Avatar Kinect bringing Avatar control, facial expressions to Xbox Live Gold members this Spring [Update: Now with video!]

Looks very cool. But if chat is all it is, I feel it will go the same way as Xbox Live Photo Party - It's there if you need it, but mostly unused.

@BlackedOut it isnt, you can make videos and also edit them. you also get cool animations on how you enter and exit the chat eg jetpack and running. Theyll add more features once this thing goes off the floor.

@Prboi but I expect avatar props' sales is going to boom

@Prboi

it looks bad ass to me... if Im angry my avatar will be angry as well thats pretty sick

@Prboi

Ok scratch my opinion, This looks cool, but I doubt it will be used too much. I'd much rather prefer just using the party feature to talk about stuff. But I can see this being used for what MS has planned for the follow up of 1 Vs. 100. This opens the door for a lot of things.

@Shiny Rob

Not even close

@Arsenic13
Ballmer, pointing fingers at face "look at my face"
Me, "forget the face, look at those fingers!"

@Arsenic13

That's some incredibly impressive tech going on there.

@Arsenic13

I'm glad someone else noticed that too. lol

@Arsenic13 You realize there is absolutely nothing that prevents finger tracking hardware side right? Case in point: the MIT kinect hack. It's a freakin infrared array with an rgb camera on top. The rest is software, only limited by the amount of resources you're willing to give it, and since you don't really have a proper game to run on top, I guess you can track more limbs.

@Arsenic13

That means...can I flipd the bird while chatting?

SOLD!

@Jing2487

Did you just change your own mind in mid-type? I don't know if I'm the only one, but $60 a year (unless you find some special promotion going on, which they usually do when you have to renew) isn't bad. Or maybe I'm the only one in the world with a paying job?

@TheHungryPanda
No I didnt, to be honest I dont pay for gold anymore. I either wait for a special promotion where its way cheaper or I get a gift card from someone for gold. Im in college and paying off school loans as well so since I already have most of those features available elsewhere that I pay money for, I cant justify spending money for just multiplayer with my current budget.

@Jing2487

Your current budget is so little that $60 once a year will break it?

@This Little Man Says His Name Is
Ok granted if I really wanted to yes I could afford it. But hear me out here cause I know Im sounding like Im just a hater right now. Im going to be 24 I work a kinda decent job full time to pay bills while going to school so I can get that better job. So I need to justify purchases because I know Im going to have both finacial and personal expenses down the line. Like I want to get a place when I graduate, but I also like to get video games too, duh.

What would be nice is if Microsoft ever expanded their pricing teir to kinda divide things up instead of everything or nothing.

But I also said I liked the concept behind this. Cause while I dont care specifically what this is, I do like what theyve made. That being a very basic motion capture animation program that renders in real time. I wish they would take it a step further and maybe develope something commercially that doesnt exactly go into gaming. C'mon we've already begun to see some of the interesting things people have developed using the kinect. What would we get if Microsoft pushed it beyond just a game controller, and in turn what kind of games would spring from that developement of that technology. Its kind of a circular development.

@betabetamax

The first thing that came to mind was South Park's Tourettes episode and all the insanities I can shout from that episode using my avatar.

@ChuckBartowskiX

My thoughts exactly. If you have Kinect and can video chat already, why replace yourself with your avatar unless you don't feel like take a shower, getting dressed, etc.?

@FlashJS
Chat is 1 to 1. Don't think it allows a party chat with the regular chat with multiple users it would clutter the screen if you had 6 some odd people. This way it only needs to insert skeletal tracking. This is a party chat and definitely is slanted towards a podcast realm of things. If you want to talk to grandma then you use normal chat.
I'm curious as to whether it can track multiple local users though

@louiedog

They already have a Joystiq video podcast, though! Have you contacted their tech support?

@HybridPara

first rule of avatar fight club...

@quikblink

I will!

@SprtTracSniper2
What's possible is Avatar chat and minigame collections. You'll be saying "think of the possibilities" for the next few years amidst countless novelty applications like this and more party games than you can possibly imagine.

@Faenix

They say 90% of communication is non-verbal.