disc DLC). I'm talking about having to switch discs to enjoy parts of a game. My example with ME3 was that the side missions were on the 2nd disc (not DLC. side missions. read: components of the game are on another disc). Imagine playing Fallout or Elder Scrolls (glad Bethesda optimized their game well so this wasn't an issue). You're playing the story and you decide you want to do some quests that don't necessarily advance the story. Well, you can't just go talk to an NPC and start the quest. You have to pop in the other disc to do that. And then, there's nothing but side quests on that disc. So if you want to advance the story, you have to swap in the first disc. I dunno about you, but in open world games like that, for example, I like to do things seamlessly.

#5 A broken game and disc swapping are two completely different things and you know it.

Do you have number of games that reach and exceeds 40Gs on PS3? Or you're just speculating?

They're just a handful of games according to you that needed more space than DVD permits.

Well, MS did correctly calculating the marginal benefit of adding a DVD disc driver instead of a BR-P.

By saying Kinect is universally not accepted you're disregarding the 20+ million that bought it.

Just because gamers "bitch" on the forums a lot about doesn't mean it's universally hated. I know multiple families that also have fun playing dance and other interactive games w/ Kinect. Otherwise they wouldn't have played "a boring-sit down- staring at the screen- with a controller."

a lot of people like to forget that the PS3 was actually $499 at launch for the 20GB, which, feature-wise, was more comparable to the 360 (no wi-fi, 20GB HDD, etc). And I don't see you all complaining about the XBone being $499, btw.

Not to mention, the Cell was the most expensive component (while blu ray wasn't significantly cheaper). So if anything, the 60GB PS3 was $599 because of that, and don't lie and say the Cell didn't benefit games (just look at Uncharted. Except for booting the game, there were no load times due to how ND programmed around the Cell). And the game save files for PS3 are megabytes, sometimes kilobytes. It's the install files that are gigabytes....but the same can be said for X360 games.

And don't downplay the install disc. Entire components of games had to be placed on the install disc (side missions, multiplayer, etc). Swapping out a disc to continue playing Lost Odyssey is very different from quickly filling up your HDD so you can play Halo multiplayer, Mass Effect side missions, and race on a number of tracks in Forza so "there wasn't any disc swapping needed anyway". And don't say you just delete the data and reinstall when you play again. Game installs are meant to load off data so that game data is read faster and smoother. There shouldn't be a separate disc needed to be able to play half the game. It doesn't raise your eyebrow that you literally can't play major sections of certain games unless you possess, essentially, another game?

That's a silly argument. We've seen games designed for the PC brought over to consoles. Games like MGS4 may have been designed for PS3, but they can be ported.

You seem to believe PS3 games are actually making use of all that 50GB for in game graphics, I assure you that's not the case. Look at Witcher 2 or Battlefield 4 on PC. Those games look better than any PS3 game in every way yet neither use 50GB. Use some logic.

Would you say that Sony also forced HD on people because they had the option to use a memory card to save games? How have HD helped improving gaming?

Did you also make that observation when the Playstation forced a cd drive or the PS2 forced a DVD drive? Were you up in arms when MS forced paid for live on the consumer but it was free everywhere else????

Blu-ray was used to help Sony establish it as the de facto standard and to move on with the latest technology!

This is a ridiculous thread!

Come on I let it go the first time.... Sony made the tech??? Do you know nothing about the Kinect.

Give me a link that prove that Sony created the Kinect technology before you make that insane claim again.

Microsoft as failed with Kinect. Come on bud.....

Sales

24 million units of Kinect had been shipped by February 2013. Having sold 8 million units in its first 60 days on the market, Kinect has claimed the Guinness World Record of being the "fastest selling consumer electronics device". According to Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter, Kinect bundles accounted for about half of all Xbox 360 console sales in December 2010 and for more than two-thirds in February 2011. More than 750,000 Kinect units were sold during the week of Black Friday 2011.

The only reason PS4 as drop the motion control is that they're betting on VR headset technology. Since the PS4 eye is not sold with the console or is not in any bundle, you know that it won't be fully supported by the developpers.

Once again, it was logical to use those mediums because they were reasonably priced technology.

Basically PS3 was expensive not for better graphics, but to push Bluray.

I think you mean HDD.

It appears to me a hard drive benefited PS3 games more than a Bluray drive did.

How has a HDD benefited games? Faster load times, storage for updates, game content, and DLC. The Bluray drive in PS3 was so slow that a HDD was a necessity.