Carmack: Kinect is Like a Zero-Button Mouse with a Lot of Latency

In the eyes of id Software co-founder John Carmack, the Kinect isn’t all that relevant when it comes to game design. The "fundamentally poor" interactions the Microsoft hardware provides are targeted at a "broad consumer base" with tempered expectations, and that’s why even the improved camera coming to Xbox One hasn’t impressed the industry veteran all that much.

"I think Kinect still has some fundamental limitations with the latency and frame rate on it," Carmack said during the opening keynote of Quakecon 2013, as reported by Polygon. "Interacting with it is still … when you interact with Kinect, some of the standard interactions – position and hold, waiting for different things – it's fundamentally a poor interaction.

"One way that I look at it is – I used to give Apple a lot of grief about the one button mouse. Anybody working with a mouse really wants more buttons – [they're] helpful there. Kinect is sort of like a zero button mouse with a lot of latency on it."

That’s not exactly what you want to hear from a man so deeply involved with new, interesting technology, but with the audience leaning a little on the casual side, it just might not matter to the general public what Carmack thinks about Kinect. However, he also addressed Microsoft’s reversal on its initial DRM and online check-in policies. He didn’t get too animated about the issue, but did note the consumer reaction felt like an unjustified “witch-hunt.” If you’re looking for a stronger opinion, the founder of Codemasters is a bit more fired up about why Microsoft made a mistake.