VG247 has uploaded photos of the entire Microsoft Kinect manual today and there’s some information inside which may affect many users’ buying decision. Most significantly is the confirmation that you will require a minimum of six feet of space between you and the camera for it to properly read your motions. If you add a second player to the mix, that number moves to eight feet, severely limiting the practicality of the device for many.
Take, for example, my living room. I can barely use PS Move in my home, and that’s generally expected to work at a distance of about four feet. I can’t imagine what it would be like for people trying to play Kinect in Japan, where my closet probably seems like a good quantity of space.
After months and months of being interested in Kinect but continually hearing less-than-stellar news about the device, this is the final nail in the coffin for me. It doesn’t matter how cool the tech is, there’s just no way I could justify buying a product that I have zero expectation of working with my lifestyle. Here’s hoping that not too many people with small spaces buy in only to find that Kinect won’t function as they anticipate.
Entire Kinect manual photographed – play distances, power details, more [VG247 via 1UP]
