Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has expressed in a recent interview featured in the Edge Magazine that the Kinect was one of Xbox’s biggest contributions to gaming. During the interview, he also clarified on what exactly he means by this, since the Kinect isn’t exactly what anyone would call a success- either critically or commercially.
Spencer talked about how the Kinect led to diversifying Xbox’s portfolio of games, with titles like Kinect Sports and Happy Action Theatre, among a slew of other similar games.
“Prior to that, it’s not like everything was M-rated games, but when we started doing things like Kinect Sports and things from other developers – [like Double Fine‘s] Happy Action Theatre and the dance games –that really opened our eyes to the breadth of what the Xbox could be,” Spencer said (as reported by VGC).
He also went into how Kinect shaped the future of Xbox by showcasing what a gaming platform can mean to players. According to Spencer, Xbox’s moves in the accessibility space, such as the Adaptive Controller, can largely be attributed to the Kinect’s influence.
“I look at the accessibility work that we’ve done – whether it’s the Adaptive Controller or software work that we’ve done – and I think you can draw direct lines back to Kinect,” he said. “Not specifically the device itself, but just about what a gaming platform can mean to more people. And that’s a journey we’re still on.”
The Kinect launched for the Xbox 360 in 2010, and was a pack-in device for the launch variant of the Xbox One- which of course, had huge ramifications for the platform.