The old Kinect was notorious for needing a fairly large space in which to play, so the camera could accurately capture your movements. I mean, I live in a house, and my living room setup wasn’t big enough.
The new Kinect, packing a wide-angle lens, is supposed to alleviate that problem, but it’s not like it’s perfect. You’ll still need to clear an optimal amount of space. How much? Here’s the official word from Microsoft:
Single player about 4 ft. 7 in. (1.4 m) from sensor. Two players about 6 ft. (1.8m) from sensor. Play space will vary by game, application, sensor placement, and other factors.
That’s a big improvement over the original, which needed 6-8ft just for singleplayer.
Comments
18 responses to “How Much Space Do You Need To Use The New Kinect?”
How much room do I need? None!
Does it fit in the bin?
I was going to say that it ought to fit nicely in a standard bin bag.
Can someone explain visceral and emotional hatred for Microsoft . I get that people don’t like Xbox ones Multitude of problems, I don’t like them either so I will probably not get one, but I don’t have a strong emotional reaction to every thing Microsoft . I also dont think ps4 will be the second coming of Christ . It seems so irrational to have such an emotional connection to one multi national corporation over another
It’s become more of an ideological thing than previous ‘console wars’. The fight is over the philosophies of these companies and the consequences of those for consumers. Microsoft is heading towards a model where there is less choice about how the consumer accesses their services, hardware and games. Sony has not been as aggressive with their incursion on those perceived rights and has very intelligently appeared to have given consumers everything they’ve asked for and more, after closely listening to the feedback from Microsoft’s policies.
Microsoft requires Kinect 2 to be purchased, connected and set up to function. They focused on TV/multimedia, and were seen to snub gamers during announcement. Microsoft will impose a fee for second-hand game sales. They will require a persistent online connection to enforce more stringent DRM restrictions. Microsoft has a poor track record for the indie games community on XBLA. They’re charging more for inferior hardware. They’re perceived to have lost touch with the needs of gamers, forcing them to have things they don’t want, taking away the things they’ve grown to enjoy and then quite literally telling them to ‘deal with it’.
I guess people see this as the battleground to prove which alternative future of gaming they’d prefer to choose. Hating on Microsoft is their resistance to the new model, while Sony mops up converted fanboys and new gamers alike.
Edit: It’s actually quite enlightening to hear Jack Tretton (CEO and President of SCEA) speak about Sony’s business strategy to do just that. Watch his “Mic dropping” interview with Geoff Keighley and you’ll know what I mean.
I get your point but I don’t think Sony is being more consumer friendly because they really respect their customers , it is a calculated strategy to take market share away from Microsoft not some philanthropic endevor.
Microsoft really stuffed this up and that is not a good thing for gamers, if Xbox goes under and play station gets a monopoly gamers will lose. We need strong competition between the two for the benefit of all gamers in the long run.
If I have to hang out with one of two people, I really don’t care if they ACTUALLY like me or not, I just want to hang out with the one who’s not trying to fuck me up.
i dont think people see it as consumer friendliness, but just as a company that is not trying to impose unwanted restrictions on them which is seen as a win
Make no mistake, this is about choice. Xbox has stated their objectives and the consumers (although mostly people hook up on game news) have spoken about what they want. Sony have recognized and in return the consumers have given adulation for the act, not indefinitely to the company. People will switch if Xbox changes their objectives or produce a product that justifies those objectives.
Competition is only good when individuals compete against each other to achieve something better. If they don’t produce a good result result (what people want) then there is no competition. If consumers buy for the sake of competition then they are cheating themselves and companies will keep producing what people don’t want.
Respect isn’t charity. It’s recognition.
Sony have showed they are willing to listen to customer feedback and set their policies accordingly. The fact that they listened shows they respect their customers to some degree at least, and more importantly, they respect their customers more than Microsoft does.
Microsoft instead have tried to dictate their terms to the market. They also had plenty of time before E3 to act on customer feedback and amend their policies, but they chose not to so. This suggests either hubris or that they are simply out of touch with their customers.
You are right – at the end of the day, both Microsoft and Sony are both businesses with the goal of generating profit. And Sony’s announcements at E3 were timed to capitalise on Microsoft’s mistakes. But you can’t deny that Microsoft also gave them the opportunity to do so.
Microsoft still have time to change their policy, but the longer they leave it, the harder it will be to win customers over / back. However, if they sit back and wait until launch and only act when they see poor sales numbers, by then it will be too late I think.
I don’t want to detract from your point, and I’m as turned off from the One as most of the internet appears to be, but I believe you don’t need to purchase Kinect 2 (separately), as it comes with the console.
Ne never said separately, you are FORCED to purchase it WITH the console. It is why its price is higher than sonys when the console actually has the cheaper parts and lesser specs, that added cost is from the addition of Kinect.
But…. Christ……. is coming…… in the Holiday 2013 season.
I have my 360 in my room and I usually play it in bed. So does this mean that the one just won’t work at all for me as the kinect has to be on to play games?
If the game doesn’t require it, like dancing games or the Star Wars Kinect game, I’m sure it will work fine no matter what position you’re in.
…. though you may want to consider whether you really want an always online camera pointing at your bed…
sounds like most games will be using kinect as an extra control device rather than the primary one.
it also works seated. so if you use your voice or small actions i dont see why it wouldnt pick it up.
Really excited about this.
Kinect 1 had a lot of potential it could never reach. Dance Central is amazing though.
Lol dance central is for pre-teens and girls. Why would anyone else care.