Why did MS dump Kinect processor? There was 'no need' for it

Microsoft has claimed that it removed a processor from Kinect because there was "no need" to have it in the peripheral.

It emerged in January that MS had ditched a standalone processor in the camera - which some have claimed has subsequently affected performance.


Kinect now relies on the processing power of the Xbox itself - although the platform holder has claimed that it uses "less than one per cent" of the 360's motherboard.

"We didn't know how much processing Kinect was going to take at the start of development," Kinect creative boss Kudo Tsunoda told the new Xbox World 360.

"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.

"Forza is a graphical showpiece, and we had Forza with Kinect at E3... the graphic fidelity has actually improved in some areas from what they shipped with Forza 3. It's still running at 60 FPS and it's supporting Kinect, so there's just no need to have that extra processor."

When asked why Kinect detected less points on the player's body than it did last year, Tsunoda added:

"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 launches in the UK on November 10 and the US on November 4.

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