After releasing Kinect 2.0 for Windows, Windows Phone Central is reporting that the Xbox One-compatible version of the motion camera will be available in North America on October 6th. It will reportedly retail for $149, which is a good $50 cheaper from its Windows counterpart.

Microsoft began offering Xbox One SKUs without Kinect 2 in July and reported a large increase in sales following the same. While the console is yet to approach the PS4’s global numbers, it has helped bring the Xbox One’s price down to a more affordable $399 (as opposed to the model bundled with Kinect that retailed for $499 when it launched).

The popularity of Kinect titles has certainly dwindled in the past year with Microsoft focusing more on its indie showcase and AAA games like Halo 5: Guardians, Forza Horizon 2, Sunset Overdrive and much more. Will there still be a market for the Kinect 2.0 when it (allegedly) releases this November? Time will tell so stay tuned.

Rare will be returning to the console gaming soon with Kinect Sports Rivals, an extension of the popular Kinect Sports franchise which released for the Xbox 360. In conversation with OXM, Danny Isaac revealed that there were some sports that had been cut out this time around, even though prototypes had been prepared for the same.

“Yeah, there were some that didn’t make it. Some we cut completely – we had horse racing and fishing, which we built as prototypes. All the sports that made it into the product were all built as prototypes before.

“We really focused on what could bring the Kinect sensor alive, and what can put it on that pedestal. Horse-racing and fishing were kind of good, but they didn’t make it. We also had some really cool kayaking prototypes, as well as a Frisbee one, and a table tennis game.

“When we go for our preproduction stage and our concept stage, we tend to go very broad and very wide. At the time though the sensor wasn’t complete, so we were prototyping on the old Kinect, as well as trying to mimic the fidelity that we’d have on the actual sensor. That’s when we proofed out things like rock-climbing, with the open and closed hands, and wake-racing, soccer, target shooting and tennis.”

Kinect Sports Rivals will be out in Spring 2014 for the Xbox One.

According to a confirmed Xbox One dev on Reddit regarding the console’s noise levels, “It’s super quiet to the point I have to put my ear right up to it to hear the fan and hard drive whisper.”

The same dev talked about the dimensions for the console and Kinect 2.0, including the length of the motion camera’s cable. The issue of the Kinect 2.0’s fan was also addressed, as the dev stated that, “Under normal operations, the Kinect runs cool enough that the fan doesn’t need to be on. I was told it turns on after the internal temperature gets past a certain point. I’ve never actually seen it turn on.”

How’s that for a quieter console? Of course, decibel levels are yet to be revealed so we currently won’t know how the Xbox One compares to the PlayStation 4 until the former releases on November 22nd. So stay tuned for more details.

The Xbox One console measurements (LxWxH) are: 13.1″ x 10.8″ x 3.1″ (33.3cm x 27.4cm x 7.9cm. The Kinect 2.0′ measurements (LxWxH) are: 9.8″ x 2.6″ x 2.63″ (24.9cm x 6.6cm x 6.7cm). The overall cable length for Kinect will be 9.5 feet or 2.9 meters long. Will that be enough for your home set-up? For comparison’s sake, Sony’s PlayStation 4 measures 30.5 x 27.6 x 5.4 cm (LxWxH), indicating that is indeed smaller than the Xbox One in terms of length and height (if only slightly).

The dev also added that these measurements were “Measured with a tape where the precision is 1/8 so all values are an approximation.”

The Xbox One will be launching on November 22nd across 13 territories worldwide.

According to Daoka producer Luc Verdier in conversation with Xbox News Wire, “There are multiple benefits offered by the new Kinect. First of all, the recognition is way more precise. The sensor can actually track each of your fingers, and even your eyes. The good news is that the exclusion of objects has also been greatly improved so this great recognition is not disturbed by all the items around you, or people passing behind you while you’re playing.

“You actually do not need much distance to play. A few feet is enough to play, though I’d recommend about 5 feet, as I have a large TV screen, like most gamers I guess. And to play 1 versus 1 safely, you’ll probably want to leave a couple feet between you and your friend too!”

Will this help make the game a more solid option than Kinect Sports’ boxing could ever be? We’ll find out when The Fighter Within launches for Xbox One on November 22nd.

Two new videos released go behind the technology of the Kinect 2.0 and explore just what powers it and makes it possible. Check them out below.

Regardless of its always-on nature, the new Kinect will still be bundled with every Xbox One console when it goes on sales this November 22nd across 13 territories and when it releases for Japan and other countries in Q1 2014. What are your thoughts on Kinect 2.0’s potential? Let us know in the comments below.

Both next generation consoles, the PS4 and Xbox One, have exotic architectures and come loaded with a lot of memory that developers can play around with. This has resulted in extremely detailed and open world games like Metal Gear Solid 5, Tom Clancy’s The Division and the upcoming Xbox One launch title Dead Rising 3.

Dead Rising 3 had a pretty strong showing at GamesCom with some amazing gameplay footage and the ability to customize not only weapons but deadly vehicles as well.

Mike Jones, Producer of Dead Rising 3, shared his thoughts on working on the Xbox One and how the power of the next generation system has helped to create a truly open world zombie game.

“Working with the Xbox One has been amazing. The game is not only exponentially larger than Dead Rising 1 and 2 combined but we have been able to maintain the same destiny we had, that Dead Rising [series] is known for. The number of weapons, the number of physics objects, the number of zombies, what we have been able to do with SmartGlass and Kinect, the sheer memory and the horsepower of the Xbox One which helped turning Dead Rising 3 into fully streaming huge open world zombie sandbox,” Mike said in an interview with Xbox.

  The crazy Roller Hawg combo vehicle in Dead Rising 3.

He also shared his thoughts on the SmartGlass integration for the game.

“SmartGlass integration in Dead Rising 3 basically turns your cell phone into a cell phone which you can use to call for survival support, for backup. You will get calls on your phone which are exclusive missions to SmartGlass, so that’s a whole little world and fiction tied up in this SmartGlass experience. It is totally optional but it is also a lot of fun,” he explained.

Dead Rising 3 will be available launch day, exclusively for the Xbox One. For more on Dead Rising 3, check out our hub page here.

Figher Within will be an Xbox One launch game, Ubisoft have announced.  They have also released the first trailer which you can check above. Fighter Within will be making use of the Kinect 2.0 and its new tracking features.

“Fighter Within taps into the ultimate fighting game fantasy by offering players the most engaging and physical motion fighting experience on Xbox One,” said Geoffroy Sardin, EMEA Chief Marketing & Sales Officer, Ubisoft. “Players will square off against their friends to test their skills, prove their dominance and unleash their Fighter Within.”

“With more precise and responsive voice, vision and motion technology, the new Kinect for Xbox One will immerse players into games and entertainment like never before,” said George Peckham, General Manager, Global Publishing Group at Microsoft.  “Ubisoft has delivered a wide variety of innovative, exclusive titles for Kinect for Xbox 360 and will no doubt give gamers another one-of-a-kind experience with Fighter Within on Xbox One.”

Stay tuned for our continued coverage of Gamescom.

Apparently, Kinect can be paused. According to the post, it stated that, “If you don’t want the Kinect sensor on while playing games or enjoying your entertainment, you can pause Kinect.” Sounds simple enough, right? But Kinect can never be turned off. You can even turn off your console, but Kinect is still on, waiting for the command “Xbox On”.

This feature can also apparently be turned off (but does this mean Kinect is off, or that it’s just not listening?). However, there are some games and apps that “may require Kinect functionality to operate, so you’ll need to turn it back on for these experiences.” We’re sure this means un-pausing the device for use in motion control games.

The report also states that “you will determine how responsive and personalized your Xbox One is to you and your family during setup. The system will navigate you through key privacy options, like automatic or manual sign in, privacy settings, and clear notifications about how data is used. When Xbox One is on and you’re simply having a conversation in your living room, your conversation is not being recorded or uploaded.”

But that’s just an assurance. Unless you explicitly switch Kinect off, which seems to be limited to just controlling its listening abilities, there’s no guarantee you’re not being listened on.

Finally, there’s the assurance that, “You can play games or enjoy applications that use data, such as videos, photos, facial expressions, heart rate and more, but this data will not leave your Xbox One without your explicit permission.”

Thoughts?

Blomberg replied, “I think we need to accept that connectivity is becoming an integral part of our lives. I’m pretty sure people complained about new machinery requiring electricity to function too, back in the days. Hopefully this development will force internet service providers to shape up and provide cheaper and faster connections.

“As an open-world games developer it’s very exciting, because it enables us to make our worlds much more social and alive. But it’s nothing new for us – our open-world hunting game theHunter has relied on internet connectivity since the launch in 2009.

“As for the Kinect, my only concern as a consumer is having more hardware cluttering my living room. But as a developer, it’s of course good to have guaranteed access to the Kinect as an exciting input device.”

Convinced enough yet?