In 2013, Microsoft chose to price the Xbox One at $500, a full $100 more than its main competitor, the PlayStation 4. The price difference was due to the inclusion of the Kinect camera, a sensor capable of enhancing games with motion and voice recognition. But support for Kinect has fizzled in recent years and Microsoft has chosen to discontinue the camera entirely.
Microsoft first broke the news in an interview with FastCo Design, admitting that concerns about user privacy may have been a factor in Kinect’s failure to catch on this generation — the first version of the peripheral was released for Xbox 360.
“Trust is something you earn in drops and lose in buckets,” Kinect creator Alex Kipman said in the interview. “I’d say Kinect started the process in 2010 in having to earn drops of trust. Any number of events in the world — each one — you lose a bucket.”
Before the Xbox One had even gone on sale, it encountered its share of controversy because of the Kinect’s “always listening” function for quickly powering up the system. Users were concerned the camera would be able to listen in on their conversations, though settings could be changed to limit the amount of data being shared.
Early games for the Xbox One, including several third-party titles, made great use of the sensor. Battlefield 4 allowed players to shout out voice commands instead of having to open their communication wheel with a controller, and Dead Rising 3 even made players physically shake to avoid getting eaten by zombies. Dance Central Spotlight also brought Harmonix’ popular music game to the platform, but it failed to make the same splash as the series’ earlier games on Xbox 360.
Though the peripheral is being discontinued for sale, it will actually still find a use in other projects Microsoft has in the works, including mixed reality.
In a statement to Digital Trends, a Microsoft spokesperson said,”Kinect innovations live on in Xbox One, Windows 10, Cortana, Windows Mixed Reality, and future technologies.”
If you want to get your hands on Kinect before it’s gone for good, you can currently purchase one for $50. However, the Xbox One S and Xbox One X both require the use of a special adapter in order to use Kinect, which will set you back another $40.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.