Missing Kinect Processor Was Not Needed, Says Executive

A Microsoft executive has stated that the processor which the company eliminated from the Kinect motion tracking system was not actually needed as the processing needed by the device can be handled by the Xbox 360 home console without anyone seeing a drop in performance.

Kudo Tsunoda, who was the creative boss in charge of Kinect development, told Xbox World 360 that, “We didn't know how much processing Kinect was going to take at the start of development. Obviously you don't want to lose any of the things that are important to Xbox customers. Graphic fidelity is something that Xbox has always been known for, and you want to make sure that you still hit that level.”

He then said that the device evolved as the development process went on, adding “As you start building the stuff, you're like: 'Wow, to track everything in the human body we can do less points. That's just normal game development. Anything you do with games, you want the processing power to be used as efficiently as possible to get the experience that you want.”

Kinect has a launch date of November 4 in the United States and will be one of the most innovative attempts at introducing motion tracking to gaming.

Both the Nintendo Wii and the PlayStation Move from Sony still rely on a physical controller to clearly show what motion the gamer performs but Kinect, which started life as Project Natal, has no handheld element, relying on a capable camera and special software to track how the gamer moves his body and translate all of that into input for the Xbox interface and for games.

Microsoft has been rumored to have limited the tracking abilities of the device in order to bring the launch cost down, making sure that a high number of players will pic it up an launch, creating an audience for titles that use it outside of those made directly by Microsoft.