Kinect Message Board older than one year ago

Freefall Racers looks like most kart games, except that it uses Kinect's motion controls and features skydiving squirrels instead of go-karts. The nutty XBLA game is due sometime next month, according to this video from publisher Deep Silver.

This isn't the first we've heard of Freefall Racers. It popped up on our radar back in May, correctly rumored as being developed by Kinect specialist studio Smoking Gun Interactive. You may recognize the Vancouver dev from its work on Kinect games like Home Run Stars, Mars Rover Landing, and Doodle Jump.

The video doesn't go into too much detail, but it does reveal some of the game's power-ups including the zapper, smoke-screen, and shield. It also spills the beans on a local two-player mode, featuring some competitive split-screen plummeting.

We're waiting for a release date to drop, but a price floats into view: $9.99/£7.99/€9.99.

The Xbox One launch was delayed to 2014 in eight territories - Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland - but it wasn't because of a "volume issue," Microsoft Senior Director of Product Management and Planning Albert Penello told OXM. The delay came down to localization with the new Kinect, the site reported.

"People assume there's a volume issue which in fact there isn't," Penello said. "You're actually seeing pre-orders pop back up now because we're able allocate the countries' volumes back in. It's there; the problem is localization. And once people see the system and how integral it is - it's not just text integration."

The new Kinect doesn't work like the Xbox 360 Kinect, and its new features make localization more difficult, Penello said.

"I think people are using the way [voice] works on Xbox 360, which was an accessory we built five years after release, as how it's going to work here," he said. "But it's so much more elegant and so much more integrated, and in many ways it's a lot faster and more convenient, whereas on Xbox 360 it's a lesser version of doing the thing you're used to doing on your controller."

The Xbox One will launch as scheduled this November in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, the UK, the US and New Zealand.

It's time to rule out those hopes of a cheap, Kinect-free Xbox One bundle, at least for now: Microsoft says it's not happening.Read more...

Phil Spencer, Corporate VP of Microsoft Studios, will deliver the Gamescom keynote when the convention kicks off next week in Cologne, Germany.

"Gamescom is the ideal platform to discuss the impact of new hardware, accessories and software for the next generation of games," Spencer said in a statement obtained by CVG. "There has never been a better time to be a part of this industry. It is exciting to see how developers and authors to use the new opportunities and create a completely new way of playing."

Apart from the keynote, Microsoft's on-stage showcase on Tuesday, August 20, will be "really short," Spencer told Major Nelson. It will focus on developers and their games, with a "unique exclusive" and "Europe's biggest franchise," Spencer said, and following presentations will give press and players hands-on time with Xbox One games.

Xbox One does not need the Kinect sensor in order to function normally, Xbox Corporate VP Marc Whitten tells IGN. This runs contrary to previous statements: In May, Microsoft Studios Corporate VP Phil Spencer said the Xbox One would require the Kinect to be plugged in.

It's unclear whether this is a shift in policy or phrasing, but Whitten says that while ditching Kinect may limit the console's capabilities, the sensor isn't a necessary piece of equipment at all times. Instead, you'll only need it for voice- and motion-based navigation features, or to play games like Fantasia: Music Evolved, which rely on the sensor.

"Games use Kinect in a variety of amazing ways, from adding voice to control your squad mates, to adding lean and other simple controls beyond the controller, to full immersive gameplay," he says. "That said, like online, the console will still function if Kinect isn't plugged in, although you won't be able to use any feature or experience that explicitly uses the sensor."

Clean out some extra space on the entertainment center or in the closet: it depends on what you play.

Another backflip? Back in May, Microsoft said that you'll need have the motion-sensing Kinect plugged in at all times in order for your Xbox One to function, but now they're reversing course once again.Read more...

Remember the handlebar controllers on the Paperboy arcade machines? You really felt like you were controlling that cartoony bike on the screen, right? Well, what if you had a whole bike that you had to pedal to play an updated version of that classic game? It’d basically look like PaperDude VR. Read more...

Super-whiz programmer John Carmack thinks some of the "witch hunt" against the Xbox One was unjustified, but he didn't love all of the Microsoft's original policies, either.Read more...

Globacare, a creative technology company specializing in large multi-touch displays, has come up with an interesting marriage of Kinect and Oculus Rift. Dubbed Paperdude VR, this work-in-progress is a first-person homage to Atari's 1984 classic, Paperboy.

As demonstrated in the video above, a player rides a stationary bike and attempts to toss newspapers into peoples' mailboxes. Except for sawhorses, the current version of Paperdude VR lacks many of the distractions and dangers the original paperboy had to pedal through in the '80s.

Depending on your perspective, Paperboy tells one of two different stories: It's either about a courageous suburban paperboy dodging vicious dogs and insane old ladies seemingly hellbent on preventing the flow of news from reaching the public, or it's about an evil kid on a bike who enjoys breaking windows and damaging private property. It's open to interpretation.

Comedy Central announced that its CC: Stand-Up app is now available on Xbox 360. Using a layout similar to YouTube's Xbox 360 app, Xbox Live Gold subscribers can search over 6,000 stand-up comedy from over 700 comedians to find anybody but Dane Cook, please.

CC: Stand-Up is compatible with both Kinect and SmartGlass, and the app itself is already available on iOS. Now that we have a Comedy Central app on Xbox to make us laugh, we're waiting on Lifetime to bring us the tear-jerkers via Xbox Live. We need to get our cry on.

Sailors are going to learn how to read another person's verbal cues and body language with a Kinect training game meant to curb a sexual harrassment/assault issue that has become increasingly embarrassing to the armed services.Read more...

As games get more immersive, and technology becomes more advanced, sometimes you wonder "Where do we go from here?" Well one comedian thinks video games are done.Read more...

Microsoft has denied rumors that they intend to release an Xbox One bundle without Kinect, telling Kotaku they have "no plans" to do so.Read more...

Battlefield 4 on Xbox One will implement some sort of Kinect functionality, though DICE isn't really talking specifics yet. DICE general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson says that DICE has "a pretty pragmatic view" on Kinect and that due to the series' emphasis on skill, input is a big factor when designing features - so motion controls are out.

"You need to have very precise control over what's going on, and trying to do something like that with motion control input does not make sense - not if you want to keep the same kind of formula of the game as we [have] now. You'd need to build a different kind of shooter," Troedsson said in the latest issue of Game Informer (via Videogamer). "But there are other places where it will make sense, and we are going to use it for other things in the game, but we haven't announced exactly what." Voice commands? That seems like the obvious choice, though it's purely speculation at this point.

Battlefield 4, which runs on the Frostbite 3 engine and resurrects the series' Commander mode, is set to launch on October 29. Battlefield 4 will be available on PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is considering Julie Larson-Green, the current Windows chief, to replace Don Mattrick as head of the Xbox division, Bloomberg reports. Larson-Green is on track to take over hardware engineering for the entire company, according to the site.

Currently, Larson-Green is in charge of Windows products at Microsoft: She led the UI design of Office XP, 2003 and 2007, and she managed the launch of Windows 7 in 2009. Larson-Green recently oversaw the Windows 8 launch, which has been trickier than Windows 7.

This is part of a company restructuring plan that Ballmer is expected to announce next week, at the earliest. In June, reports indicated Ballmer's changes would focus on making Microsoft a "devices and services" company, along with giving Mattrick a larger role.

Obviously that's out of the question now - Mattrick announced his resignation from Microsoft yesterday, and he's poised to take over as CEO of Zynga next week.

Ragdolls are fun on their own, but watching Criken2's friend mess around in Garry's Mod using a Kinect looks like a blast. Something about knowing the ragdoll is acting a certain way because there's an actual person doing the same thing on the other end, I think. It's extra playful. The fact that Criken's is naturally entertaining doesn't hurt, of course. Criken's Quickies: The Power of Kinect [Criken2]

The Kinect is mandatory on the Xbox One—which means that one of gaming's most annoying facets, entering a million codes every time you buy a new game, doesn't have to exist according to Microsoft's Marc Whitten. Why? Because you'd just be able to scan a QR code in! Easy. We've contacted Microsoft to ask if there are any plans to actually implement this, and will update as soon as we hear back. To my reddit friends — yup — this works! http://t.co/QHnOPZqib1 — Marc Whitten (@notwen) July 1, 2013 (Via @notwen)

The North American cover for FIFA 14 will feature both Lionel Messi and Manchester United's Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez, EA Sports announced. Fans in the US will have the option of the dual-athlete cover or the global cover, which only features Messi. Hernandez will also have his own solo cover art for the game in Mexico.

The FIFA cover was announced as part of a multi-year endorsement deal signed by Hernandez with EA Sports. The publisher noted that Hernandez will specifically appear on Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game. EA Sports also recently announced that New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur won the cover vote for NHL 14.

The FIFA series has a distinct trend in terms of its cover athletes. Messi seems much more distraught this year compared to the FIFA 13 cover. It's likely that he's fully taken over the "angry shouting guy" duties previously held by Wayne Rooney as recently as FIFA 12. If the trend holds up, we await a ticked-off Chicharito on the box for FIFA 15.

It starts out like any other live-action, family-centric, Kinect-enabled game trailer. Then it gets brilliant. So, Doodle Jump is out on Xbox Live Arcade today. I'm so pleased with this trailer that I might drop 400 Microsoft points on principle.

A new Time Warner Cable app coming to Xbox 360 later this summer promises access to 300 live television channels, Xbox Wire has announced. The new Time Warner app, which requires Xbox Live Gold and a Time Warner subscription, will offer more live TV channels than any other on Xbox 360.

The announcement follows Microsoft's Xbox reveal event and E3 press conference, where Microsoft showcased integrated live television on the Xbox One. Microsoft's entertainment division, overseen by former CBS executive Nancy Tellem, also announced an upcoming Halo live-action series in collaboration with Steven Spielberg. Last week, i love bees creator Elan Lee joined the division.

The Kinect that comes with Xbox One consoles includes a proprietary connector that won't plug into PCs, Microsoft tells Ars Technica. That's why Microsoft now has a "Kinect for Windows" version - it launched an early-access Kinect for Windows SDK program yesterday.

"The Kinect for Xbox One sensor will not have an adapter that allows it to plug into a computer," Microsoft says. "The new generation Kinect for Windows sensor will connect to computers using a standard USB3 port."

Microsoft has no plans to launch an adapter that allows the console Kinect to plug into a PC, the site says. Both Kinects are built on a "shared set of technologies," but Microsoft says, "The new generation Kinect for Windows sensor will be a fully tested, licensed, and supported Kinect experience on Windows. Kinect for Xbox One is being built for and tested with the Xbox One."

The Kinect for Windows SDK is available now in Microsoft's early-access program, which runs $400 and includes private support from the Windows engineering team, access to all API, the early sensor and the final version, and the early and updated SDK.

The Kinect that comes with Xbox One consoles includes a proprietary connector that won't plug into PCs, Microsoft tells Ars Technica.

When Kinect launched for Xbox 360 it plugged straight into any USB port, and updated versions include adapters for standard USB connections, but this isn't the case with Xbox One Kinect systems. That's why Microsoft now has a "Kinect for Windows" version - it launched an early-access Kinect for Windows SDK program yesterday.

"The Kinect for Xbox One sensor will not have an adapter that allows it to plug into a computer," Microsoft says. "The new generation Kinect for Windows sensor will connect to computers using a standard USB3 port."

Microsoft has no plans to launch an adapter that allows the console Kinect to plug into a PC, the site says. Both Kinects are built on a "shared set of technologies," but Microsoft says, "The new generation Kinect for Windows sensor will be a fully tested, licensed, and supported Kinect experience on Windows. Kinect for Xbox One is being built for and tested with the Xbox One."

The Kinect for Windows SDK is available now in Microsoft's early-access program, which runs $400 and includes private support from the Windows engineering team, access to all API, the early sensor and the final version, and the early and updated SDK.

Windows Developers anxious to get their code onto Microsoft's next-gen Kinect can apply for a software development kit before its official public release in 2014. Microsoft is accepting applications now through July 31 at 9AM PT, and early kits cost $400. The program begins in November.

Early kits include an alpha sensor and the final sensor at launch, private support from the Kinect for Windows engineering team, access to the early SDK and any future updates, and private access to all API.

Microsoft will alert successful applicants in August.

Last week, after Microsoft's DRM reversal put it on more equal footing with the PlayStation 4, we took a fresh look at the differences between the two, but we missed one incredibly important feature — headsets. The PlayStation 4 comes with a mono headset. The Xbox One comes with none. If I could, there would be some dramatic music here. Maybe something from the old Unsolved Mysteries reenactments. Just imagine it. IGN has confirmed with Microsoft that the spiffy Xbox One headset will not be included in the box with the console. Out-of-the-package communications will instead be handled by Kinect, which includes all the parts required to yell at and be yelled at, with none of the intimacy of a headset. Meanwhile, the PlayStation 4, priced at $399 — $100 less than the Microsoft console — comes with a mono headset which plugs directly into the Dualshock 4 controller. Its camera, however, will be sold separately. It also bears mentioning that the PlayStation 4 features a standard headset jack and the Xbox One's is proprietary, limiting the options available on Microsoft's console, though third-party headsets are already in the works. Now I'm being a bit flippant about the whole situation, but that's only because I prefer not to hear other people talking while I am playing — or in general. If anything the inclusion of a headset in the PlayStation 4 box means the blissful silence of the early days of the PlayStation 3 won't be replicated. Remember how quiet Resistance: Fall of Man was? Those were the days. I can only hope one of my cats or children eats the mono headset shortly after unboxing. For the more social of you, this could actually be a big deal. Will headset availability factor into your next-gen console purchase?

Elan Lee, who worked on Halo alternate reality game i love bees at 42 Entertainment, has joined Microsoft as chief design officer at Xbox Entertainment Studios. Deadline says Lee will report to Nancy Tellem, the former CBS executive in charge of developing original video content for Xbox.

Where's the cross section between the two? That's likely to be the recently announced Halo: The Television Series, the Steven Spielberg-produced flagship for the new Xbox One's general entertainment offerings.

Disney trailers, clips, animated shorts, web shows and more from the magic kingdom have come to Xbox 360. The Best of Disney app is available on Xbox Live Marketplace now as a free download for all Gold subscribers, housing content from Disney Channel, Disney XD and The Walt Disney Studios.

D3 Publisher announced that Smoking Gun Interactive's motion-controlled Kinect adaptation of the iOS hit Doodle Jump will launch for Xbox Live Arcade on June 27.

Doodle Jump for Kinect features the same endless, vertically scrolling action that defined the iOS original, but this time, players will have to physically move side-to-side in order to guide the Doodler's ascent. The Kinect version introduces three new worlds not found in other ports, and also offers a selection of all-new power-ups and boss encounters.

Doodle Jump for Kinect will be priced at 400 Microsoft points ($5) when it premieres next Friday.

I can name the exact moment that I fell in love with Harmonix's latest game, Fantasia: Music Evolved, at this year's E3. Periodically throughout the game, you're presented with an on-screen globe, and you can wave your hand over it to create a tune. The science of how it works isn't exactly clear (you're adjusting the pitch and rhythm of a tone somehow), but the tool is simple, it works, and the game will periodically play back your creation to you, and then allow you to redraw it over if you don't like it. Once the tune is set, you can swipe both your arms outward to zoom out to the game's "overworld" level, which in this case was a beautifully rendered, very animated robot factory, with various pipes and pistons jumping up and down in time with a rhythm.

This was the moment Fantasia showed me just how magical it was. As I tried to navigate around the stage and solve a problem by manipulating the world with the Xbox One's new Kinect sensor (a group of robots needed to get into a small doorway, so I had to swipe over some magic to shrink them down to fit), I suddenly realized that I recognized the tune that the pipes and valves were dancing to in the background. It was the one I'd just made, subtly mixed into the rhythms of the stage itself.

I can name the exact moment that I fell in love with Harmonix' latest game, Fantasia: Music Evolved, at this year's E3. Periodically throughout the game, you're presented with an on-screen globe, and you can wave your hand over it to create a tune. The science of how it works isn't exactly clear (you're adjusting the pitch and rhythm of a tone somehow), but though the tool is simple, it works, and the game will periodically play back your creation to you, and then allow you to redraw it over if you don't like it. Once the tune is set, you can swipe both your arms outward to zoom out to the game's "overworld" level, which in this case was a beautifully rendered, very animated robot factory, with various pipes and pistons jumping up and down in time with a rhythm.

This was the moment Fantasia showed me just how magical it was. As I tried to navigate around the stage and solve a problem by manipulating the world with the Xbox One's new Kinect sensor (a group of robots needed to get into a small doorway, so I had to swipe over some magic to shrink them down to fit), I suddenly realized that I recognized the tune that the pipes and valves were dancing to in the background. It was the one I'd just made, subtly mixed into the rhythms of the stage itself.

Harmonix's Fantasia: Music Evolved will include "Night on Bald Mountain," one of the most iconic segments from Disney's 1940 classic Fantasia.

"It's one of the first song we're announcing from the heritage of the Disney Fantasia film, bringing some of that music into the track list that runs the gamut from the original classical music from 1940 to contemporary pop today," said John Drake, head of communications at Harmonix. "Music is a living, breathing thing and we want to respect the entire canon of music, that's what Fantasia is all about."

It's not entirely clear how "Night on Bald Mountain" will be used in the game, whether it'll be a standalone track or used as a part of hub world. Harmonix is going for a different type of music game experience with Fantasia and Drake tells us the reactions have been all across the spectrum, saying some folks during the E3 presentation actually cried.