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Microsoft is shutting down Xbox Fitness

chadskin

Member
Since November 2013, Xbox Fitness has allowed you to experience the world’s best workouts with famous trainers, right in the comfort of your own home. As a service, Xbox Fitness has continually evolved since it launched on Xbox One, with new content and ongoing updates. Given the service relies on providing you with new and exciting content regularly, Microsoft has given much consideration to the reality updating the service regularly in order to sustain it. Therefore, the decision has been made to scale back our support for Xbox Fitness over the next year, and we want to provide our users with a timeline of the changes you will see. We’ll also ensure information is posted regularly in the News page within Xbox Fitness:


  • Beginning today, June 27, 2016, Xbox Fitness content will no longer be available for purchase. For existing users of Xbox Fitness, the content you’ve purchased will be available to play for a year, through June 30, 2017.
  • On December 15, 2016, we will be removing our “Free with Gold” offer. Until then, Gold members will still be able to access and play the over 30+ workouts available for streaming as a part of this offer for free.
  • On July 1, 2017, Xbox Fitness (and all associated content) will no longer be available for download/play. This includes content you’ve purchased. At that time, Xbox Fitness will no longer be available for download from Xbox Marketplace and content will not be available for play from the Xbox Marketplace nor within the game. Xbox Fitness users will no longer be able access Xbox Fitness and the associated workouts/programs.
While our team is saddened by this news, we couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve accomplished in the past two and a half years. We released Xbox Fitness as a service with Xbox One on Day One and have since added custom content from well-respected trainers and have added new features such as Leaderboards, the option to download purchased workouts, and the option for users to play with or without Kinect.

We know that many of you have used Xbox Fitness to begin your fitness journey, to supplement it, or as a way to redefine your own fitness story. We’re glad we could be a part of the journey. We’ve seen Xbox Fitness fans take what they’ve gained with Xbox Fitness and share it with their own communities to encourage others to find their fitness and their own path to a healthier life. We thank you for sharing your story and your life with us. It’s been a fantastic, fun, and fit journey to share with you all.
https://microsoftstudios.com/news/2016/06/27/xbox-fitness-sunset-announcement/
 
Everyone's all fit now - service no longer required.

YAY!

I'm glad we finally got to this point! Thanks Microsoft!

Joking aside, I guess this is one of the last nails in the coffin for the OG Xbox One plan. I'll be really surprised if we ever get a Kinect 3.0 given how little they're supporting the 2.0 now. Here's hoping for microphone/video support built directly into Scorpio.
 

TheZink

Member
Its a bit disappointing. Half the reason I purchased the Kinect with my One was because of this. It actually works great. Even my son who is 9 used it for football conditioning. He was bummed when I told him.

Every year it seems Xbox drops more and more features and leads me more and more to my ps4
 

TheYanger

Member
Its a bit disappointing. Half the reason I purchased the Kinect with my One was because of this. It actually works great. Even my son who is 9 used it for football conditioning. He was bummed when I told him.

Every year it seems Xbox drops more and more features and leads me more and more to my ps4

weird sentiment, it's not like the PS4 has a kinect with fitness for you to move to.
 

Kal-El814

Member
I wonder if we'll ever get one of those great, long form Polygon articles about what the shit was going on during the conception and development of the Xbox One. The gutting this thing is receiving and the complete fall from grace for the brand is remarkable.
 

Alienfan

Member
I'm sorry what? I can't play the workouts I bought? That doesn't seem legal? Surley that's protected under some consumer rights act
 

W1SSY

Member
When you bought something was it only a timed thing or was it for the life of the service? It sucks for all the people that are using it that they will lose everything they bought and will have no access to it but I guess this is our digital future.
 
This includes content you’ve purchased.

That's pretty shitty. Some of those programs are $60.

I could buy the online service angle if that mattered, but those programs people paid for can be downloaded and used w/o the Kinect interactivity.
 

MyEasyButton

Neo Member
I see the pattern now -- the non-traditional services that I love on Xbox will eventually be cut. First 1v100, now this.

My wife and I use Xbox Fitness heavily. 4 times a week each. The competitive aspect of it -- wanting to beat your personal best and those that you follow -- cannot be reproduced with videos. Not to mention the body tracking to make sure your form is right.

Very disappointed. :-(
 

Journey

Banned
Holy Shit! My only use for Kinect is getting canned? No Way! I just bought Insanity and YO:30 Fitness, are they going to refund this money?
 

Chitown B

Member
I don't think with these you "bought" them - more like purchased rights to use them. I'm sure their licensing was costing them a lot for each workout and they didn't see it helping their brand anymore since Kinect is going away.
 

Alx

Member
I think it's a shitty move not to let us play offline with the programs we bought and downloaded. There's absolutely no reason to block that, I think even Project Spark will let you play offline after they kill the servers. :mad:
 

lobdale

3 ft, coiled to the sky
Microsoft are pros at killin' their own services. For a brief moment, the 360 offered a glimpse into a truly connected-feeling lifestyle type gaming device that just felt LIVE ya know like Xbox LIVE.

Just look at that lingo! Practiced. "Scale back our support for" hmm right yes.
 
Man, dodged a bullet last month when I was about to buy a few workouts. Happy with the results the free workouts gave me and will make sure I cane it until it ends.
 

Kal-El814

Member
I'm sorry what? I can't play the workouts I bought? That doesn't seem legal? Surley that's protected under some consumer rights act

I'm sure you're EULA-boned, and that the $12 you get as part of a class action settlement 5 years from now will soften the blow.
 

TheZink

Member
weird sentiment, it's not like the PS4 has a kinect with fitness for you to move to.

What I mean is I keep paying for so called benefits like Kinect and things like that but they tend to just drop them by the wayside after a few years. I might as well just stick with a all out gaming machine like the PS4
 

SEGAvangelist

Gold Member
No refunds? They gave refunds for all the other sunsets. Some of those workouts like P90x and Insanity were expensive too.
 

Journey

Banned
I don't think with these you "bought" them - more like purchased rights to use them. I'm sure their licensing was costing them a lot for each workout and they didn't see it helping their brand anymore since Kinect is going away.

Well if I bought the DVD set for around the same price, I would still have use for them, so this is definitely messed up. Xbox Fitness was one of the best ideas for Kinect and something I still use several times a week.
 

Alx

Member
They're shutting down everything.

But I think you do need to be online in order to even use the app.

They patched in later the ability to download the programs you bought, so in theory there's no reason to block you from playing offline. >:|
 

Boke1879

Member
I wonder if we'll ever get one of those great, long form Polygon articles about what the shit was going on during the conception and development of the Xbox One. The gutting this thing is receiving and the complete fall from grace for the brand is remarkable.

You can bet your ass Jason from Kotaku will have some sort of article up after the Scorpio launches.

It's such a fascinating story to tell and I really want to know what was going on.
 

danowat

Banned
Shame, it's a really good piece of software, but with the death of kinect it was only a matter of time.

I know you can use it without kinect but it's nothing more than a workout dvd without it.
 

TheYanger

Member
This is really, really fucked up.

It's exactly the same as basically every other shuttered online service in the history of the internet. A year grace period is LONG by those standards as well. It doesn't mean it doesn't suck, but it's crazy that people are acting like this is some new low.

Yeah, this is pretty screwed up. And it honestly makes me hesitant to buy anything on Xbox Live now.

You might as well not buy anything on any digital service by that logic. They've literally all shut things down that people paid for.
 

Toki767

Member
They patched in later the ability to download the programs you bought, so in theory there's no reason to block you from playing offline. >:|

Yeah, this is pretty screwed up. And it honestly makes me hesitant to buy anything on Xbox Live now.

They could easily just let you download the workouts and play them yourself. Turn it into an Xbox Video thing.
 
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