Xbox One and Kinect at E3 2013

Microsoft kicked off E3 2013 earlier today with a press conference heavily emphasizing games for the Xbox One. While Kinect itself took a backseat to more traditional gameplay, it's expected that it will play some part in most, if not all, first party titles.

Prior to the conference itself Rare unveiled Kinect Sports Rivals, an Xbox One launch title that sees the popular franchise brought to next gen with 6 sports, including some favourites from the first two games. Climbing, Soccer, Wake Racing, Bowling, Target Shooting and Tennis will utilize the new Kinect for advanced motion gameplay, including the ability to scan yourself into the game to play alongside friends via the cloud. Check out the trailer below.
 

There were also glimpses of Kinect in new titles including Project Spark, which allows players to create and design their own game using a combination of Kinect voice control, Smartglass and a controller. The latest game in the open world zombie killing franchise, Dead Rising 3, will have zombies reacting to sounds in your environment as well as allowing the player to control their posse or taunt the enemy using voice. The Witcher 3 is also confirmed to use Kinect voice recognition for spell casting and management.
Two Kinect games previously announced for the Xbox 360 also made an appearance having moved to the Xbox One. The infamous Ryse from Crytek was finally shown and will use Kinect in combination with a controller, and Crimson Dragon from the creator of Panzer Dragoon makes a reappearance, retaining its Kinect controls.

Of course Kinect dashboard integration is ever present, with a new demonstration showing Twitch support allowing gamers to instantly stream their gameplay live across the internet, as well as share their favourite moments using voice control and Xbox One's new Upload Studio.

Other exclusives announced for the Xbox One include Respawn Entertainment's TitanFall, a first person shooter from the creators of Call of Duty featuring mech robots, a new edition of Minecraft featuring bigger worlds and expanded multiplayer support, Rare's re-imagined classic fighter Killer Instinct and Sunset Overdrive, a comical and bright shooter from Insomniac.

Finally Microsoft announced launch pricing for the Xbox One which will be hitting stores this November for $499 in the US and €499/£429 in Europe.

Expect more Kinect and Xbox One news as E3 continues throughout the week, including a look at new third party titles like Harmonix's new Disney-licensed Kinect rhythm game Fantasia: Music Evolved and more.

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Kinect 2.0 Detailed

Much of the excitement surrounding the new Xbox can be directly attributed to the next-gen Kinect sensor. Building off what the original Kinect started this takes NUI (natural user interaction) to the next level. From natural speech recognition to more accurate facial recognition and more detailed body motion capture. Kinect has been improved so much it's almost unfair to compare with the original incarnation. In this article let's go over what we know.

All new Camera Tech

 

The new Kinect has a 1080p video sensor compared to the VGA sensor from before. A huge improvement which allows for more accurate facial recognition with much clearer photos and video! Such clear video will surely come in handy for the all new Skype integration. They've also upped the resolution on the depth sensor allowing for more detail to be discerned such as fingers and the orientation of your limbs. All-in-all the new Xbox is processing over 2Gbs of Kinect data per second! Microsoft has also replaced the existing "structured light" method used to read depth on the original Kinect for a "Time of Flight" method that is both faster and more accurate. This method measures the time it takes individual photons to rebound off an object or person for the utmost accuracy.

Complaints Addressed

The original Kinect while a revolutionary product wasn't without it's faults which aliennated some hardcore gamers. Microsoft has taken these concerns to heart and significantly improved the new Kinect to address them.

One such complaint was lag. The time between doing an action and actually seeing it on screen. The new Kinect with dedicated processing and USB 3.0 has latency of only 2 frames per second! That's and imperceptible 66 milliseconds! Most games with a controller have an average lag of 133ms with more sensitive games (first person shooters) having a response time of 67ms! That's a huge improvement! Also your actions will be updated in real-time at 30 frames per second! The same framerate as most games!

The other major complaint for Kinect was space requirements. The field of view for the new Kinect has been improved by 60%! Meaning the new sensor can see closer, wider and deeper than it ever could before. No longer should you have to rearrange the living room to play!

Improvements

Microsoft didn't stop by just addressing the complaints. They also wanted to take the experience to the next level. The new Kinect can now track up to 6 people at once! It can also track each Xbox One controller due to the built-in infrared led. For example lift your controller and your character might raise his shield in-game. It will also switch the orientation of split screen games automatically according to player location.

Skeletal tracking has been much improved. Not only can it read more joints and the orientation of your limbs but also the force of your moves. Dashboard navigation will be significantly improved because now it can detect an open or closed hand. No longer will you have to 'hover' over an object to select it. A 'night mode' is built-in that can see players regardless of lighting conditions. And the new Kinect can tell your emotions (happy, sad, etc..) and even read your pulse!

Some other notable improvements are the microphone array. It can now more reliably cancel out background noise and players can use more natural speech to control it. No more guessing what commands the Xbox can understand. Just say what you want and the Xbox should do it!

Wrap Up

All of these improvements are nothing if Microsoft can't get the device into the hands of consumers but don't worry! The new Kinect will be bundled with every Xbox One this holiday. So we should expect ample 3rd Party support! With exclusive games already announced like Ryse from Crytek and more to come in the coming soon. Stay tuned for more Kinect announcements come E3 next week!

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The New Xbox Revealed

It’s been an exciting couple weeks for Xbox fans. The new console was announced dubbed the “Xbox One” and the next-generation Kinect was debuted and detailed. We’ll give a brief synopsis of the new system as well as more in depth analysis of the new Kinect sensor in a later piece.

The new console itself is comprised of an:

·         8 core AMD Jaguar CPU

·         8 GBs of RAM

·         12 CU AMD GPU (with Data Move engines)

·         500 GB HDD

·         Blu-ray Drive (finally!)

·         802.11n Wireless with Wi-Fi Direct (this will come in handy for SmartGlass)

·         HDMI In/Out

·         USB 3.0

Graphics are definitely a focus for the new Xbox with the One offering up to 8x the power of an Xbox 360! Not too shabby! The new Xbox is being position as an All-in-One entertainment box (hence the new name). Games, TV, Internet and Kinect will all be a major part of the system. Some the One’s key features are:

 

·         Instant Switch Multi-tasking

·         Snap Mode (2 apps at once)

·         Skype Voice/Video calls

·         Live TV

·         TV Guide

·         Virtually silent

·         Slot loading drive

·         Same size as current console

·         No external power brick

·         3 OSs including a Windows variant

·         Gaming DVR with editing tools

Xbox Live enhancements

Just like Microsoft paved the way with broadband on the original Xbox they are paving the way again with always online on the One. The new xbox will require you to sign on at least once every 24hours. This gives players the benefits of Harddrive based game installs due to online authentication. No longer will you have to get up and change discs to change a game!  You’ll be able to hot-swap between games and apps at will!

Microsoft is also deploying 300,000 servers, with more power than every computer combined in 1999, to assist with cloud based computing. This is said to increase the graphics and Artificial Intelligence of games on the new system.

You can look forward to your GamerTag and achievements all transitioning over but keep in mind the system does not support backwards compatibility of your existing Xbox 360 games.

 

Microsoft’s commitment to games, games, games!

Microsoft is committing $1 Billion dollars to the development of exclusive titles on the One. This includes 15 titles to be released in its first year on the market. 8 of them being wholly original properties! Forza 5 which is one of these games will be available at launch as well as Quantum Break from the creators of Alan Wake and Max Payne!

The exclusive content doesn't stop there! Microsoft is partnering with EA for exclusive content in their next generation sports games. Fifa, Live, Madden and UFC will all see release on the new console. EA plans to debut their new next gen game engine “Ignite” on the One which allows for 10 times the animation detail. You can check the engine in action below:

Activision has also pledged their support by offering the next-gen version of Call of Duty: Ghosts to the platform with time-exclusive DLC content.

There was also a Game specific DVR mentioned that allows game clip sharing and editing but not many details are available at this time.

TV

Microsoft wants to eliminate as many barriers as possible between you and the entertainment you love. The HDMI pass-through will allow you to connect your cable/satellite box and watch live TV through the One. No longer will you have to change inputs and with Kinect integration no longer will you have to search for a remote! Just use your voice to change the channel. How cool is that?

Microsoft plans to augment your TV watching experience with the OneGuide which, with the help of the cloud, pick out shows and movies that might interest you. Making your TV experience more personal. The OneGuide will only be available in the U.S. at launch but will expand to other countries shortly.

Wrap Up

It’s clear Microsoft’s aiming for the widest spectrum possible with this new console. Taking on Google and Apple in the process. Not only will the One be the best Games machine with the most exclusive games and content. Microsoft is positioning it to be the one stop shop for all your entertainment needs.

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Ryse Now a Next-Gen Title?

The LinkedIn profile of an ex-Crytek level designer indicates that the Kinect first person melee game, Ryse, is now a next-gen title. The resume reads,

"RYSE (X-Box Next Gen) Pushing boundaries of next generation gaming, RYSE is an original AAA IP from Crytek slated to deliver an Epic first-person melee experience in the Roman Empire."

This is interesting for a number of reasons. If correct, it's unfortunate that Kinect will be losing one of its most anticipated titles next year. But is this an indication that the peripheral will be supported at the launch of the next Xbox console? The worst case scenario is that Kinect support has been dropped altogether. Microsoft may be prioritising the line-up of their next-gen console over Kinect, which already has strong support with other developers.

"Xbox Next Gen" could of course simply refer to the Xbox 360. The designer left Crytek in July, one month after the games reveal as a Kinect title at E3. The game has suffered from a difficult production, with the project moved to Crytek's main Frankfurt studio from the now tablet focused Crytek Budapest. It's possible that the game became a next-gen project after the subsequent delay.

Hopefully we'll have more clear news on the games status soon.

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Rumor: Next Xbox Launching With Kinect 2, So Accurate It Can Lip Read

Rumors for the next Xbox continue to appear online, and today Eurogamer have focused specifically on new Kinect hardware that might come with the new console.

Kinect 2 will, naturally, feature advanced motion tracking and voice recognition.  A developer source told Eurogamer that the device is so powerful it is capable of lip-reading, detecting the players emotional state and determining the position the player is facing. Likely an indication of fidelity rather than actual usage for the most part.

The current Kinect is limited by the Xbox 360's USB interface, which only allows a limited amount of data to be streamed to the console at any one time. Because of this, the device is locked at 30 frames per second, at a resolution of only 320x240. Kinect 2 won't have such limitations, says the source. High resolution data will be cabled straight to the processor and RAM.

It's hard to say when we can expect the console to launch, with some rumors stating fall 2012 and others fall 2013, and it's unlikely that we'll find out for sure until at least E3 next year.

According to one report, Microsoft plan to launch two versions of the next Xbox. One a cheaper "pared down" machine likened to a set-top box, which will act as a Kinect gaming portal. The second is a more expensive, fully featured machine aimed at hardcore gamers with an optical drive, hard drive and backwards compatibility. Kinect will be bundled with both SKU's, allowing developers to integrate it into any game from day one, guaranteeing that every console owner will have access to Kinect. It's said that development kits are already with major publishers.

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New Xbox in 2013, New Kinect in 2014?

Rumors regarding the next generation of consoles have been ramping up lately, and perhaps the biggest yet is a supposed leaked timeline for Microsoft covering the next few years.

Originating at MS Nerd, who have a fair track record with Microsoft rumors, the leaked list seems to indicate that Microsoft plan to announce the Xbox 360's successor, codenamed "loop", at E3 2013, with a launch later that year.

Between now and then, the list states that Microsoft will release the commercial Kinect SDK next year, which we have been expecting, as well as an Xbox SDK and the third generation of Kinect games at E3 2012. Following that, the Xbox Store will launch alongside Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. One unified store, perhaps?

If the rumored list is to be believed, Microsoft will continue to support the current Kinect as well as updating the SDK past the launch of their new system, leading to the unveiling of Kinect 2.0 at E3 2014.

Also of note is "Windows 8 PU" and "Xbox PU" which are said to launch in 2013 and 2014. PU could stand for 'Portable Unit', refering to Windows 8 tablet devices and a new portable with a focus on gaming. Whatever they may be, it's likely part of Microsoft's grand plan to connect the 3 screens together under one unified umbrella -- Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Xbox "Loop". 

Check out the full timeline below:

CES 2012
Win8 + WinStore beta
<ONM> CTP
Tango1 launch

MWC 2012
Tango2 SDK

MIX 2012
Win8 RC
<ONM> beta
Tango2 launch + Apollo announce
Kinect commercial SDK

E3 2012
Xbox SDK, 3G Kinect games announce
Apollo SDK
Win8 RTM

Aug 2012
Win8, <ONM>, WP8, Xbox Store launch

Build 2012
XAML+XDE platform
Win8 PU DP
<OSN> announce

CES 2013
Win8 PU Beta

MWC 2013
Apollo+1 teaser

MIX 2013
HTML platform (IE11)
Win8 PU RC
<OSN> Beta
Apollo+1 SDK

E3 2013
Xbox”loop” announce
Win8 PU RTM

Build 2013
Win9 DP
<OSN> RTM
Xbox”loop” launch

CES 2014
Win9 Beta

MWC 2014
WPN teaser

MIX 2014
Win9 RC
WPN SDK
Kinect SDK update

E3 2014
Kinect HP2 announce
Xbox PU announce

Build 2014
Win9 RTM (IE12)
Win9M RTM
<OSN+1> CTP
Xbox PU preview

Nov 2014
Win9, Win9M, Kinect HP2 launch
Xbox PU RTW

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