Kinect Designed To Take On Lightning Strikes, Drops Onto Concrete.

There’s tough, and then there’s Kinect tough. Tough enough to sit and watch all you assholes dancing in front of it without barfing silicon chips all over you. Tough enough to stand for hours as little kids play Kinect Super Soccer! or some shit and not want to hang itself by its power cord. (Does it have a power cord?) Kinect is tough, and that’s because it was built that way.

Kotaku:

The Microsoft engineers building Kinect “knew this thing was going to be viewed as a toy,” says one, “and so it was going to be abused.” So they abused it first, toughening the thing up to the point it could be dropped on concrete and still function.

Now, it’s not said how high of a fall onto concrete Kinect is rated for, one of very few details not present in a lengthy examination of how Microsoft designed the device. The thing was also built to survive power surges if your house gets blasted by lightning. It’s not guaranteed to survive, but it has a chance.

Making Kinect a tough sumbitch is foresighted, because undoubtedly there are hundreds out there who didn’t buy the official $20 doo-dad that mounts it to the top of your TV, and have tried to balance it atop their plasma screen anyway.

Tough enough to withstand a dearth of quality games, or AAA titles that snap it onto their existing body and asked to only take on voice commands. Physically tough. Emotionally tough. Kinect.